11-14 JUNE, HYDERABAD

ON THE ISSUES – FACTS, QUOTES, QUESTIONS

The National Conclave will facilitate intensive planning with groups from across the country on how to respond to major social issues facing India today:

Peace and human security       Housing and shelter                Right to education                  

Right to food & livelihood         Health                                      Women’s Rights

The following social groups will also draw up declarations and action plans:

Indigenous communities                      Dalits               Muslims           

Fishing communities                             Women                        Urban poor

People living with HIV and AIDS                                   Persons with disability

For facts, quotes and questions on some of these groups and issues, see below:

HIV/AIDS

As many as 5.7 million Indians are HIV positive. The virus killed over 270,000 people in 2005. And yet only 6.8% of those with advanced HIV infection have access to anti-retroviral treatment.

“I have been HIV positive for 10 years and every time I need medical assistance I have to go to West Bengal because the ART centre in my state is ill-equipped. We are demanding free second course of drugs, but even the first line of treatment is not available there,” says 27-year-old Namita Nanda from Orissa.

Namita lost both of her children to HIV. She received no counselling or drugs to help prevent mother to child transmission of the virus.

Break in supply of ART drugs can also shorten the lifespan of HIV positive people. “Interruption of ART drug supply to patients is frequent and often lasts as long as 15-40 days. Due to this positive people develop resistance to drugs,” explains Mike Tonsing, coordinator of the Delhi Network of Positive People.

Why are less than 10% of Indians who require ART able to get it? Why are 90% of HIV positive pregnant women missing out on life-saving drugs? How can government and civil society work together to ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS also have a right to life?

Tribal rights

Tribal people form over 8% of India’s population, over 84 million people according to the 2001 census. More than half of the rural tribal population is found below poverty line, according to the Ministry of Rural Development. Less than half can read and write.

Despite special protection under the Constitution, tribal communities are under threat. Indigenous groups have little access to public facilities such as health care and education and waves of displacement since independence are making them more vulnerable.

Government forest guidelines have often meant allowing outsiders to fell acres of trees while the original tribal inhabitants are denied access. Timber companies are bribing local officials to use reserved forest lands. Government talks of promoting responsible business but companies are apparently being given a free reign.

The Ministry of Rural Development concedes that 3,79,980 acres of land were taken away from tribal groups by January 1999. Vedanta’s unlawful acquisition of tribal land in Orissa is a case in point.

“When the factory starts, the company will take over our forest, the smoke will fill our skies,” mulls Dabu Majhi of Lanjhigarh, Orissa.

“This is our place, we have been here for ten generations… if we leave, where will we go? Who will take us? We will become beggars,” he adds.

With constitutional safeguards in place to protect tribals why are the interests of big business being promoted at the expense of their lives and livelihoods? What legal measures are needed to hold companies to account?

Dalit rights

While Dalits constitute 16.2% of India’s total population according to the 2001 Census, their representation in government services is as low as 1.2%.

Child labour is rife in almost 60% of Dalit communities. Thirty six percent of Dalits live below the poverty line and out of 100 Dalit students enrolled in class one, only four reach class twelve.

“We Dalits have thousands of years of experience of living in penury, but I want my sons to dream and achieve big,” says Jesuraj of Andhra Pradesh.

What is the secret of Dalit Samakhya’s success in Andhra Pradesh? How can such grassroots movements be strengthened?

Education

The Indian Constitution guarantees education as a fundamental right of all citizens but millions of children remain out of school and investment in education is less than 6% of national income.

Over 40% of students drop out of school before they pass class five. Only 94 million children out of 195 million six to fourteen year olds in India are able to complete eight years of schooling. Many are working instead.

Eleven-year-old Sangeeta Kumari from Samastipur, Bihar who never went to school says, “I used to visit children going to schools and always felt unhappy that I wasn’t going. I too wanted to get rid of all my problems and go to school.”

Why do 70% of children in government schools receive poor quality education? How can state and civil society work together to make government schools function and create an equitable system for all girls and boys?

Women’s rights

Every three minutes a crime is committed against women according to the National Crimes Report Bureau. Every 15 minutes one woman is molested in India. Every 29 minutes a woman is raped.

