State-patronized corruption and poverty in Madhya Pradesh

State-patronized corruption and poverty in Madhya Pradesh

Rolly Shivhare & Sachin Kumar Jain, Vikas Samvad Advocacy Resource Organisation, Bhopal, India

India is now known as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but in Madhya Pradesh, one of its biggest states, the number of malnourished children has gone up from 53.55 to 60 per cent, while the number of anemic women has gone up from 47 to 57 per cent. The state also has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. Furthermore, definitions and calculations of poverty are fabricated and are not designed honestly to provide protection to the most marginalized, but are used to cut down the state’s responsibilities towards deprived sections, and use state resources more and more for the benefit of the corporate sector and capitalist political ideologies.

In warfare, one section of the army tries to de-link the food supply to its enemy, believing that due to non-availability of food soldiers will not be able to fight and will lose the battle. At present people in Madhya Pradesh are kept hungry so that they are not in a position to fight for their socio-economic and political rights. In such a situation, struggle groups divert their actions from larger issues to small ones, like the public distribution system, old-age pension, or small scheme-based benefits.

Combating malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh: A policy illusion

We have been raising the issues of malnutrition and related deaths in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh. This district is located in the Baghelkhand socio-cultural region of Madhya Pradesh, where feudalism is an integral part of the social structure. When the issue of child malnutrition was raised through human development and human rights networks (Right to Food Campaign, Madhya Pradesh Lok Sangarsh Saajha Manch), mainstream media and the Asian Human Right Commission’s (AHRC) Hunger Alert programme, local authorities and state and central governments were asked to look into the matter urgently.

The higher authorities did not bother to check the critical situation themselves and left it to the local system (which was already brushing it under the carpet with fake data). In such a situation grassroots organizations (like Adiwasi Adhikaar Manch, Samaj Chetna Adhikar Manch) went into an intensive data-collection process. It has been very difficult to establish the fact that certain deaths are caused by malnutrition, so civil society has followed a strategy of establishing malnutrition deaths by using circumstantial evidence—shrinking livelihood opportunities, denial of access to natural resources without alternative arrangements, social exclusion, failure of state welfare or food programs, and evidence of rampant corruption.

Later a team of government officials visited only the villages as reported in the print media. They did not even make efforts to see the condition of the surrounding villages. What they did in the villages that they visited was to reweigh the children (to re-identify the grades and levels of malnutrition). The state machinery put the small kids on the corner of the Salter scale plate to show higher weights. Once their upper side weight got registered, they were pushed out of the list of Severe Acute Malnutrition and nothing was done to fix the conditions. Their only purpose was to undermine the reports of critical malnutrition and related deaths, mostly among tribal people and dalits.

The incident is not secluded. It is often repeated to play down the problem of severe acute malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh. The state government says that 39,000 children have been identified as severely malnourished, but on the other hand the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-III) has come out with a conclusion that around 1.3 million children under the age of six are severely malnourished. This difference is due to the callous attitude of state functionaries. A complaint regarding the official figure was lodged at all levels of the state system with evidence from various studies undertaken by civil society organizations, but there was no action or reaction from state institutions. They acted only in a denial mode, which is a very common and planned strategy. State institutions willfully abjure their accountability and fail to tackle the situation.

Recently the Right to Food Campaign-Madhya Pradesh Support Group undertook field surveys on food rights and found that children are getting supplementary nutrition under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) only for a period of 75 to 100 days, against their entitlement of 300 days in a year. Since Anganwadi workers are working at the village level to execute the ICDS programme, the general perception of common people is that these workers are siphoning off ICDS food. Thousands of Anganwadi workers are viewed as corrupt, but people have failed to analyze the problem. When we made a detailed study of the provision we found that out of 13 billion rupees allocated every year to provide supplementary nutrition to all defined beneficiaries (children under the age of 6 years, pregnant and lactating women, and adolescent girls), only two to three billion rupees on average had been disbursed by state and central governments to cover all beneficiaries. Thus, there is deliberate denial of the food rights of children and women. Such policies have an adverse impact on the overall performance of the programme and on the frontline workers, the Anganwadi workers who are also victims of the irresponsive and callous state machinery.

From loopholes to black holes in the grain basket

For the last nine years the Supreme Court and civil society have been trying to ensure that central and state governments in India perform their constitutional roles to deal with hunger and famine. The Public Distribution System (PDS) is a key programme to provide subsidized rations to poor and vulnerable people. However, the government at both levels has failed to provide basic entitlements to people under the PDS.

