Euro Zone Has Let Down Greece

Euro Zone Has Let Down Greece

In Economic Times there was a short article which was trying to draw lessons from Greece crisis.  The gist of the message was “Do not live on borrowed money”.  It gave examples of how some people hold several credit cards and pay dues of one credit card through another credit card; or pay their emi through credit cards; or those who pay only minimum amount.  These people finally land up is a debt trap which goes round their neck with no means to get out.

I think the general view of people would be that Greece lived beyond their means on borrowed money.  To think of Greece in this manner would be most unfair to this nation and would mean we do not want to see the truth of how EURO ZONE functions and what happens to the countries whose economies are weak.  Not all the members of Euro Zone are anywhere near the Economy of Germany, France and Netherlands.  It is a common knowledge that Spain, Italy and Greece are their weak members.  These nations cannot be held responsible for their weakness.

When Greece joined Euro Zone in January 2001 the global economy was apparently healthy.  The upswing economy started moving their capital to the periphery of the global system to exploit the weakness of the periphery nations.  Greece being on the periphery of the advanced capitalist countries capital was flowing into Greece.  At one time the economy of Greece grew at 4.3% while the average growth of Euro Zone economies was 3.1%.  This growth has not spurred by the organic development of the home economy.  It was sparked by the investments from outside.

The impact of 2007 – 2008 global economic crises was experienced by all the economies of the Euro Zone countries.  During this period of crisis foreign investments started moving out of Greece.  As a result Greece began to go through economic depression.  The GDP of Greece fell by 27 %.  The unemployment went up to 25 %.  60% of the youth did not have jobs.  Greece’s export dipped and they had to depend on borrowing.  Their debt reached to the point of 180% of their GDP.  This is a natural consequence of the global economy.  It brings all nations into one market.  But it throws them back at different uneven levels.  The global economy essentially has some nations at its centre and some at the periphery.  Precisely this unevenness supports the very existence of the centre.  When the great depression like the one spurred by the Wall Street Meltdown would have most devastating effects on the economies at the periphery.  Only those nations which have relatively strong independence and regulations will not experience such effects.  Euro Zone had done away with all regulations the member countries could exercise. In the atmosphere of loss of control on its policies Greece had been extremely vulnerable to the impact of global crisis. 

During the period of deep crisis (from 2009) Greece had borrowed from the creditors like Germany and from IMF under very stringent conditions.  All the three institutions, IMF, ECB (European Central Bank) and EC (European Commission) had imposed what is called “Free Market Reforms”.  IMF has a single medicine for all nations who are in financial crisis.  And this medicine makes sure that these countries never ever recover.

The free market reforms were called austerity measures and they included:

1.       Cut on the government spending on social welfare programmes, especially retirement pension and health insurance.  

2.       Cut on the household spending.

3.       Labour reforms, wages get cuts and the rights of the workers getting reduced,.

4.       Privatization of public assets held by the government.

These reforms had affected the lives of the middle class and lower classes very adversely.  High unemployment and 60% youth not employed had brought the families to the edge.  Now the wage cut meant they had to live without their basic necessities being met.  We could see the senior citizens suffering because their pensions were cut and whatever little they got it was so irregular.  Labour reform might have given boost to production and profitability because of low wages.  But it had backfired as the people did not have purchasing power to buy goods and services produced.

The sale of public government assets paralyzed the government from delivering social welfare measures to the people.  The sale of these assets brought to the treasury paltry little sum which was horribly inadequate to pay back the loans.  It led the private interest to benefit from this sale, as they got the public assets almost for a song.

Free Market Reforms pushed the people and the nation deeper into misery and bankruptcy.  There was a need for another bailout loan to keep the nation afloat.  Since the dues to the creditors were not paid the European Central Bank closed down the banks in Greece for more than two weeks. People already suffering could not draw even little balance they had in the banks.  There was a need for a new bailout but since people were pushed to the edge they did not want austerity measures any more.

Loss of faith between Greece and Euro zone:

The left had come to power in Greece on the promise that it would put an end to the austerity measures.  In the referendum the Greece had voted NO to austerity by 61% of majority.  They were tired and miserable.  The closure of banks for two weeks had brought the Greece to a standstill and the people were literally starving.

On the other hand the Greece defaulting payment of loan had made the richer countries, who were the creditors, very angry.  Angela Merkel stated that “the biggest currency that was lost was trust”.  Germany which was the biggest creditor probably thought that their Deutschmark was lost.  

 

Euro Zone is not a charitable organization.  It is a club of economies which were in competition with each other and inherently exploitative. They meant business and nobody was willing to lose even a penny for the sake another country.  The common currency with ECB and independent sovereign states were trying to coexist.  The independence and sovereignty of the states was undermined by the fact that these countries cannot do anything independently to solve their economic crisis. The abnormal situation of Greece is that it has no control on its financial policies. Its authority on financial policy comes from the ECB.  What is worse is that their elected government could be brought down through the manoeuvres of the ECB and EC.  The powerful countries like Germany will have the last say in the matter. 

The situation of Greece is a consequence of natural functioning of capitalism.  Euro Zone had reduced Greece to penury.    It had become evident that the IMF, ECB and EC (TROIKA) had no desire to understand the problems of Greece, leave alone wanting to help to solve their problem.  The fact that Greece has a leftist government would be another irritant in the minds of the leaders of Euro Zone. They would push Greece to the wall and draw maximum benefit from the situation.  Because of the unfortunate situation of Greece the creditors were gaining.  By giving them loans, they extract interests and reduce Greece as their backyard.  All the loans given to the Greece was going back to the rich members of Euro Zone.

Greece was denied of Dignified Option to overcome its crisis:

Greece wants a breathing space to put its house back on track, to meet the basic needs of the people, to have modest decent life, which they are deprived of since the ongoing of depression.

Under normal conditions a country would have its central bank, like Reserve Bank of India or Federal Reserve of the United States of America.  These central banks are constitutional authorities which enjoy independence of political governments.  These banks play an important role of issuing financial policies, fiscal discipline and liquidity management.  In times of depression the central banks will introduce more liquidity by printing more currency so that the government would have more money at its disposal to spend on social welfare to help tide over the crisis.  When the country’s economy performs better it prints less currency to control inflation.  Greece could not do any of these things.  Though it is a sovereign nation it does not have a central bank to guide its financial policies.  This power rested in the hands of European Central Bank.  This ECB functions for all the members of Euro Zone.  When the economies of Germany and other prosperous members are doing excellent there is no question of ECB issuing policies to help Greece.  The banks in Greece do not come under the control of Greece government, but under the control of ECB.  ECB had left the Greece government incapable of remedying its crisis.

The Real Nature of Euro Zone:

Euro Zone has been founded to consolidate the economic power and consequently the political power vis a vis the United States.  They wanted to throw up a new international currency, which would become alternative to US $.  Euro has become a very powerful currency though it has not occupied the position of US $.  Euro Zone has strengthened the rich members while the weaker members remained behind and they float on the back of Euro. 

Euro Zone does not play the role like Germany played when the East Germany merged with the West Germany.  Over the years the prosperous West Germany helped the weak East Germany to even out with the West Germany.  Euro Zone is not intended to help the weaker member nations to even out their differences. 

Socialist approach to the International Relations -- CMEA:

There was an institution in place among the socialist countries (socialist block). The name of this institution was “CONFERENCE FOR MUTUAL ECONOMIC AID”.

Under SOVIET UNION the option of a socialist world market was developed which should function as an alternative to the capitalist world market, providing new and better rules for international relations, banning exploitation and uneven development. The socialist world market was primarily a net work of bilateral relations based on barter.

