Advocating for rations
In our pursuit to make food sovereignty and security a reality, we have been addressing the need of our people having their ration cards. To our utter surprise, we came to know from our people that some of the names from the ration cards have been deleted on purpose. This has serious implications for our people, especially those who are working in the informal sector, who do not get work on a daily basis.
In order to have sufficient amount of data to present before the officials, we began to conduct a door to door survey in the settlements and fill forms to that effect. These forms were to be presented to the SDO and later at the Block.
While this process was going on we also met with the Principal Secretary of the Food and Security department and apprised them of what was happening at the grassroots level. He read our letter with great interest, and immediate ordered that action be taken. When in a country there is plenty of food, it is unimaginable and sad that more than half of the population of this country go to bed hungry.
Later, we also approached the minister for ‘Food and Security department’ – Govt. of Bihar and raised the issue to find out if it’s a policy decision. With the data collected we could provide the plight of the people and how difficult it is especially for daily wage earners to survie. This was seriously taken and the minister’s secretary that it would be taken up with the Chief Minister.