In the past two-and-a-half years the rations available through the PDS have assumed great significance for the 65 per cent (6.7 million identified by the state government) families living below the poverty line due to insecurity of livelihood, various deprivations and skyrocketing prices of basic items. But in this crucial period the state government, under pressure from free market fundamentalists, has not only reduced the quantity of grain available under the PDS but has also failed to take any solid steps to improve the system and to ensure that the exact quantities of rations reach the right people.

A ration-card holder, Rajjibai Ahirwar of Bagmau Panchayat in Chhatarpur district, contends that roti made out of red flour from red wheat becomes rock hard on getting cold and tastes like fodder. The quality of wheat has degraded to such an extent that even animals refuse to eat it. But poor families are forced to eat it under abject poverty and food insecurity. This is because in ration shops of Madhya Pradesh extremely poor quality wheat, which is harmful to health and has been imported from Australia and other countries, is being distributed to families living below poverty level.

In the absence of an adequate support system, people are forced to buy poor quality rations that have adverse heath impacts. Health complications, including stomachaches and stomach upsets, have been reported regularly by beneficiaries. Many of them have used this wheat as seed in their agricultural fields and the local variety of wheat seed is gradually vanishing. People who have used such imported wheat as seed have failed even to get back their investment. Yet when 300 tribal people of the tribal-dominated Kesla block in Hoshangabad district went to meet the state chief minister to ventilate their grievances with wheat samples, they were arrested. And this was on a day when the chief minister was inaugurating a special plan at Kesla to eradicate malnutrition.

A survey of the present situation in Madhya Pradesh showed that the state government should distribute 35 kilos of rations per family to 5.1 million families. Thus the state should provide 2,142,000 metric tonnes of grain under the PDS. But the central government has estimated that there are only 2,487,000 families in the state below the poverty line. As per this estimate the food ministry of the government of India is providing only 1,068,216 metric tonnes of grain. This means that 2,613,000 families in the state are either being totally deprived of the benefit of the scheme or the rations meant for about 2.5 million families are being stretched and distributed to 5.1 million. After corruption, only about 450,000 metric tonnes of grain are reaching the beneficiaries.

The Planning Commission of India in its report on the performance of the PDS system clearly stated that Madhya Pradesh is amongst those states where 50 to 75 per cent of grain is being sacrificed at the altar of corruption, i.e. each of the 5.1 million beneficiaries is getting on average just 15-25 kilos of rations, with great difficulty. Similar to the Anganwadi workers, the PDS dealers—who through cooperative societies implement the PDS system—are again considered to be the main culprits, but actually they are not. It is true that they are an important part in the corruption chain, but they are certainly not the central component.

Apart from the PDS dealers, the Department of Food and Civil Supplies and the state government are supposed to ensure the quality of wheat under the PDS and also monitor its effective implementation. But for more than a year-and-a-half the rations provided have never been checked for quality. When the Maharashtra Government got 265 samples of these grains checked at the Konkan Bhavan Public Health Laboratory (Navi Mumbai), they found that 229 samples were unfit for human consumption!

The large-scale corruption in PDS is clearly a violation of human rights. On World Food Day 2009, the National Human Rights Commission took the initiative to address the issue and advocated for active vigilance committees to fight against hunger and famine. This kind of proactive step is required to ensure effective implementation of the programme and also to improve the system.

The extent of malnutrition, hunger and starvation in Madhya Pradesh speaks volumes to the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of state delivery mechanisms on food rights. People do not die overnight due to starvation or hunger but they do over time due to deprivation and food insecurity. The government finds it easy to escape from its responsibility and accountability. The situation of food insecurity is extremely grim and is directly responsible for the riots at ration shops of West Bengal, and the Sindhi and Shivpuri districts of Madhya Pradesh. The state and central governments should act, if not on moral grounds, at least on political grounds, as food rights may well be the next electoral issue.