CMEA emphasized on rapid industrialization, which would provide in each of the CMEA member countries a complete industrial base with the same priority industries being developed at a faster rate in each of them.  This autarkic development policy was made possible by Soviet deliveries of energy and raw material.  The Soviet Union, GDR and Czechoslovakian provided the less developed CMEA countries with machinery. (Hans van Zon, Crisis in the Socialist International Economy)  Even India has benefitted from the Soviet Union investment in public sector industries.  USSR offered this without repatriating any proceeds from these industries by way of profits.

Euro Zone is far from such a spirit of cooperation and mutual aid.  It has made Greece bleed.  The fate of Greece has many lessons for the weaker members of the Euro Zone.  They will not get any help in times of crises.  Weaker economies being in Euro Zone is like a sparrow trying to fly with a kite.  These signs tell us that the future of Euro Zone may be in question.  Though Greece has taken the bailout by agreeing to the harsh conditions, it should slowly prepare a way out of Euro Zone.  No doubt this step will push Greece back drastically, if Greece wants long term solution to their problem and protect it sovereignty and dignity it should exit Euro Zone.  This is also a warning to other smaller economies which are at the same level as Greece.

In my opinion the smaller countries should come together into an alliance for mutual aid, define their relationship with advanced countries and build themselves in cooperation and collaboration with each other.   SAARC, BRICS like cooperation have a short history ahead.  There are lots of inner political and economic contradictions that will not see these networks through. 

BEGINNING OF NEW ERA FOR THE LEFT?

BEGINNING OF NEW ERA FOR THE LEFT?

Will the Left with the leadership of Sitaram Yechuri make up for their failure towards the poor farmers, worker and all marginalized people of India?

When Aam Aadmi Party first came to power in the state of Delhi and was reducing the rates of electricity and water and showing the way to expose corruption Prakash Karrat, who was then the General Secretary of the CPM party commented, “AAP is doing what we should be doing”.  This may be an admission of the fact that CPM probably does not do what it should be doing. 

Three and odd decades of Left Front government in West Bengal, led by CPM, has vanished.  It is on the receiving end in Kerala. It faced two defeats in succession. Left Front seat share in the Parliament also has come down rapidly.  It is absent in the urban or rural areas where the working class and farmers are facing hardship.  The trade unions in the organized sector have become ineffective.  Much of the organized work force in the industries has been replaced by contractors who employ even professionals on temporary basis with no benefits which workers would get under normal conditions, such as yearly increment, bonus, gratuity etc.  The CPM has not taken any corrective measures to revitalize the trade union movement.

If Prakash Karat is honest in his admission that the left parties are not doing what they are supposed to do, then we should see some changes in the party and its functioning.

In 1989 – 90 when the Soviet Union collapsed and the left was being viewed as spent force, several political commentators considered left to be still relevant in Indian context.  But today we see it declining rapidly.

What had gone wrong with the left?

      

T    The left had got mired in the electoral politics.  Number of seats in the Parliament and power at the states is important to play its political role.  But the political role the Communist Party had envisioned for itself was to deliver socialistic benefits to the masses; to strengthen the working class and peasant movement and to stand for the cause of all the poor and the exploited people.  This politics, the party believed, would bring about transformation in the society and put it on the path of socialism. But the left party gave up its larger role in the social movements and the struggles of the poor, farmers and the working class and got engaged with running the state for the bourgeois class.

·         While it is important to get elected to the Parliament or to the state assemblies the party had to pay a price for this.  The party had to tone down its militancy in order not to antagonize the ruling classes to gain their support and votes during election.  Creating a vote bank within the wealthy class in the long run becomes counterproductive.  After getting elected with the support of the wealthy class the party could not defend the interests of the toiling masses whole heartedly.  When the left opted for running the government for the bourgeois class the party lost its political base among the toiling masses.  Nandigram and Singur are the examples of this. It was stated in the 21^st Congress of the Party, “The party leadership in many states was averse to taking up the problems of the socially oppressed people.  It also stated that there was a serious discrepancy in the social composition of party members, the composition of leaders on the top committees, and proportional representation of women in the top committees.” (“Guarded Hope” Front Line - May15, 2015)

·         “It stated clearly that there was no way to avoid the fact that the electoral setbacks had brought down the party’s political influence and mass base.  It was also pointed out in the resolution that the party had failed to identify urgent and local issues to which people reacted collectively and that it had not organized campaign to mobilize people.”  (“Guarded Hope” Front Line - May15, 2015).  Indeed it an honest admission on the part of the party of their failures.

·          In the rural areas we did not find CPM cadres on the side of the farmers while they were in distress and even committing suicide.  From 1985 the action groups and voluntary organization were fighting to get the government to legislate ‘right to work’ for the rural poor.  The communists were nowhere to support them. CPM claims credit for supporting the legislation of MGNREGA.  But apart from this their cadres have done nothing to ensure that MGNREGA is implemented without corruption.  If the party does not stand by the poor, workers and farmers how can they expect to keep their mass base intact?  When mass base gets eroded automatically there will be electoral set back.

·         Even now the Communist cadres are not found organizing farmers against Modi’s land acquisition bill.

·         “The CPI(M) leadership was compelled to admit intermittently during this period that negative tendencies such as factionalism, individualism, financial irregularities and moral turpitude had become notable feature of the party in various parts of the country.” (“Guarded Hope” Front Line - May15, 2015)

·         The CPM cadres in West Bengal were functioning like parallel police force brutalizing people to force their support for the party.  They were handling the handing over of the government benefits to the people at their will and discretion.

The 21^st Congress of the CPM party has just been concluded.  The communist party’s redeeming culture was “self criticism”.  In the spirit of this principle there has been some introspection within the party during this Congress. The election of Sitaram Yechuri to succeed Prakash Karat to the post of General Secretary of the party could be one sign of the change. 

The 21^st Congress has exuded a great hope of reviving the Party.  All the members of the congress have not only realized their follies and weaknesses but they have also realized that in the present juncture where communalism and neo liberal policies are asserting there is a great need for the Left party like CPM to bring the country on the path of democracy, secularism and socialism.

In this context Sitaram Yechuri becoming general secretary is a very positive development in the CPM.  He considers ‘to be with the cause and purpose of the toiling masses’ is the purpose of his life. He also has a tremendous capacity to relate to all political forces without compromising his principles.  He has decided to strengthen the ‘independent identity of the Communist party’.  He is looking for strengthening Left unity which does not merely mean strengthening alliances with Left parties but also with a large number of Left sympathizers who are associated with the civil society organizations.”  We are looking forward to an era where CPM will shed its sectarian mind set and open itself to recognize the struggle of all sections of the poor which is carried out by the intervention of action groups and voluntary organizations.  Given their conviction and commitment the civil society organizations should be seen as natural allies of the CPM.

There are many civil society organizations who take up issues which go a long way in defending the rights of the poor.  Left forces are not just left parties or what is traditionally known, ‘the sympathizers’ of the left parties.  There are civil society organizations, voluntary organizations and NGOs who have dedicated themselves to fight for the rights of the marginal farmers, unorganized workers, dalits and adivasies with the perspective of bringing about change in the political and economic organization.  Without aligning with these forces the Left cannot strengthen itself both in terms of building mass movement and electoral politics.

What we would like to see is that the Communist party should come up with 21^st century vision for Democracy and Socialism.  It should be done along with all civil society organizations, action groups who are committed to the cause of the toiling masses and for a positive change.

