ROTI BHAAT SATYAGRAH
TO DEMAND FOR
A UNIVERSAL PDS
From 1st November 2011 onwards
The Roti Bhaat Satyagrah will consist of groups from different parts of India coming to Delhi every Tuesday for a day in order to:
- Demand a Universal PDS, so that ALL especially the food insecure, the vulnerable, and the deprived get included.
- Demand appropriate MSPs and decentralised procurement of not just rice and wheat but millets as well
- Reject the proposal of replacing PDS with Cash Transfers,
- Emphasise the removal of Poverty ratio based Caps in allocation of resources
- Demand universalisation with quality of ICDS including the provision of nutritious locally prepared food for all children.
Protests will be held at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi and if possible will be carried outside decision making bodies that have been road blocks in ensuring the right to food of the people.
Since this is a Satyagrah, a non-violent resistance, we will try courting arrest and only after that depart back home.
Currently, the schedule for the satyagrah is as follows:
1 November – NAPM, Uttar Pradesh
8 November – PBKMS, West Bengal
15 November – Children’s groups
22 November –JADS and NBA, Madhya Pradesh (to be confirmed)
29 November – Jan Manch
(Participants from all over the country in a dialogue with MPs and representatives of political party leaders along with other decision makers within Planning Commission, Government and academia)
Representatives of the following groups are also expected to participate:
- Differently abled people, Single women, homeless, vulnerable, domestic workers, migrant workers, construction workers
- Dalits, minorities, Tribals and those who ought to be in the BPL but will be left out in the ongoing census
- Students against hunger and for food security
The Right to Food Campaign appeals to others such as students organisations, human rights groups, workers’ organisations, farmers organisations, trade unions, women’s organisations and progressive political parties and all thosewho have been consistently raising their voice from different platforms – for a hunger free and food secure people to join us.
Publicity
We are trying to release a poster and a parcha for this event. The memorandum shall be circulated to the group very soon.
A Kavi Sammelan (on PDS, bhookh ki politics and other related issues) and a cartoon exhibition (Collection of all the cartoons on the issue of poverty caps, BPL, food security, hunger) is also being planned.
Stay and food
As far as possible, protestors should plan no night stay. In case they still have to spend a night in Delhi, they are requested to bring appropriate material to protect themselves from the night cold. They will have to reach Bangla Sahib Gurdwara where anyone is allowed to spend the night. Prior information should be given in such cases to arrange for volunteers who can help with directions.
The langar food is provided during lunch and dinner time in the Gurdwara itself.
Directions
Take a metro from New Delhi Railway station / Kashmere Gate ISBT / Anand Vihar ISBT, Railway station and get down at Patel Chowk metro station to reach either Jantar Mantar / Bangla Sahib Gurdwara.
For further help with directions please contact Mohseen (9910416153)
Kavita Srivastava (National Convenor) on behalf of the
The Steering Committee of the Right to Food Campaign:
Annie Raja (National Federation for Indian Women), Anuradha Talwar, Gautam Modi and Madhuri Krishnaswamy (New Trade Union Initiative), Arun Gupta and Radha Holla (Breast Feeding Promotion Network of India), Arundhati Dhuru and Ulka Mahajan (National Alliance of People’s Movements), Asha Mishra and Vinod Raina (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti), Aruna Roy, Anjali Bharadwaj and Nikhil Dey (National Campaign for People’s Right to Information), Ashok Bharti (National Conference of Dalit Organizations), Colin Gonsalves (Human Rights Law Network), G V Ramanjaneyulu (Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture), Kavita Srivastava and Binayak Sen (People’s Union for Civil Liberties), Lali Dhakar, Sarawasti Singh, Shilpa Dey and Radha Raghwal (National Forum for Single Women’s Rights), Mira Shiva and Vandana Prasad (Jan Swasthya Abhiyan), Paul Divakar and Asha Kowtal (National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights), Prahlad Ray and Anand Malakar (Rashtriya Viklang Manch), Subhash Bhatnagar (National Campaign Committee for Unorganized Sector workers), Jean Dreze and V.B Rawat (Former Support group to the Campaign, Ritu Priya (JNU)
Representatives of Right to Food (State campaigns):
Veena Shatrugna, M Kodandram and Rama Melkote(Andhra Pradesh), Saito Basumaatary and Sunil Kaul (Assam), Rupesh (Bihar), Gangabhai and Sameer Garg (Chhattisgarh), Sejal Dand and Sumitra Thakkar (Gujarat), Abhay Kumar and Clifton (Karnataka), Balram, Gurjeet Singh and James Herenj (Jharkhand), Sachin Jain (Madhya Pradesh), Mukta Srivastava and Suresh Sawant (Maharashtra), Tarun Bharatiya (Meghalaya), Chingmak Chang (Nagaland) Bidyut Mohanty and Raj Kishore Mishra, Vidhya Das, Manas Ranjan (Orissa), Ashok Khandelwal, Bhanwar Singh and Vijay Lakshmi (Rajasthan), V Suresh (Tamil Nadu), Arundhati Dhuru and Bindu Singh (Uttar Pradesh),
Address:
Right to Food Campaign Secretariat,
5A, Jungi House, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi, 110049
Email Address:
righttofoodindia@gmail.com, kavisriv@gmail.com;
Phone nos.
Jaipur: 0141-2594131, Mobile: 9351562965
Delhi: 011-26499563, 9910416153