Date:04/10/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/10/04/stories/2004100407130400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Focus on right to food, work

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, OCT. 3. Magsaysay Award winner and `Right to Information' campaigner, Aruna Roy, has justified her participation in the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, as a mandate from the people's movements to "put our foot in the policy making process and push further the agenda of right to food, work and information."

Delivering the Alladi Krishnaswamy Memorial Lecture here on Sunday, Ms. Roy said that the UPA Government had already decided to amend the Employment Guarantee Act and discussion was on for amendment to the Information Act.

Job guarantee

She explained that apart from these two issues she was in the NAC to advocate for a national commission on displacement and rehabilitation for ensuring the right to food and to push policies to combat communalism.

She conceded that the Employment Guarantee Act in its present form was inadequate as it spoke only of providing employment for one member of each rural family for at least 100 days in a year.

"But it is an important step forward as it goes against the present trend of economic policies," she added.

Movements

She expressed hope that the pressure of social and political movements would force the Government to increase it to 365 days employment for all members of the family.

She said that delivery of justice and rule of law were still prisoners of caste, class and gender differences.

She expressed grave concern that on this basic issue the "silence of the middle classes was deafening" and argued that a progressive middle class was essential for social change.