Guarantee of employment but not of wages

In Madhya Pradesh, the number of marginal workers is 6.6 million and that of small farmers is 3.7 million. Thus 10 million families are basically dependent on labouring work for their incomes. At present, about 94 per cent of workers are earning their livelihoods in the unorganized sector, where they are subjected to widespread exploitation. However, implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which ensures 100-days employment per year, raised the hopes of working people to meet their basic needs by earning minimum wages. In the state, rates of minimum wages for agricultural workers are fixed as per the Consumer Price Index and accordingly the present minimum basic wages are fixed at 91 rupees per day/person. Is this amount sufficient to meet bare amenities, especially in the context of the present price index? Wages have been increased by three per cent every year, while the inflation rate in India has been registered at more than six percent in the last two years.

The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 is based on article 43 of the Constitution of India, which provides for the fixing of minimum wages for workers that are sufficient for them to lead a respectable social life. In reality, the act in no manner acts to fix minimum wages that are sufficient to meet the food requirements of a worker and family members. It merely favours minimum wages that meet the needs of 2700 calories of food per person, 72 yards of cloth for the family, and shelter needs. In addition, for home lighting and cooking fuel an amount equivalent to 20 per cent of minimum wages is also fixed as part of wages. The Supreme Court of India, in one of its historical judgments in 1991, also directed that for meeting the educational needs of children, health facilities and other social requirements, an amount equivalent to 25 per cent of minimum wages had to be added.

However, the state government of Madhya Pradesh has constantly ignored these constitutional and legal provisions as well as directions of the Supreme Court in fixing minimum wages at 91 rupees per day. Thus, in a family of five members the share of each comes to 18.05 rupees per day, i.e. nine rupees per meal. On the other hand, to meet the requirement even of the Minimum Wages Act for 2700 calories of food per person now requires an expenditure of 31 rupees per day per person, and for meeting the clothing, education and health needs, an additional 19 rupees per day per person. As against the required minimum wages of 250 rupees per day for a family of five (31 + 19 = 50 x 5) the government is paying only 91 rupees.

In Majhera village of Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh the stone mines were closed down on account of heavy losses due to illegal mining, and there are no effective alternatives to employment here. Now with the implementation of the NREGS, scope for alternative employment has been created. People demanded 25 days of work and got it. But they stopped working under NREGS just after two days because the amount of minimum wages as compared to the extremely taxing physical work was not sufficient. It was also too meager to feed their families and meet other basic needs like health, education, clothing, etc. This is not only the case of Majhera village but also of scores of others where people are attempting to meet their basic needs by working for minimum wages. The rate of minimum wages fixed in Madhya Pradesh is not adequate for two square meals a day, let alone the needs of health, education and shelter.

The need of the hour is not only to increase the basic rates of minimum wages, but also to change the basic approach towards the whole issue. The rates of wages are fixed as per the Schedule of Rates (SoR) for respective works. In Madhya Pradesh, digging of 100 cubic feet on leveled surface is the minimum target, while on hard surface or murrum, it is 64 cubic feet, and minimum wages are to be paid only upon completing this targeted measurement (task basis). However, while linking SoR with minimum wages, it has been overlooked that SoRs are applied where the construction work, under various government schemes, is executed through contractors, where the prime objective is only to get the work completed, not to ensure employment or to provide relief against poverty to the workers.

While fixing the SoR, the government has completely overlooked varying geographical and regional conditions. For example, digging soft soil in Hoshangabad district and hard and semi-hard surfaces in Badwani districts are two different tasks. The government has fixed similar labour standards in both the places, irrespective of their geographical conditions.

A task rate study (known as a time and motion study) is essential to decide minimum wages in India. The government of Madhya Pradesh has not carried out an authorized study on task rates that will actually decide the amount of work that can be done by a nutritionally secure or insecure person in different conditions and circumstances. But armchair technocrats keep on deciding the tasks for poor laborers every six months, based on their own assumptions. The poor have to pay a heavy price because they have to complete tasks that are not at all realistic for them.

The Sahariya community, a tribal group, is one of the poorest and most nutritionally insecure communities in the world, but if they want to come out of chronic hunger through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), 2005 they have to comply with the standards set down by the state. The majority of the community is weak and undernourished but they are asked to work 100 cubic feet for the minimum wages paid. The work is measured on the assigned task work. There are several instances where people have got just 20-30 rupees per day under this task-based work.

The NREGA was enacted to provide employment to needy people and create rural livelihood assets to improve the situation of poverty and unemployment, track distress migration, etc. Government officials in their attempts to show targeted progress of the work apply fixed standards with absolute strictness and resultantly workers are deprived of their full day’s wages. Consequently, their malnutrition, hunger and poverty remain unchanged. In other words, the government is not only aggravating the situation but also perpetuating malnutrition and hunger by depriving people of these minimum wages.