Two thirds of married women are victims of domestic violence. Sex ratio in India is 933 females per 1000 males according to the 2001 census.

Some 70% of the female workforce is engaged in agriculture yet only 10% of women farmers own land. India is home to the world's largest number of unlettered women.

“I earn a pittance, but if I didn’t work in the cashew factories I would be a beggar,” says Shantha, a cashew grader from Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.

“Women and girls face three-fold exploitation – in the family, at the workplace and in society at large,” says Anchita Ghatak, leader of ActionAid’s work on women’s rights in India. “Poor education, lack of economic independence and limited opportunities and confidence to negotiate leaves women particularly disadvantaged and vulnerable.”

One of the keys to eradicating poverty is to ensure rights of women and girls. How can state and civil society work to reform social institutions that reinforce inequality between women and men? What can I do to help?

Rights of people with disabilities

According to the 2001 Census, there are 21.9 million persons with disabilities in India who constitute 2.13% of the total population.

A study in Orissa found that 100 per cent of the disabled women surveyed were beaten at home, and a quarter of mentally challenged women had been raped.

According to another study, the percentages of disabled persons employed in the "Super 100" companies, the private sector as a whole, multinational companies and the public sector were 0.40%, 0.28%, 0.05% and 0.54% respectively.

A mid-term review report of the Tenth Five Year Plan found that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had not even spent 30% of allocated resources on disability.

Despite numerous laws and policies on disabled-friendly education why do the majority of disabled children remain out of school? Why are only less than 1% of buildings and public places accessible to disabled people?

The Constitution of India assures equality, freedom, justice and dignity of all individuals including disabled persons. Yet there is a long way to go.

 “Equal access to work is my right and not charity, and I strive to get it,” says Hemanthi, a disabled person of East Singbum, Jharkhand.

Rights of Muslims

Muslims form 13.4% of India’s population but score disproportionately low on socio-economic indicators. At 59.1%, the literacy rate among Muslims is lower than the national average of 64.8%. Over 60% of Muslims in rural areas do not own any land.

Muslim families who fled their homes during the Gujarat riots are still living dire conditions, many in makeshift camps, with no rehabilitation package in sight.

A Supreme Court-appointed committee found 81 relief colonies inhabited by over 30,000 riot survivors. Less than a quarter of families living in these colonies owned Below Poverty Line ration cards that entitle them to receive subsidised food grains.

“Muslims have become second-class citizens in Gujarat,” says Zakia Jowher who leads ActionAid’s work on peace, justice and communal harmony. “Right wing Hindu groups are realising their stated dream of making minorities second class citizens. What is happening in Gujarat is totally against the basic principles of democracy.”

Tens of thousands of Muslims in Gujarat are still displaced from their homes. Many have lost their livelihoods and standards of living have slipped sharply.

Food and livelihood

One in four Indians go to bed hungry, every night. India is home to the largest number of malnourished people – 212 million. 100 million of these are children. Women also among the worst affected.

Each year we read reports of starvation deaths and people living with chronic hunger. The irony is we live in a country of plenty. Social welfare schemes – like Antyodaya and BPL cards, Anaganwadis and even midday meals – are beset with corruption and caste-based discrimination.

Women like Rambati in the Sahariya community of Madhya Pradesh are working hard to change this. What can be done to support them?

 “I routinely check what is being cooked for midday meals. Till three years back food ration allotted to us was often rotten and infected with fungus. Chapattis made from those grains used to stink. Animals also refused to eat them,” says Rambati an emerging community leader in Sahariya community of Madhya Pradesh.

Housing and shelter

Seventy eight million people in India are homeless. This is despite the fact that Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right to shelter.

As India prepares to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010, the government plans to spend billions of rupees renovating old sports stadiums and building new ones. Work is already underway on a master plan to beautify and modernise the capital.

Delhi's slum residents are bracing themselves for the city's makeover. The municipal corporation is demolishing their houses and clearing their colonies for new lawns, roads and stadiums.

Urban poor in cities across the country are increasingly vulnerable as reforms focus on attracting investment rather than improving lives of poor citizens.

Ends.