UNITY AMONG RIGHTS-BASED NGOs: NEED OF THE HOUR

UNITY AMONG RIGHTS-BASED NGOs:

 NEED OF THE HOUR

The present government is pushing the poor, particularly the rural poor, to the margin.  The Modi government has reduced the budget allocation for health care and education.  It shows its dislike to MGNREGA, calling it a “living monument” of the previous governments’ failures, condemning millions of impoverished people to survive by ‘digging ditches’.  Modi does not spare precious little time to go deeper to see the reports which speak loud and clear about the magnificent outcome of MGNREGA where ever it is implemented well.

The poor are being edged out from the economic development and the political space.  They are seen as indirect goals of development, as trickle down effects of the economy.  Commenting on trickle down effect Pope Francis says “the present neoliberal economic ideology tells us that at present the glass of development is half full.  When it is completely full it will overflow and then the poor will get the benefits of development.  But as time goes on the glass miraculously become bigger and bigger not allowing it to over flow.”

Marginalization of the poor is accompanied by removing the space of the civil society organization working for the cause of the poor and for the protection of environment.  The government has resorted to stop the flow of funds to the civil society organizations.  There have been more than 9000 NGOs whose FCRA registration has been cancelled.  If any NGO wishes to receive foreign donations they should give an undertaking that their activities will not go against the national interest, national security and development. The Green Peace has been penalised under the excuse that their work is against the national interests of development. 

The government’s view on the national interests, national security and development should be acceptable to all in the civil society.  This is a denial of democratic rights of the people.  The foreign funds that freely flow into the country in the form of foreign investment are per se seen as for the national interests and development.  The foreign funds (investment) that caused Bhopal gas tragedy is not evaluated as against the national security and national interests.  The foreign funds that destroys environment, displaces people from their habitat is not considered as against national interests and security.

In the name of national security the security forces can arrest anyone on suspicion and put his/her in jail without trial.  More 6000 adivasi  youths are languishing in jails for several months and even years without trial.

Civil society is an important component of the socio, economic and political fabric of the society.  Civil society’s independence and freedom of speech is essential component of a democratic society.   Preventing civil society organization from voluntary social action is like obliterating democracy.  The essence of democracy is not just casting vote once in five years to elect the government.  Democracy is civil society participating in the debate on development policies, making development process as relevant to the people. 

In the name of development the state is becoming increasingly repressive.  It is not just the BJP government that is so repressive.  Even the UPA has been equally repressive.  The military, the judiciary has been showing repressive face of the state.  These are no signs of a healthy democracy.

Defending the rights of the poor is a beginning of the defence of the democracy.  Anybody working to defend the civil rights of the society will have to start their struggle with defending the rights of the poor. 

Today the state is governed by the logic of neoliberal capitalist ideology.  It defends the rights of the corporate houses, industrialists and multinational companies.  The country is governed to make it  easy  for them to do their business.   

But when our nation was founded the founding fathers adopted the constitution to guide the governance of our nation.   What should govern our nation is not the logic of neo liberal capitalist ideology but the spirit and letter of the founding document, the constitution of our country. All the politicians take oath on the constitution of India.  They promise to defend, uphold and implement the constitution of India.  This constitution guarantees to its citizens democracy, socialism and secularism.  It gives all its citizens right to life and livelihood, right to work.  It gives its citizens the right to free and compulsory education, health care, and free speech. 

There is a need to bring the goal of the governance and development back to its place.  This is a process of struggle by the civil society and civil society organizations.  This struggle must begin with fighting for the rights of the poor.

Praxis and Young India Project started the struggle for people’s rights.  In 1983 took up land struggles and freeing bonded labours under the bonded labour abolition Act. In 1986 we started our campaign for right to work. In 2005 this was finally legislated.   From the 4th of April 2006 it came into effect and began to be implemented. Our work for the last 35 years has been to enable the poor to gain their rights.

 “APNA : Andhra job scheme :

Andhra Pradesh NGOs alliance has made the Government to work in partnership with NGOs.  This arrangement gave the NGOs the responsibilities of organizing and training MGNREGA workers on their rights and enabling them to access their rights. Today there are 235 NGOs working in 425 out of 625 mandals.  Generally government would be extremely averse to the idea of organizing the people, particularly the working people.  But we have claimed this right.  The government has decided that we organize the rural poor.  In every Panchayat we have organied MGNREGA workers at the Gram Panchayat Samakhyas (GPS). The NGOs of Andhra conduct monthly meetings of Gram Panchayat Samakhyas (GPS)

APNA works for making MGNREGA workers to understand their rights, accessing these rights and improving their quality of life.

When Sridevi, an MGNREGA worker who received 80 days of work from Chinna Kotha Palli Mandal, was asked about the rights she accesses under the MGNREGA Act, she replied, “We don’t allow contractors or machineries to be used for MGNREGA work.  We receive travel when the work is located over 5 Kms away; we have first aid medical kit, drinking water.” Ramakrishnaiah, another MGNREGA worker from CKPalli mandal, who was able to work for 100 days, narrated how MGNREGA has changed the life of his family, “Before we did not have enough work and the wages were low. Now apart from agricultural and other works we have guaranteed 100 days of work at higher wages. We were travelling to distant places to seek work, we don’t do that anymore. Our children are going to high school, we are buying them new clothes, weekly once we are eating meat and we have bought a mobile phone.” We wish that all MGNREGA workers throughout the country could say what these two workers have said.

At a meeting with Commissioner Rural Development (CRD) Andhra, the CRD expressed tremendous satisfaction with the APNA NGOs. As a result it was decided that the wokers’ organizations (GPSs) should be created in all 625 mandals of Andhra.  Through the creation Samakhyas and the work done by NGOs with each GPS, the working poor are able to access all the rights given under the MGNREGA Act. This partnership has helped put Andhra on the map as the best State in implementing MGNREGA, and the only State in which job card holders have been organised into GPSs in order to demand their rights.

Under the APNA the NGOs appoint two Community Resource Persons (CRPs) per Mandal to support the work.  Ramakrishtaiah, the MGNREGA worker from CKPalli mandal, said, “the CRPs, identify the problems of each Shramik Shakti Sanghatana group in the monthly meetings conducted by them and represent our problems to the Assistant Project Officer . We are very happy with them.  We need them to motivate our Samakhya.”

We would like to go a step further through the GPSs formed by NGOs, by making each GPS responsible for enabling the rural poor to access all the pro-poor rights and benefits, such as right to food security, right to education and health care. Furthermore, we are proposing that the salaries of the two mandal workers (CRPs)appointed by the NGO be paid by the right holders. This will also ensure that the NGOs are fully accountable to the working poor.  The majority NGOs support this idea.  We would like to ask the government to pass a Government Order (GO) to officially start the implementation of the new system.                                                                                                                                                                                   

On 30^th and 31^st of May 2015 we had called for a meeting of 20 rights based NGOs: 8 from Andhra, 8 from Telengana, and 4 from Karnataka to discuss the experience of APNA. The meeting resulted in a path breaking decision to promote this movement of helping MGNREGA worker access all rights legislated for them through the GPSs formed across all the three States. The next step towards this is a meeting of over 35 APNA NGOs from Andhra with the purpose of building unity of rights based NGOs, which will take place on the 4th and 5^th of July in Kadapa. At this meeting we will initiate a signature campaign demanding a GO on the two proposals.

If we want to change the society through the unity of the rural poor, the voluntary organizations (NGOs)must first unite themselves. Rights-based NGOs of Andhra, Karnataka, and Telengana have learnt this. There is need to for all the rights based NGOs of the North and South India to unite, first to defend the MGNREGA from being diluted and to organise the poor who need work under MGNREGA and enable them to get work.  The unity of the NGOs will prevent contractors form depriving the workers of their work and prevent all forms of corruptions.    It is the NGOs and the organizations of the rural poor which will make possible for the poor to get all rights legislated for them.  