In Dindori, a tribal dominated district of the state, the chief executive officer and sub-engineer (who is responsible for the valuation of work done under the act, after which payments to the laborers are made) in coordination with the Sarpanch (head of Panchayat) and Panchayat (village tract) Secretaries of 10 village Panchayats of Karanjiya block siphoned off funds worth 80 million rupees within three years. It means tribal villagers either did not get their legal entitlement of employment or they were not paid their wages for their hard work. This public fund was allocated for ensuring the proper implementation of the NREGA, so that families could be protected from hunger and starvation. The present picture of the villagers is that they have worked for half a million person days but are still living with hunger and waiting for their rightfully-earned wages.

It is clearly evident from this case that:

1. The district and state administrations are aware about the ill happenings in the villages and block under the NREGA.

2. The NREGS has an advanced system of data collection from village to central government level, where all information is put in the public domain and analyzed by experts on a regular basis. It also has a provision for a regular social audit at the village and Panchayat level every six months, where both physical and financial matters are reviewed in the presence of the community. But in Karanjiya block, the bureaucracy and technocracy did not give any space for this system to work at all.

3. On the basis of such irregularities, a First Information Report was after six months filed with the police against the chief executive officer, sub-engineer, Sarpanch and secretaries. But even if an investigation is initiated, it will take years to come out with its findings, and there is no guarantee that the responsible persons will be punished. Meanwhile, for the workers, six months to three years have passed since the date that they laboured, but they are yet to get their wages!

The NREGS and caste struggle

Hardua Gram Panchayat comes under the Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh. It is part of the Baghelkhand region, which is recognized not only for deep-rooted poverty but also for feudalism and caste-based discrimination. Charmakar and Kola are the dalit and tribal communities residing in Hardua Panchayat, along with Patels, Kurmi and Brahmin who are from the upper castes. Almost all the dalit and adivasi communities residing in the area are landless, and earn their livelihoods either from their caste-specific work or from daily wages. They usually work in the fields of Patels and Kurmis and are paid wages of 20 rupees per day on average.

The NREGA, which was brought into effect on 2 February 2006, created a ray of hope for people wishing to free themselves from their dependency on work upon private land for meager wages. But their wish was not fulfilled, as they were not provided with any work under the NREGS for a long time. Then on 15 September 2007, 341 dalit and tribal workers gathered at the Panchayat office and applied for work, but were not accepted by the upper-caste Sarpanch, Harihar Singh Patel, on some pretext or the other. The truth was that making work available to people under the NREGS would have been self-defeating for the upper castes, which own most of the private cultivatable land, as during the harvest season there would have been a scarcity of labour and people would have also demanded higher wages, at par with the NREGS rates.

However, the educated youth of the villages read posters and pamphlets on the NREGS and started informing workers about the opportunities and provisions of the act. Vikas Samvad, a local NGO, played a key role in spreading awareness and extending support to people in their struggle. The workers again applied for work to the Chief Executive Officer (Block Development Officer) at the Janpad (block level). Following this, the Chief Development Officer ordered the Sarpanch to start the NREGS work at the Panchayat level. With this order renovation work of Shiv Talab (pond) was started.

After working for seven days no wages were paid. Workers made a demand for timely wage payment as per the act. The Sarpanch tried to suppress the demand by verbally declaring that the work had been stopped, but there was no official order pertaining to it. The people, however, were aware that the work would at least be carried out for 14 days at a stretch, as per the law, and could not be stopped mid way. So they continued to work. The struggle for payment of wages continued along with the work. All the workers realized that it would be difficult to fight against the Sarpanch, as to do so is tantamount to challenging the age-old feudal culture. They therefore started discussions and organized meetings at different dalit and tribal villages of Hardua Panchayat to mobilize people.

Seeing the increasing strength of the dalit and tribal communities, the Sarpanch played the trick of divide and rule. He tried to motivate some workers in his favour and asked them to do roadwork in the centre of the Panchayat. The unity of the workers could not be broken and they decided to stick together. They also demanded the recommencement of the Shiv Talab work, as it was the main source for water for all of them.

