By Jagat Ballabh Pattnaik and Deepali Sharma

In 2001, the Supreme Court of India passed provisional orders to ensure food security for the most marginalized communities of the country. Sahariyas form one such community. They belong to an ancient tribe of Rajasthan, and usually have to face severe isolation and social discrimination at the hands of sarpanchs, upper caste villagers and even government employees.

The Supreme Court order was passed in response to the public interest litigation on 'Right to Food' filed in the same year. At around the same time ActionAid had embarked on the Sahariya initiative, which revealed widespread transgressions and pilferage in the operation of the Government's food security schemes, especially the Antyodaya Anna th Yojana (AAY), launched on 25 December 2000 to provide food grains to families living under the poverty line.

To this end, Antyodaya cards were supposed to be distributed among families living in areas reeling under drought for three consecutive years. The plan was to identify around ten million families who would then be able to buy food grains at subsidized rates of Rs 2 per kilogram for wheat and Rs 3 per kilogram for rice. The Sahariya initiative, however, found out that very few of the Sahariya community had received a card even though all of them were eligible. This failure to cover all below-poverty-line families under the Antyodaya scheme was giving freedom to government officials at the district and block levels, as well as local transporters, to divert the provisions and sell them to local dealers.

ActionAid's network partners, such as Sampark , Parhit, CID a nd Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti , in collaboration with the community members, helped to highlight this information not only to the media and the district administration but also to the State Advisors and the National Commissioners to the Supreme Court of India. Persistent campaigning, not only by ActionAid but groups across the board, from local to the national levels, resulted in the appointment of a fact-finding team by the Government. This team visited the drought-affected villages and submitted a report to the Supreme Court. The report confirmed the incidence of mismanagement stated by the Sahariya community. The district administration was ordered to look into the issues brought up in the report. In her response to the Supreme Court, the District Collector assured the administration's complete support to the cause of the Sahariyas.

The results of this campaign? At the most immediate level, 37,492 cards have since been issued to Sahariya families. More long-term constructive achievements include the discontinuation of contracting private transporters to carry food grains from the district head-quarters to the block headquarters. Wheat is now transported directly by the Civil Supplies agency, with a monitoring service set up to report on any irregularity and ensure transparency in such matters. More specifically, the community was also able to achieve their demand that ration shops be kept open throughout the month. The Food and Civil Supplies Department has passed an order to this effect.

Grains will now be provided strictly in keeping with the prescribed quota and rate for each cardholder. Moreover, the district administration has taken it upon itself to ensure that the full quota of food grains under the Annapurna Antyodaya Yojana, that is, 11820 quintals of wheat and 1170 quintals of rice, will be distributed to the 37,492 cardholders of the Sahariyas community.