WRITTEN BY PRAXIS AND YIP                           

HUMAN DIGNITY THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS!

HUMAN DIGNITY THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS! (MONITORING  FOOD SECURITY  (MFS)

RIGHTS IS THE ONLY WAY TO OVERCOME POVERTY WITH DIGNITY: MGNREGA AND FOOD SECURITY

                                               I.            Young India Project and Praxis

A.      Young India Project

1.       Young India Project was registered on 9^th Sept 1970 under Karnataka Society’s Act in Bangalore.

2.       Number: 139/1970

3.       

4.       Current Governing council members:                                                                                                        President:  Mr. N.S.Bedi.                                                                                                                            Secretary: Ganesh Iyer.                                                                                                                               Treasurer: Krishnamurthy.                                                                                                                            Members: Fairoz, Kishore, Arun Ganguly ,                                                                                                   General Body: 55 members who have worked with or are working with YIP  currently.                                Address: Young India Project, Penukonda 515110, Andhra Pradesh.                                                                                                          

5.       Principal involvement: MGNREGA in partnership with the Govt of Andhra.Pradesh.                                                              

6.       Area of work: 20 mandals in Anantapur Dist. and 5 mandals in Kadapa Dist. The Govt has offered YIP 6 more mandals.                                                                                                                                                      

7.       Families covered: There are on an average 4500 Job Card Holders’ families ( JCHF ) registered to work in  MGNREGA in each mandal. We are therefore working with 4500 x 25 mandals  = 112,500 MGNREGA families.                                                                                                                                                                                 

8.       Benefits received by Job Card holders Families:   From April 1, 2014  to  December 2015:   50.25 days of work per family @ Rs 110 per day.  This means = 1,12,500 (families) x50.25 x Rs 110 = Rs. 64,65,93,750.00 (Sixty four crores, sixty five lakhs, ninety three thousand seven hundred and fifty only).                                                                                                                                                                        

9.       Rights Benefits: there are other benefits which cannot be measured:

                                 i.            Receiving Job Cards,

                               ii.            Submission of demands with follow up,

                              iii.            Selection of works,

                             iv.            Demanding and obtaining from the Govt to provide 4 worksite entitlements,

                               v.            Release of wages in time,

                             vi.            Compensations for injury and death during work, and finally

                            vii.            Resolution of work related problems.                                                                                                                               

1     Present Funding situation of Young India Project: YIP does not receive any funds from any organization or government.   The government directly pays 50 YIP MGNREGA workers, known as Community Resource persons (CRP). (2 CRPs per mandal, for 25 mandals that YIP covers, at rate of Rs. 3500/ per worker per month.) 

B. PRAXIS:

Praxis is a registered society, registered on 8^th May 1980, under Karnataka Societies Registration Act 1960.

Registration number: 87/80-81

Praxis is also registered with the home ministry under Foreign Contribution (Regulation)Act 1976 on 13/12/1984. Registered no is 094420120.

Praxis was started in 1980 by several committed social activists and progressive thinkers.   Praxis came into existence at a very significant period of Indian history. India was hardly two and a half decade old independent nation. At the dawn of independence, our country saw a government with the most committed leaders led by a visionary Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. These leaders knew the value of our nation. They made huge sacrifices to create this nation. They were filled with the desire to make this nation a great and prosperous land where its entire citizen would be happy. The entire country was filled with enthusiasm to build this new nation that would be secular, socialist and democratic. Nehru thought massive industrialization and big dams to achieve agricultural growth would do the magic of transforming this nation into a prosperous people. In a matter of fifteen years India was well on the path of industrial revolution to make it the 9th most industrialized country in the world. The green Revolution too had converted Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Maharashtra, Parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala into the granaries of the world. In this reverberating progress of our country, unfortunately, the rural poor were left out. The urban areas saw a growth in massive slums. Eighty percent of the population of the country was untouched by the magic of progress. The political system too, had begun to show the signs of deterioration. Almost all those great leaders who had given their lives for the independence of the country had become part of the glorious history of India. The power mongers and corrupt politicians had occupied their seats. It did not take too long for discontent and revolt to brew. The urban industrial workers, who were organized under central trade unions, were the first ones to start with their revolts. The rural poor were unorganized. The left parties who spoke in the name of the poor either remained with the industrial workers or were saddled with the peasants who had been liberated from their feudal lords and become neo-landlords. It was the turn of the Naxalbari to express their anger against the ills of the society and articulate the aspirations of the poor for a different social order. The late sixties saw the emergence of the Naxalite movement. Many youths from urban middle class were drawn into this movement. Given the half baked nature of their analysis and ideology and adventurism in politics, this massive movement began to see its downfall. The radical but dogmatic movement lived only for a decade.  But it left its mark on the history. The question of social change continued to burn the hearts of many young and old, radical thinkers and activists. There was a search for a new way – a search for a new Praxis. This search gave birth to PRAXIS. Rev Fr.Stan Louruswamy, Director Indian Institute(ISI), Fr. Duarte Barreto, Asst Director Indian Institute (ISI), Ms Alleyamma, Coordinator, P.C.O. Trivandrum, Mr.Sidharth Kurien of ICRA, Ms Tresa Mathew and Mr. Alex Tuscano were some of the founder members of Praxis. MISSION: “To work towards empowerment of the poor by assisting them to create a self sustaining organization that will enable them to fight against injustice and exploitation and work for sustainable development." "To influence the social and political process so that alternative paradigm of social organization and economic development  emerges." "To take up study, research and training on issues related to development and social change.” ·         Since 1983 Praxis has been working in Devanahalli taluk of Bangalore Rural District, in 150 villages. ·         Similarly it has been working in Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu with fisher community. ·         Praxis has been active member of the Campaign for Right to Work initiated by Young India Project. ·         Praxis has been monitoring the implementation of Employment Guarantee Schemes started by the central government on an experimental basis. ·         Since 200 Praxis has been working in Chikkajala Hobly in 25 villages, like in Devanahalli organizing women and for education of children and on watershed and de-silting percolation tanks. ·         Since 2005, after the tsunami Praxis restarted it work in Kanyakumari with fisher people and the coastal community affected by tsunami.  Praxis worked for relief, rehabilitation, housing and livelihood programmes. ·         All these years of work Praxis was supported by NOVIB, Action Aid India International and French Red Cross.

PROGRAMMES OF PRAXIS:

o     PRAXIS organizes sanghas (community based organizations) among the poor and among women.

o     Praxis gives ongoing education through weekly meetings of the people’s organizations at village level.

o     Campaign for land right for the landless and conduct struggles for land of the dalits unlawfully taken awy from them by the landlords.

o     Fight against atrocities committed against women and dalits.

o     Encourages savings among women through BCOs.

o     Gives micro credits to members of BCOs to take up income generation activities.

o     Gives support for the education of children from the poor by organizing supplementary education, providing books and uniform to ensure quality education to the children.

o     To assist in developing infrastructure in the government schools.

o     To give employment oriented vocational training to the youth, especially women.

i.      Computer aided secretarial course.

ii.     Tailoring training.

iii.    Entrepreneurship training.

o     6. Health and sanitation

o     Educating people specially women on health and sanitation.

o     Care of under five children and women at risk.

o     Developing sanitary system in the villages.

o     To protect and develop environment through aforestation programme.

o     To conserve water and soil through watershed programme.

o     Watershed and environment

o     Rehabilitation of percolation tanks.

o     Developing feeder channels for rain water harvesting.

o     Making contour bunds to prevent soil erosion and conserving soil moisture.