Meanwhile the workers placed their demand for work and pending wages before the NREGS implementing officers at the Janpad and district levels. No heed was paid to their submissions. The workers of Haradua resorted to a hunger strike at the Simiria Tehsil Office from 28 September 2007. No NGOs or political parties were allowed to play any role in this struggle of dalits and tribal people. It was purely a people’s struggle. The struggling workers formed their own organization, called Hardua Sangharsh Morcha, to fight collectively against the exploitative system. The Right to Food Campaign of Madhya Pradesh also joined its hand with the workers in their cause.

During this struggle, the district administration came up with a new excuse that the Shiv Talab work had been stopped because out of its 6.5-acre area, three acres belonged to a private party and came under another Gram Panchayat. In response to the new revelation, the representatives of the Right to Food Campaign of Madhya Pradesh met the District Collector, D.P. Ahuja, who further complicated the whole matter by saying that a portion of the Shiv Talab belonged to a local advocate, Rajkumar Pandey, therefore the administration could not go ahead with the work. The government documents collected by the volunteers of the right to food campaign, however, suggested that Shiv Talab is a 300-year-old pond and has always been used for public purpose. Although some part of the pond belonged to a private party that party had never made any claims for it.

The workers kept their struggle alive in a completely non-violent and democratic manner by continuing the work in the pond without payment for 60 long days. The determination of the workers saw them through this struggle. Two workers, Sukhwanti and Shivmangal Saket, lost their lives to the cruel hands of death while several families went to bed on empty stomachs on subsequent nights. But the struggle continued. Sachin Jain, a leader of the right to food campaign in the state, said that,

The deaths of Sukhwanti and Shivmangal Saket were clear cases of starvation deaths. The people here are daily wage earners. Non-payment of workers for thirty to forty days of NREGS works forced the people to starvation. In case of private works they would get low payment but would at least get the payment to meet their day-to-day needs. We have submitted memorandums of these starvation death cases to the Chief Minister’s Office, Advisor to the Supreme Court’s Commission on Right to Food and other authorities.

As part of their strategy to mobilize the villagers, the members of the Hardua Sangharsh Morcha formed small groups and visited nearby villages to orient others on the issues of the NREGS. More and more workers identified themselves with the Hardua Sangharsh Morcha. People even observed the festival of light, Diwali, as the dark Diwali as a mark of protest against injustice. During the struggle, a public meeting was held in Hardua where more than 1500 people from 25 nearby villages participated. It was decided to gather at the Simiria Tehsil office on 19 November 2007. In the week beforehand, 14 regional and national people’s organizations joined hands with the workers of Hardua. On the 19th, the Tehsil office was gheraoed and the Tehsildar (sub-judicial magistrate) was offered roses by the workers as part of their Gandhigiri to register their demands. After this the administration buckled under peaceful protests and pressure and started addressing the demands of the workers one by one.

After 60 days of the Hardua Sangharsh Morcha’s struggle the administration started listening to the demands made by the workers. During the struggle the pressure from the media and other quarters also worked. The state advisor to the commissioners of the Supreme Court on right to food also intervened in the issue and asked the district administration to pay the wages to the workers by 30 November 2007. District Collector D.P. Ahuja visited Shiv Talab and came to know that it is a community property and the information given by the Panchayat members was misleading. He therefore ordered the payment of pending wages.

The workers celebrated the first victory of their struggle for their rights on the grant of wages of 10,000 person-days of work by the administration and the release of a sum of 750,000 rupees, although the amount paid to the people per day was less than the minimum wages. As a follow up to the struggle, a number of roads, ponds, etc., were sanctioned to the Panchayat. The people of Hardua won the battle but the war continues.

The struggle is important for five reasons. First, as noted above it is purely a struggle by the people without any involvement or support of NGOs or political parties. Even though many political parties showed interest to back the struggle, people unanimously denied them, as they perceived all parties as opportunists. Secondly, it was done purely in Gandhian style, such as offering flowers to the Tehsildar. The boycott of work despite having no food in home is reminiscent of the Ahmedabad mills strike in 1918, where workers boycotted work in demand for an increase of wages. Third, it set an example for others to follow. Fourth and most importantly, it took the shape of a struggle that challenged the existing exploitative system, with its feudal characteristics. Last but not the least, women played a major role in the formation and functioning of the Hardua Sangharsh Morcha.