I.                    BACK GROUND FOR THE PROPOSAL:

YIP started working in Penukonda in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.  Anantapur and Penukonda, in particular, is a driest region of Rayalsimha area of Andhra Pradesh.  The rain fall has been very scanty and there would be continuous droughts in the region.  This also means that there are no tanks or rivulets passing through this region.  Some places there are small streams.  But these are dry for most part of the year.  There was no irrigation possible to cultivate the lands.  Whenever there was a little rain the farmers tried to grow millets.  There were no farmers who would grow enough food to last even for three to six months.  There was no work available for the people in the area.  They had to migrate to the faraway places either in Andhra Pradesh (to the cities like Hyderabad) or to the neighbouring Karnataka (Bangalore).  This had great impact on the condition of women.  Education of children affected tremendously.

After the initial survey of the place we decided to work in this as our intervention was most needed here.  We tried to work with all the people as poverty was most widespread.  Initially we tried to develop rain harvesting systems by building check dams and water sheds where ever we found small streams.  We tried to get help from the government agriculture department to promote dry land farming.  The nature was stubborn and the rains gods were non yielding.  We realized our dry land development programmes made no impact on agriculture and on the economic condition of the people.

 

After experiencing failures in our dry land farming programmes from 1983 onwards YOUNG INDIA POJECT decided to change its strategy.   In 1983 when we started land struggles under various land reform acts, our investigations revealed that there were thousands of acres of Govt  shotriamdar, or lands declared surplus under land ceiling act which were being cultivated by landless families, but  were registered under the names of the bigger land owners and their friends and relatives, illegally. The land reform acts which made cultivators into owners of land had been legislated years earlier but the poor had not been able to enforce the rights given by the acts. Why not?  Because  a. They did not know the act and therefore did not know what to do to enforce their rights. b. They were not organised to challenge the land owners on whose names the lands were registered c. they did not have the confidence to talk with the Govt officials. The situation remained unchanged until YIP intervened in 1983. The reason why YIP intervened was many landless peasants approached us because they were not able to get bank loans against their lands. When we asked them why, they answered that though they were the cultivators the owners were rich landowners and their friends, and therefore being non owners they did not have the right to mortgage their lands to the bank.  The very first struggle we took up was for 1500 acres of Govt. land being cultivated by 600 poor families from 5 villages which had been illegally registered on the names of well off non cultivators. We organised the families into five village unions, informed them about their rights and guided them to start their struggle. It took 7 years to get all the 600 families their land title deeds for a total of 1,500 acres. Once they received their papers our involvement with them ended, but in the meantime our cadres were already involved in other land struggles. Between 1983 and 2000 we helped 42,000 landless families to receive ownership titles to 79,000 acres. These struggles were against the landlords and the local Govt. officials, but we had the support of the senior IAS officers who were pro –poor .Had YIP not intervened 42,000 families would not have got ownership of the lands they were cultivating.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

While we were taking up land struggles we also started struggles on bonded labour and house sites given by the Govt. to be registered on the names of women. By 1985 we were working in two districts and by 1990 in 6 districts. We spread our rights movement to all our working districts. Between 1985 and 2000 our cadres identified and assisted 540  bonded labourers to be released from the clutches of landowners, and 100,000 women agricultural labourers  received house sites on their names. In each case after the struggle was successful YIP cadres withdrew and started assisting the poor peasantry to take up other rights struggles. In the Indian rural context without the mediation of NGOs, the poor are unable to enforce their own rights                                                                                                                        

We decided to squarely put the responsibility of development of these people on the Government.  The government had been absent in this area all these years.  Probably it did not have any answers to the situation of the place and the people.

We realised that it should be the responsibility of the government to solve the problem of these people. We decided to organize the people so that they could through their collective action demand from the government to solve their problems.  While trying to organize the people we identified the following problems people face:

1.       There were several about 25% of the population who were totally landless and these people keep migrating to distant places for work.  Their condition has been very precarious.

2.       The second category of the people among the landless poor was bonded labourers.  They did not need to migrate but they were literally slaves at the houses of the middle farmers.  These farmers themselves were living on the margin.  They could not pay sufficient to these bonded labourers.  Malnourishment was rampant both among the children and the adults.

3.       There were some with very small land holding.  But their lands were taken away from them by the relatively better land owners.  These lands were alienated from them either because they have given the land to cultivate on share cropping basis or had mortgaged for small amount of money (loans). 

4.       The most common feature among all the people was they did not have work enough to earn their livelihood.

Based on this information we chalked out the following plan of action:

·         Release of bonded labourers.

·         Release of land of the poor farmers from the hands of the land owners.

·         Demanding for land reform so that the landless and the tenants get land.

·         Demand for house site and houses under right to shelter.  There are several families live in huts and on common land.  They have no house sites and houses. 

·         Along with demand for land and house sites we felt it essential to demand that the house site and the land that the government should allot to and register in the name of wives / women.

·         To ensure that the poor, particularly the BPL category will get government programmes like Integrated Rural development programme. Benefits for women.  Programmes for the women and children welfare.

·         To demand for their entitlements, such as ration from the fair price shops under the Public Distribution System, functioning schools and Public Health Centres. Fighting against atrocities against the dalits and adivasies under Anti Atrocities Act.

·         And above all these demand for right to work.

In our approach to demand we wanted to make sure that these demands were not so much for schemes but as rights of the people.  That means people have rights and getting land, house sites and employment should be considered as legal obligation on the part of the state to grant these rights.  We wanted the government to legislate these rights.  Hence our fight was supposed to be for constitutional and justitiable rights.  That means people have right to land, houses and employment and the government has obligation to deliver these rights.

Our overall idea is to ensure that people have rights and the government comes closer to people.  With these intentions we also worked for fair implementation of Panchayati Raj Act.  We prepared people to fight for panchayat election.

From 1986 we started our campaign for right to work. There was one state in the country where right to work was legislated under ‘Employment Guarantee Act’.  That state was Maharashtra.  We studied how this act was passed, the context in which the government was compelled to pass this law and the way it was being implemented.  We invited several economists and sociologists with whom we had discussions.  In all through this process we realized that passing a law by giving the unskilled labourers right to employment was the first step towards justice and development.

We had built a network of several NGOs across different states.  We had several discussions and study sessions during the meetings of this network.  We decided to take up the campaign for demanding right to work for the rural poor.  Through our networked with several NGOs from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana we took up cycle rally across the state to spread awareness among the rural poor for the need for a law which would give them the right to work.  Along with cycle rallies, we had organized public meetings and demonstration demanding work for the poor landless, marginal farmers and all those whose livelihood depended mainly on wage labour.  We had also started inviting NGOs across the country.  Several NGOs from Maharastra, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orisa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal had joined in the struggle for Right to Work.  We were not fighting for some schemes that would give relief to the poor wage labourers but a law by which the people could demand for work and the state would have an obligation to provide work for them.  We had organized two national level workshops on “Right to Work”.  One workshop was organized in Kolkata and one in Delhi.  People like Rath, Madhu Dandavate, Aditya Mukhergie, Bhipand Chandra and Mridula Mukhargi had been resource persons for these workshops.

 

Finally we saw a victory to our long struggle.  NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOMENT GUARANTEE ACT (MGNREGA) was legislated in 2005. Later this law was renamed as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

RIGHT TO WORK AND RIGHT TO FOOD SECURITY ARE RIGHTS OF A DIFFERENT KIND 

                                                                                                                         

These are permanent rights for each family registered to benefit under the act. Therefore the involvement of NGOs with the right holders is a long time involvement.  NGOs have to organise, train the people to demand and receive those rights.  This will be a long time process.

In the case of struggle for land, for release and rehabilitation of bonded labour, for house sites on the name of women and other such basic needs demands, once the organised families had received lands, or the bonded labourers had been freed, or the house site pattas had been registered the rights struggle was over and the NGOs role came to an end.

But this might not be in the case of right to work, this right has to be exercised every year because the Act empowers the MGNREGA families to demand and receive 100 days of work every year. So as long as rural labour need work they will need to exercise the rights given under MGNREGA. The day rural workers can demand and receive those rights without the mediation of NGOs the role of the NGOs will come to an end.  But there will always be the need to campaign and struggle so that the government of the day does not go back on its commitment and abolish or even dilute this law so that the people will in reality would be denied of their right to work.

It is not enough to legislate Rights for the people.  These rights should be enjoyed by the people.  Those who have these rights should get employment and food.  Considering all the experience of corruption at different level in the bureaucracy and political dispensation it is necessary to monitor the implementation.

In 2006 M. K. Raju , Principal Secretary, Ministry of  Rural Development, Govt of Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) asked YIP to conduct the first  social audit on MGNREGA in Anantapur district of A.P. The audit brought out two issues: frauds in the implementation of NREGA on the one side and on the other total ignorance among the working families of the rights given to them under MGNREGA.

In 2008 Mr. K. Raju, then principle secretary Ministry of Rural Development, asked YIP to educate and organise unions of MGNREGA job card holders in the 20 mandals of Anantapur district where we were working. He gave us financial support for giving rights trainings to Shrama Shakti Samakhya groups. On 22^nd September 2009 Mr. Raju along with all Rural Development Officials of Anantapur district met with 600 leaders of 20 MGNREGA mandal unions organised by YIP and responded to their rights based demands. Mr. Raju told the gathering that if MGNREGA is to succeed as a right based Act then rights training and organisation of the workers is a must. In 2010 after consulting YIP, Mr. Subramaniam ( the new Principal Secretary Rural Development) passed a GO 80 forming  APNA (ANDHRA PRADESH  NGO ALLIANCE) a GO/NGO partnership  which gave NGOs  the responsibilities of:

·         Organising 15 to 25 Shrama Shakti Samakhya (SSS) groups (one SSS group will have 10 to 15 members)

·         Organizing Gram Panchayat Samakhya  ( GPS )

·         Giving rights trainings to SSS groups, and 

      Conducting monthly meetings of each GPS to solve rights based problems.

The NGOs were asked to appoint two workers in each mandal to do this work, and the Govt would pay each NGO worker Rs. 3,500 per month through the NGO. YIP has been allotted 25 mandals in Anantapur by Andhra Pradesh NGOs Alliance (APNA) to form Grama Panchayat Samakhyas (GPS) and conduct their monthly meetings.

In this initiative on right to food security which concerns the same families who are working in MGNREGA will be the focus of our work, and we will work with the GPS already formed by YIP MGNREGA activists.

3.  The OBJECTIVE of the PROPOSAL

·         To train at least two cadres of each mandal and the women chosen from each GPS to monitor the implementation of the rights given by MGNREGA.

In 25 mandals of Anantapur District where YIP cadres, who are being paid by the Government, have already formed MGNREGA GPSs, the two cadres of each mandal and the women chosen from each GPS to monitor will be trained on rights given by MGNREGA and Food Security Act (FSA) and they will be constituted into GPS Food Security Monitoring Committees ( FSMC). The members of the committees will be taught how to monitor the implementation of FSA every month and submit their report to their GPS at the MGNREGA GPS monthly meeting conducted by the two YIP mandal cadres. This will enable the women members of each GPS formed to ensure that FSA benefits reach the working families of their village, without dilution. It should be mentioned that MGNREGA job card holders constitute over 1/3 of each village population.

4. TIME FRAME

To train and organise GPS FSMC in on an average of 18 GPs and hamlets per mandal, in 25 mandals, or 18x25 = 450 FSMC it will take time. With the experience we have acquired in organising MGNREGA workers into GPS we have the following time frame in mind:

A. IN THE FIRST YEAR:

                                              

·         In the first year of our work we intend to adopt 5 YIP mandals for training and organising FSMC in 90 GPS of 5 mandals.

§         In each GPS for 15 to 25 SSS groups two leaders (one male and one female) are elected by each SSS group to represent it in the GPS.

§         For each FSMC 10 women will be selected from among the 15 to 25 women leaders in the GPS on the basis of whether they can read and write and have monitoring qualities.

§         They will be formed into five groups of two women, and each group will be assigned one of the five entitlements to monitor for six months.

§        At the end of each six months the responsibilities will be rotated.   

§        Our work will include monitoring the performance of the committees during the first year in order to confirm that the members have learnt how to monitor.

§        In order to guide them we have developed a training manual and a monitoring format. These are attached.

B. SECOND YEAR:

In the second year because of the experience gained in forming FSMC in the first year, the number of mandals will be doubled; FSMCs will be formed in ten mandals or 180 GPs.

B.      IN THE LAST YEAR:

·         In the last year the formation of FSMCs in the remaining 10 mandals of YIP will be completed.

·         After the completion of formation of FSMC in 25 YIP mandals in three years, YIP will make it’s expertise and services available to other APNA NGOs to form FSMCs in their mandals in Anantapur district or in any district of A.P. and Telengana.

5.  ENTITLEMENTS AND MONITORING

In accordance with the Act the following five entitlements have been guaranteed:                                                  

·         Subsidised PDS rations including grains, sugar, oil, etc.                                                                               

·         Mid day meals in Govt. elementary school and high schools for children of the ages of six to fourteen.                                                                                                                                                                                         

·         For the children from the age of 6 months to three years the Anganwadis are responsible for providing mid day meal rations for their mothers.                                                                                                     For children of the ages 3 to 6 the Anganwadis will provide a morning snack and a hot mid day meal every day except on holidays.                                                                                                                                                                                               

·         Nutritious food for pregnant and lactating mothers daily and Rs. 6,000 cash support for them from the Govt. First instalment of Rs. 3000 will be given in the last three months of pregnancy provided she is registered with the Anganwadi and has been regular in taking her food and medicinal monthly quota. The last Instalment will be given six months after delivery provided the birth has been registered with the Anganwadi and the child has received all required inoculations.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

·         Nutritional food for severely malnourished children will be given daily by the Anganwadis

MONITORING:  Each of the above five entitlements will be monitored in the following way:

                      I.                        PDS rations: for every 300 families in a village there is a PDS shop. Each shop is required to display  the rations received and distributed every month, FSMC members in charge of PDS will verify the genuineness of the list by interviewing  women beneficiaries  at random. They will also inquire whether the quality of grains being distributed is good. They will also find out whether any of the grains are being sold by the beneficiary families. All the information collected will be submitted to the GPS at the monthly meeting.

                    II.                        Mid day meals: In every Govt elementary school mid day meal has to provide to the children of the age between 6 to 10 years on every school day. MSMC members will make Random visits to the schools to see whether all the children are receiving mid day meals, and whether the nutritional value of the meal being given is as per the Act. The same will be done for high schools for children of the ages 11 to 13/14.