Rambharan Saket, one of the leaders of the struggle, had to pay high a price for raising a voice against injustice and exploitation. His daughter had a mild mental abnormality. One day she did not return home from work. After waiting for some time, when the people of his community (Charmakar, leather workers) went to the nearest Simiria Tehsil police station to file a report, the police attempted to malign her integrity by saying, “Your daughter is not an angel, she may have eloped with some boy.?The girl’s dead body was found about six kilometers from the village, after some days. The police did not even register a case, let alone launch any inquiry. It is suspected that the girl is a victim of feudal backlash.

Similarly, Ramavatar, a cobbler by profession, was also fighting for his right to equality and employment along with the villagers. Once one of his pigs accidentally entered the field of an upper caste person (a Patel) in the village. The Patels then severely beat Ramavatar.

The Hardua struggle proves that the state does not intervene to solve social conflict in India. It actually divides social groups and lets them fight against each other. The administration (local to state) made all efforts in this case to suppress the demands and struggle of these labourers. When it could not establish that they were wrong on facts, it manipulated the valuation process. And at last the administration announced the payment of wages that came to 12 rupees a day, after valuation of work. Imagine, each person was paid 240 to 720 rupees for their six to 20 days of hard work, and they sacrificed two lives for this meager amount. The Sarpanch who committed gross violations of human rights and breached the NREGA was not charge-sheeted and was freed after a formal enquiry, as he belongs to the ruling class in the system now.

Outside the judicial system

The citizens of Zharer village in Sheopur district, Madhya Pradesh, do not want to visit any government offices any more, not because they do not have anything to demand, but because they have lost all faith in the system. They are Sahariyas, one of the most deprived sections of our so-called developed society. In a span of one month in September 2008, 18 of their children died of preventable causes. The deaths happened more than eight years after the apex court defined welfare as a part of fundamental rights. In reality, for Zharer people social justice means lodging complaints repeatedly without any acknowledgement or redress.

On 23 July 2001, the Supreme Court emphasized that,

In our opinion, what is of utmost importance is to see that food is provided to the aged, infirm, disabled, destitute women, destitute men who are in danger of starvation, pregnant and lactating women and destitute children, especially in cases where they or members of their family do not have sufficient funds to provide food for them. In case of famine, there may be shortage of food, but here the situation is that amongst plenty there is scarcity. Plenty of food is available, but distribution of the same amongst the very poor and the destitute is scarce and non-existent leading to malnourishment, starvation and other related problems.

Almost the same situation is prevailing today but even after nearly nine years of Public Interest Litigation (PIL), these entitlements could not be covered under the social justice system, because we do not have such a system. Meanwhile, cases of alleged corruption in government welfare schemes are investigated through the same bureaucratic institutions—like collectors, sub-divisional magistrates or Tehsildars—who often have a dubious role in these schemes.

While the debate on poverty and starvation rages, we should understand that there is need to decentralize our social justice system for protection of fundamental rights. Presently, citizens who seek systemic change on people’s issues or protection of their rights can file PIL only in high courts or the Supreme Court, which are inaccessible to poor people most of the time. The local courts are not empowered to look into matters of starvation, hunger, malnutrition, or exclusion from welfare services.

It seems that district courts should be made more powerful so that they can look into cases and give proper directives to the government, particularly the executive. Under the Civil Procedure Code, the district courts cannot interfere in these matters, but the Supreme Court has come out with several interim orders on food security, the right to nutrition, freedom from starvation and social security that are equivalent to reference laws. Thus district courts could take responsibility to ensure their implementation. This should be done without any delay. The district courts are now full of cases of bounced cheques or non-payment of bank installments in loan schemes. Are these the most important legal matters?

We have to view rights violations in the present system at four different but interconnected levels. At the first level is the community, which needs protection from the state, and for which food, employment and social security are lifelines, but in which—owing to discrimination, deprivation and corruption—confidence of the state is in decline. The second is the administrative level, which is responsible to provide those protections enshrined in the constitution, but is not doing so due to corruption and accountability. The third level is law and policy-makers, consisting of the structures and people that formulate rules and regulations, which have moved away from society over the years, so that laws and policies now seem to oppose the basic rights of people. At the fourth level is the judicial system, which is approached when people become disappointed with various other levels of functionaries, but which if too far away from the concerns and rights of the people allows the bureaucracy to get out of hand, as has happened in our system.