                  III.                        Nutrition to the mothers with lactating children: The Anganwadis are required under the Act. to give a mid day meal ration to the mothers of all children who are of the ages below 6 months  and a nutritional mid day meal daily to all  children of the age of 6 months to 6 years. The FSMC will take count of the number of children who are registered with the Anganwadi and verify whether all the registered children are receiving mid day meal. They should also make inquires to find out whether all village children of ages of 6 months to 6 years  are registered with the Anganwadi , any child not registered should be registered.

                 IV.                        Pregnant women and lactating Mothers:  All pregnant women and lactating mothers should be registered with the Anganwadi and should be receiving one nutritional meal per day. As explained earlier they should also get Rs. 6000 in two instalments. All this should be verified. The FSMC members should also verify whether all pregnant women are registered with the Anganwadi.   Those who are not registered should be registered.

                   V.                        Severely Malnourished children: Finally each Anganwadi is required to register all severely malnourished children of age six years and below and give them mid day meals. The FSMC members in charge of this subject should verify whether all malnourished children in the village are registered with the Anganwadi and if not the children who are not should be registered. Every month a report will be given to the GPS at the monthly meeting.

A. THE FIRST YEAR:

IN ITIATION MEETINGS, TRAININGS AND FOLLOW UP:                                                                                                                                         

A.      An initiation meeting will be held with each of the 90 GPS to give them a brief on the Act and the rights given by the act, and then introduce the idea of monitoring the act by 10 women selected by them from among the GPS women members. How to undertake monthly monitoring will also be explained to them. They will be told that by the following month the selection of the 10 monitors must be completed. 25 such meetings will be conducted each month for the first three months, in the fourth month only 15 meetings will need to be conducted.

B.      From the second month onwards apart from the 25 initiation meetings, monitoring trainings will be conducted for the first 25 GPS for the 10 FSMC members selected. This will be repeated in the third month. In the 4^th month 25 monitoring trainings will be conducted but only 15 initiation meetings will need to be held. In the fifth month 15 monitoring trainings will be held and the work of 15 FSMC will be monitored.

C.      From the sixth month onwards 25 FSMC will be monitored each month, this will include visiting schools, anganwadis, PDS, and interviewing pregnant women and lactating mothers in the presence of FSMC members. A report will be prepared for each visit.

D.      By the end of the first year the following works will have been completed:

i.                     Ninety FSMC would have been formed;

ii.                    900 FSMC members and 10 YIP cadres would have been trained in the rights given by the Act. and how to monitor those rights;

iii.                  Each FSMC would have been monitored twice during the year and report on each visit shared with the respective GPS, and the FSMC strengthened.

iv.                 From the second year onwards the FSMCs will function on their own with the guidance of the two YIP mandal cadres appointed by the Govt of A.P

B.  SECOND AND THIRD YEAR:

 From the second year onwards in the first seventh months 180 initiation meetings and 180 monitoring trainings for 1800 FSMC members will be conducted. In the last 5 months 180 FSMCs will be visited and monitored , which means that only one visit by the project leader to monitor the performance of each FSMC  will take place during the year. This will be repeated in the third year for the remaining 10 mandals.

PERSONS (WOMEN AND MEN) NEEDED TO IMPLEMEN THIS PROJECT:                                                                                                            

50 YIP mandal leaders appointed by YIP but paid for by the govt will be needed to continue supervision of the GPS FSMC once the training and the monitoring under the project has been completed.                                                                                                                                                                           

They are already working in the mandals and are being paid Rs 3,500 per leader per month. The total amount being received by them is Rs. 175,000 per month. The idea that govt should pay the NGO workers who monitor MGNREGA was  mooted by YIP. Today there are 230 NGOs working in 425 mandals of the district (total mandals being 625) and their activists are also being paid by the Govt for monitoring MGNREGA. YIP will pressurise the Govt to pay additional remuneration to each mandal leader for monitoring right to food security also.                                                                                                            

C. ADDITIONAL WOMEN POWER NEEDED

 1. The leader of the program who will form the FSMCs, then train the mandal leaders and the members of the FSMCs, and monitor their performance will be a woman.

Ms. Mamtha  will take up the responsibility of implementing this project. (Ms. Mamtha was an assistant professor in Loyola college in Chennai.  She resigned from her job in May 2013 and joined YIP. We will need to support her to meet all her expenses.         

2. We will need a woman assistant who will assist her in her field visits, collect and computerise data, at times make monitoring visits on her own especially in the second and third years.

10.   REPORTING

Every six months a detailed report will be submitted to the donor along the following lines:

 Each six months report will be based on six months of monitoring reports submitted by the FSMCs to GPS/ YIP. This is a pioneering proposal, just like YIP’s MGNREGA proposal was. 

11.  PRAXIS AND YIP PARTNERSHIP

Young Indian Project has been receiving support only from the Dutch funding agency Novib.  In 2005 Novin withdrew from India.  After NOVIB’s withdrawal from India only once YIP had applied for foreign funding  to Action Aid.  We had sought support for HIV awareness programme. In 2006 we received Rs. 400,000, and in 2007 Rs. 14,00,000 from them.

After submitting nil FCRA reports for 2009 and 2010, we surrendered our FCRA number in 2011. In 2010 we joined Andhra Pradesh NGO Alliance (APNA), an alliance created by the Govt. of A.P.  This NGO partnership was created to monitor MGNREGA, and we are still partners with the Govt.

From 2008 we did not apply to any donor for funds.  As a policy we decided to rely on whatever funds we could get from the Govt.

In 2014 YIP decided to go into partnership with PRAXIS, Alex Tuscano, Bangalore on their request to introduce our MGNREGA APNA model in Karnataka State. Praxis and YIP have worked in solidarity since 1985. When the idea of monitoring food security was discussed Praxis was interested. We decided that in the future all rights monitoring interventions will be taken up jointly. Hence this proposal is in partnership with Praxis-YIP, the understanding is Praxis will receive the funds, keep the accounts and get them audited.  It will be YIP’s primary responsibility  do all the field work in Andhra Pradesh.  Praxis will have the responsibility to carry out the work in Karnataka.  Both YIP and Praxis will meet once in two months to plan and review the work and expenses incurred there by.  YIP will accompany Praxis in Karnataka once in two months and similarly Praxis will join YIP in the work done in Andhra Pradesh.  Praxis will interact with the donor agency, submit accounts and progress report to the donors once in six months.  YIP will help Praxis by furnishing the accounts of funds spent in Andha by YIP on a regular basis at least once in 6 months.  Once in 6 months both YIP and Praxis will prepare a progress report and submit to the donors. In principle Praxis will be the project holder who will receive funds and will be totally responsible to the donors.

12.  Gender

This is a female gender proposal, women will do the monitoring and women will be beneficiaries of this proposal  : only women heads of each family are issued ration cards by the Govt.

	Budger for monitoring Food Security Act Implementation
	For Young India Project in Andhra Pradesh
Sl. No	Budget head	Details	Monthly Cost	Annual Cost
1	Salaries
		Project Cordinator	15,000.00	180,000.00
		Asst. Project Coordinator	6,000.00	72,000.00
2	Travel to Karnataka	2 trips of four days each
		1000x4x2=8,000.00
		Driver 500X4x2=4,000.00
		Fuel & toll etc. = 6000.00	18,000.00	216,000.00
3	Travel in Andhra	Travel to Kadappa- 3 trips	12,000.00	144,000.00
		Fuel for motorcycle for PC	2,000.00	24,000.00
		Travel  for Asst. PC	2,000.00	24,000.00
		Food & other expenses  500X8days	4,000.00	48,000.00
		Administration cost	5,000.00	3,000.00
		30 Mandal level Meetings	3,000.00	36,000.00
	For Praxis In Karnataka
	Slaries	Project Coordinator	15,000.00	180,000.00
	Travel		5,000.00	60,000.00
	Meeting expenses		3,000.00	36,000.00
		Net funds requested
	All the administration and other cost will be born by Praxis
	GROSS TOTAL FUNDS REQUESTED			1,023,000.00

The First year budget requirement:  Rs. 1,023,000.00 (Rupees ten lakhs twenty three thousand only)

The Second year budget requirement:  Rs. 1,023,000.00 (Rupees ten lakhs twenty three thousand only). We request you to add 5% inflation escalation.

The First year budget requirement:  Rs. 1,023,000.00 (Rupees ten lakhs twenty three thousand only). We request you to add 10%inflation escalation.

13.  Attachments

a  Summary of  the National Food Security Act of 2013.                                                                               b  Monthly monitoring suggestions.                                                                                                               c  Govt GO on payment of Rs. 6,000 to pregnant women.                                                                           

 15 Justification for this work .                                                                                                                      

Crores are being spent through this Act. , monitoring will ensure that 100 % of the funds are                          reaching the poor.                                                                                                                                               

Annexure 1.

Summary of the National Food Security Bill 2013

(Revised version, as tabled in Parliament, 22 March 2013)

1. Preliminaries

The Bill seeks "to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto".

It extends to the whole of India and "shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different States and different provisions of this Act".

2. Entitlements

Public Distribution System (TPDS)

Priority households are entitled to 5 kgs of foodgrains per person per month, and Antyodaya households to 35 kgs per household per month. The combined coverage of Priority and Antyodaya households (called "eligible households") shall extend "up to 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population".

The PDS issue prices are given in Schedule I: Rs 3/2/1 for rice/wheat/millets (actually called "coarse grains" in the Bill). These may be revised after three years.

Children's Entitlements

For children in the age group of E months to 6 years, the Bill guarantees an age-appropriate real: free of charge, through the local anganwadi. For children aged 6-14 years, one fret mid day rues:: shall be provided every day (except on school holidays) in all schools run b; local bodies, government and government aided schools, up to Class VIII. For children below six months "exclusive breastfeeding shall be promoted".

Children who suffer from malnutrition will be identified through the local anganwadi a be provided to them free of charge "through the local anganwadi".

Entitlements of Pregnant and Lactating Women

Every pregnant and lactating mother is entitled to a free meal at the local anganwadi (dorm, pregnancy and six months after child birth) as well as maternity benefits of Rs 6,000, in instalments.

[Notes: (1) "Meal" is defined in the Bill as "hot cooked meal or ready to eat meal or take home ration, as may be prescribed by the Central Government". All "meals" have to meet nutritional norms specified in Schedule II. (2) The entitlements of women and children are to be delivered by state governments through schemes "in accordance with the guidelines, including cost sharing" to be prescribed by the Central Government. (3) Every school arid anganwadi is to have "facilities for cooking meals, drinking water and sanitation". (4) For purposes of issuing ration cards, the eIdest woman in the household (not less than 18 years of age) shall be considered head of the household.;

3. Identification of Eligible Households

The Bill does not specify criteria for the identification of households (Priority or Antyodaya) eligible for PDS entitlements. The Central Government is to determine the state-wise coverage of the PDS, in terms of proportion of the rural/urban population. Then numbers of eligible persons will be calculated from Census population figures. The identification of eligible households is left to state governments, subject to the scheme's guidelines for Antyodaya, and subject to guidelines to be "specified" by the state government for Priority households. The lists of eligible households are to be placed in the public domain and "displayed prominently" by state governments.

4. Food Commissions

The Bill provides for the creation of State Food Commissions. Each Commission shall consist of a chairperson, five other members and a member-secretary (including at least two women and one member each from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes).

The main function of the State Commission is to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the act, give advice to the states governments and their agencies, and inquire into violations of entitlements (either suo motu or on receipt of a complaint, and with "all the powers of a civil court while trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908"). State Commissions also have to hear appeals against orders of the District Grievance Redressal Officer and prepare annual reports to be laid before the state legislature.

The State Commission may forward "any case" to a Magistrate having jurisdiction, who shall proceed as if the case has been forwarded under Section 346 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973.

5. Transparency and Grievance Redressal

The Bill provides for a two-tier grievance redressal structure, involving the District Grievance Redressal Officer (DGRO) and State Food Commission. State governments must also put in place an internal grievance redressal mechanism which may include call centres, help lines, designation of nodal officers, "or such other mechanisms as may be prescribed".

Transparency Provisions

Mandatory transparency provisions include: (1) placing all PDS-related records in the public domain and keeping them open for inspection to the public; (2) conducting periodic social audits of the PDS and other welfare schemes; (3) using information and communication technology (including end-to end computerisation of the PDS) "to ensure transparent recording of transactions at all levels" : (4.) setting up vigilance committees at state, district, block and fair price shop levels to supervise schemes under the act.

District Grievance Redressal Officers

DGROS shall be appointed by state governments for each district to hear complaints and take necessary action according to norms to be prescribed by state governments. If a complainant (or the officer or authority against whom an order has been passed by the DGRO) is not satisfied, he or she may file an appeal before the State Food Commission.

Penalties and Compensation

The Food Commissions have powers to impose penalties. If an order of the DGRO is not complied with, the concerned authority or officer can be fined up to Rs. 5,000. The Commission can authorise "any of its members" to act as an adjudicating officer for this purpose.

In case of "non-supply of the entitled quantities of food grains or meals to entitled persons", such persons will be entitled to a food security allowance from the state government, as prescribed by the central government.

6. Other Provisions PDS Reforms

In Chapter VII, the Bill states that central and state governments "shall endeavour to progressively undertake" various PDS reforms, including: doorstep delivery of foodgrains; ICT applications and end-to-end computerisation; leveraging "aadhaar" (UID) for unique identification of entitled beneficiaries; full transparency of records; preference to public institutions or bodies in licensing of fair price shops; management of fair price shops by women or their collectives; diversification of commodities distributed under the PDS; full transparency of records; and "introducing schemes such as cash transfer, food coupons or other schemes to the targeted beneficiaries in lieu of their food grain entitlements" as prescribed by the central government.

Obligations of Government and Local Authorities

The main obligation of the Central Government is to provide food grains (or, failing that, funds) to state governments, at prices specified in Schedule I, to implement the main entitlements. It also has to "provide assistance" to state governments to meet local distribution costs, but on its own terms ("as may be prescribed"). The Central Government has wide-ranging powers to make Rules.

The main obligation of state governments is to implement the relevant schemes, in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Central Government. State governments also have wide-ranging power to make Rules. They are free to extend benefits and entitlements beyond what is prescribed in the Bill, from their own resources.

Local Authorities and Panchayati Raj Institutions are responsible for proper implementation of Hit act in their respective areas, and may be given additional responsibilities by notification.

7. Schedules

The Bill has three schedules. These can be amended "by notification".

Schedule 1.  Prescribes issue prices for the PDS. Schedule

Schedule 2.  Prescribes "nutritional standards" for midday meals, take-home rations and related entitlements. For instance, take-home rations for children aged 6 months to 3 years should provide at least 500 calories and 12-15 grams of protein. Schedule

Schedule 3.  Lists various "provisions for advancing food security", under three broad headings:

(1) Revitalization of agriculture e.g. agrarian reforms, research and development, remunerative prices),

(2) Procurement, storage and movement of foodgrains (e.g. decentralised procurement), and

(3) Other provisions (e.g. drinking water, sanitation, health care, and "adequate pensions" for "senior citizens, person s win disability and single women").