Distress migration: No issue

Dharampura village of Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh has three Sahranas (small pieces of land at the outskirts of villages where Sahariyas live). The Sahariyas of Dharampura are landless, and all of them work as labourers. For 6-8 months of a year they are migrating, working in nearby towns like Dabra, Datia and Sheopur.

These people are extremely poor. Most of them are left with no money and no food when they return from migration. Indebtedness is common among them. During the migration period most of them do stonecutting work in mines. Some of them also do agricultural work on daily wages. They earn 40 rupees per day, which is much lower than the minimum daily wage ensured by the law. Getting adequate food remains a distant dream for almost all of these people throughout life. Malnourishment and poor nutrition is the destiny of every Sahariya child in this village.

Upper caste and dominant people of the village exploit these people and treat them in an inhuman manner. The conditions of female widowers and elderly people are unimaginable. As they are unable to work, they are totally dependent on the charity of other people who themselves are not in a position to provide food or shelter to even their children.

Such stories are increasingly common in Madhya Pradesh. People have been moving from rural to urban areas too. Migrants are engaged in different types of work in rural and urban areas. In rural areas, migrant workers generally engage in agriculture and allied activities, followed by casual work. Migrants in urban areas are engaged in construction work. As per the 2001 census, out of 60.3 million people in Madhya Pradesh, 18.2 million were reported as migrants by place of last residence.

In recent years, a very high rate of distress migration has been witnessed in various parts of the state, as due to unfavourable conditions, manmade disasters and natural calamities like drought, millions of people are forced to leave their places of birth and residence.

According to estimates from one district of Bundelkhand, Chattarpur alone has seen over 150,000 farmers migrate in a single month. In villages, rows of houses lie locked, the occupants having migrated. The few houses that are still occupied have only children and old men and women, as they cannot work. However, almost no methodical data have been collected on the prevalence of this temporary migration, about the conditions under which people migrate, the costs and risks of migration, or the impact of remittances on the household and village economy.

There are no proper records and data on displacement in Madhya Pradesh. Departmental officers claim that it is not their responsibility to keep information regarding displaced persons. The policy of rehabilitation has been notified in the state gazetteer of the state government, and that is all.

In the absence of factual information, it is very difficult for policymakers to know the causes and level of migration, and is difficult to protect the rights of the migrants. The present development policies are the key source of distress migration in India, but there is no system to track this rapidly emerging issue. Since there are no data available, the state does not need to take any action, as there is no consolidated picture available for any one.

Displacement-induced development

Madhya Pradesh has been one of the laboratories of development projects in India. During the last three decades people have been displaced from their homesteads and lands in the name of development projects, including dams, national parks, sanctuaries, mines, industries, infrastructure projects, and beautification of cities, and this activity is continuing even now.

In Singrauli district recently the government acquired land for the Essar Group to establish a Super Thermal Power Project. Farmers are campaigning against the company and demanding only land for their land. The Essar Group required 1250 acres of land to set up the power project and there is talk of providing compensation. But it is clear that proper rehabilitation is not being done in Singrauli.

The most disheartening factor is now that the state stands with corporate interests and pushes villagers and farmers out from their land or resources. Now policies are framed in such a manner that communities are legally bound to leave their land in most cases. The new Land Acquisition Act and R & R Bill have been the topic of much controversy and debate, both within political circles and among civil society organizations involved with people’s struggles and movements all over India. At the root of the debate lie questions related to the definition of ‘public purpose?and ‘infrastructure?and the need for and extent of involuntary displacement that is caused by the former.

The incongruities in the two bills are disconcerting, as they do not attempt to redress the question of involuntary displacement and work on the ‘Better off Principle?for the dispossessed. Even more threatening is that the new bill writes ‘private corporate interest?into ‘public interest?to facilitate and justify the acquisition of huge chunks of agricultural land.

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has raised objections on the provisions that allows for private investors acquiring up to 70 per cent of land from farmers and landowners, while the remaining 30 per cent can be acquired by the government. She has voiced her opinions in several interviews and even in the Union Cabinet meeting to discuss the proposed bills. Some reports also take into account the changed definition of an “infrastructure project? which has been widened to include a vast swathe of industrial activities—from water supply and irrigation projects to mining, power generation, transmission and supply of electricity; construction of roads, highways, airports, etc.

The R&R Bill is on the other hand not based on the ‘Better Off Principle?or ‘Land-for-Land?entitlement, which is most crucial, as also recognized by the Supreme Court in the Narmada cases. Even provisions for conducting a Social Impact Assessment or an Environmental Impact Assessment are half-hearted measures that do not attempt to study the real effects of the project on people post-displacement, nor are those to be the criteria for decision on the project itself.

The Central and State Governments have evicted tens of millions of people—especially tribals and forest dwellers—from their habitats and having deprived them of their livelihoods and natural resources have also practically finished their cultural identities under the guise of development.

The government presented rosy dreams of health, employment and education through various projects for the displaced, and claimed that only through these would their standard of living improve. But unfortunately they have remained distant dreams, never converted into reality. Projects came up in these many years but all that the people had accumulated was snatched from them.

If we pay attention to just those figures of people who have been displaced by dam construction we can see that in the whole country the figures reach to almost 40 million families. The World Bank has reached a conclusion after study of 11 dams that 2.5 persons are displaced per hectare, whereas according to the Central Water Commission the figure of persons displaced per hectare is 1.1. Every dam project is created and approved at the highest level of government and at the cost of displacement and further loss. The figures of displaced people continue to rise along with their problems.

The struggle going on for the last two and half decades against the dams on the river Narmada is one example. The poor tribal people are being defrauded in the name of development, whether at Sardar Sarover, or at Maheshwar or at Omkareshwer. No solution has been found till today for those who were displaced from the Bargi Dam area, built in 1984. The government has not given information regarding the people displaced by the Tawa Dam built in the 1970s and those displaced by the Banganga Dam built in the 1980s.

In addition to these displaced persons, hundreds of thousands of others are getting displaced due to many other projects like road construction, urban development and establishment of industries. In the name of development, large projects are regularly being finalized which will lead to displacement of a huge number of people. But the government has no clue or information about these displacements. The question here is that if the government has no clue about these people then how is it going to rehabilitate them?

The saddest part of the story is that people once displaced keep getting uprooted repeatedly. They are often displaced in the name of irrigation projects, electricity projects, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries—and the list continues. Once uprooted from their culture and roots they find no permanent place to settle down and have to adjust in inhuman conditions in resettlement shelter homes or other areas where there is no electricity, no school, no primary health centre, and no Anganwadi centre for children. But life continues. It is an awkward situation for both landowners and landless families. Those who have cultivable lands do not receive appropriate and adequate compensation, and are forced to survive on what little they can get in ‘compensation packages? The landless labourers have to commute to nearby areas to work for daily wages, as there might not be enough cultivable land where they are relocated. Male members commute to nearby areas for work while leaving family members behind.

There are no official statistics on the numbers of people displaced by large projects since independence. Also, no department is clearly responsible or accountable for these displaced people. In 2002 the Madhya Pradesh government prepared an Ideal Rehabilitation Policy under which the rehabilitation department of the state has been declared as a nodal department and it has responsibility to coordinate with the department through which displacement is taking place. But the department is warding off its responsibility, saying that it is only responsible for the rehabilitation of refugees to Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The question arises: who is responsible for the tears and pain of millions of displaced people who have sacrificed their lives and livelihoods for so-called national development? What is national development if it is not people’s development?

Who pays the price for corruption?

Who pays the price of corruption in governance? There may be no answer to this question, as it involves the politics of accountability and self-realization. But when we look at the grassroot realities of systemic corruption and unaccountability, it comes out very clearly that the most marginalized pay the price of corruption. This makes them more vulnerable and poor.

The government system at all the levels in India does not take responsibility for its officials. The money that villagers are owed they do not receive. Poor workers are suffering and will continue to suffer for crimes they have not committed. Administrators are not concerned about people’s entitlements; provisions under statuary audit are the prime concern for them.

Instead of statutory audits, what we need is a social audit system to assess different aspects of work and also encourage community monitoring through active participation. The time has come to find mechanisms for policy audits whereby all gains and losses are evaluated on the basis of what is enumerated in the policy framework.

This paper has sought to highlight that monetary gains are not the sole means of corruption and that various practices can be devised and developed to exploit the loopholes in the government system, which churns out schemes and projects aimed at political gains. While a small section of the population in Madhya Pradesh continues to bask in the glory of development, the majority is still struggling for the bare necessities, thanks to the corruption that has seeped into the system, affecting one and all.