"In the name of the market, people and their interests have been betrayed"
AGENDA FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION 2014 PEOPLE'S MANIFESTO: A CITIZEN’S CHARTER OF DEMANDS ------------------------------------------------------- Released by: Social Welfare Action through Democratic Empowerment of Society (SWADES) C/o St. Britto High School Mapusa 403 507, Goa. Email: swades....@gmail.com Contact: 09421289724 The elections are on us and we, as concerned citizens, are witnessing multiple kinds of violence -- cultural, communal, caste violence, state terror and other socio-economic forms of violence. Largely the victims of violence have been from the marginalized communities. The vicious politics of divisive forces have been attempting to create further polarization contrary to the principles enshrined in the Constitution. The attacks on the basic tenets of the constitution -- secularism, socialism and democracy -- have placed the nation in jeopardy. Secularism is intrinsic to our democracy and any effort to disturb the secular fabric of this country will shatter the democracy, amounting to desecration of the Constitution. The future of the country looks uncertain with scams and scandals by the ruling parties with no concern for the poor and the marginalized communities. Authoritarianism of the state has led to a declining space for dissent leading to silencing the voices for change. The corporate interests have been responsible for the misuse of natural and human resources. This has led to the exploitation of the country. In the name of the market, people and their interest have been betrayed. Strengthening the democracy and safeguarding the basic rights guaranteed by our constitution entails that every sincere citizen must play an active role in this election. In order to put in place the citizen-centric democratic governance, the people's participation at all levels of governance from planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation is of vital importance. Keeping with this commitment, preparing a people's manifesto and presenting to the candidates instead of getting fooled by the ritualistic documents of the political parties based on falsehood, is the first step before exercising the right to franchise. Concerned by the increasing marginalisation, impoverishment, suffering, anxiety and anguish we, the members of the Social Welfare Action through Democratic Empowerment of Society (SWADES) with our collaborators and other organisations have come together to present an agenda for governance. Every election is an occasion for citizens to contribute to the re-making of India. In this context, we make the following proposals with a desire that pressure be exercised on political parties to assure the people that the following national concerns are implemented. Hence, WE DEMAND 1. Protect and preserve life and security: Guarantee life with dignity, freedom from fear of violence, and peaceful coexistence. Promote friendly relationship with neighbouring countries, bring down defence budget and promote national security by mutual dialogue. Take immediate and effective measures to prevent starvation deaths, farmers and traditional workers and artisans committing suicide, deaths of malnourished children and women particularly in rural areas. Implement effectively the just enacted Food Security Act in order to weed out corruption, red-tapeism and delay tactics etc. Make the Public Distribution System (PDS) a transparent and well-functioning system to provide food security to the weaker sections of society. Make the Annapurna, Antyodaya, old age and widow pension schemes more effective and operational. Protect food sovereignty through comprehensive farmer/landless peasants/agricultural workers centric agrarian reforms. 2. Promote peace and harmony, guaranteeing human rights Protect common persons from arbitrary arrest and illegal detention and being subjected to torture and inhuman treatment. Abolish capital punishment. Remove the legal impunity that police and other agencies now enjoy. Repeal The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and all draconian laws like POTA, NSA, COFEPOSA, COCA etc. Stop using anti-terror laws against the poor, the minorities, service-minded NGOs, people's movements, organizations and human rights movements. Ensure right to free expression, association, assembly and democratic dissent. Promote high moral/secular values that could elevate the minds and aspirations of the citizens from self-centeredness and dehumanizing acts like molestation, eve teasing and rape against women, child abuse and child labour against children. Follow diligently the latest judgment of the Honourable Supreme Court with regard to the elected members in order to free India from criminalization of politics, which measure could ensure true Democracy! Promote peace and harmony across the multi-ethnic, multi religious, multi-cultural communities based on justice. 3. Guarantee basic necessities and rights of all Ensure effective and timely implementation of RTE Act, Panchayati Raj Act, PESA Act, FRA and empower the marginalized who are mostly used as 'vote banks'. Establish and support a mechanism to assess quality of education. Let the national curriculum framework be the normative curriculum for all categories of schools. Schools, which do not conform to it, be derecognized. Monitor quality provision as strictly in government-run schools as in private schools. A commitment to manage an educational system that offers quality and universal education to all irrespective of their status or wealth, from the primary to the university. Ensure quality and affordable health to all with special focus on rural areas, women and children. Revitalize the largely non-functioning Primary Health Centres. Establish good hospitals in the rural areas to provide health care at affordable cost. Bring out Health Insurance schemes for the marginalized people. Give priority to promote indigenous and alternative health care system and provide financial and institutional support for research in this area. As most of our diseases are water-borne, ensure safe drinking water throughout the year in every parts of the country. Housing is a human right. Mere eviction of slum dwellers is not the answer but provide low cost housing to all close to their work place. Give low interest loans to people to enable them to have their own homes! National security expenditures and defence budget to be brought lower than that of education and health care. 4. Provide work and expand livelihood opportunities Make employment a fundamental right and provide the beneficiaries of MNREGA 200 days of work. Abolish the contract form of employment giving people regular employment and implement a fair minimum wage. Enact national Minimum Wages Act, ensuring that the daily wage worker gets a minimum living wage of Rs. 300 a day. Promote rural development and stop developing only towns and cities. Ensure the proper implementation of similar schemes for the urban poor. The country's tax system must be amended to ensure that the wealthy are taxed in proportion to their wealth. The accumulation of wealth should be moderated by a fair and equitable tax system. Measures have to be taken to check inflation immediately. Hoarders and black-marketers have to be dealt with sternly. A mechanism has to be set to monitor the onslaught of inflation on the common person. 5. Protect and promote Dalits, Adivasis and Indigenous People Enact a comprehensive National Dalit Policy and National Tribal Policy to ensure the identity, culture and human rights of these marginalized communities. Allot enough grants for the development of the marginalized, especially for the children, women, Dalits, Adivasis and the OBCs. Ensure proper implementation of Special Component Plan (SCP) for the Dalits and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) for the Adivasis and do not divert these grants for any other purposes! Stop development-induced displacement and expand the Fifth Schedule to cover all the adivasis. Ensure the participation and partnership of indigenous communities in the developmental process and make them owners of the land, water, forest and mineral resources. Ensure complete, time-bound and enforced eradication and abolition of manual scavenging and provide alternative employment. Provide homestead land to dalits and adivsis and ensure a minimum of 3 acres of cultivable land to all. Ensure Adivasi access to forest and Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP) and traditional communities’ access to common property resources. Rights of the traditional fisher-folk as mentioned in Coastal Regulation Zone 1991 should not be amended or diluted. Scrap Coastal Management Zone and promote the welfare of the traditional fisher-folk. 6. Advance and strengthen gender justice Take immediate steps to accord minimum 33% reservation to women in assemblies and parliament. Ensure the effective implementation of 50% reservations to women in Panchayati Raj Institutions. Ensure proportionate representation of dalits, tribals and OBCs in the same. Enforce equal wages for equal work for both women and men. Ensure stringent and prompt action to punish those found guilty of sexual harassment in the work places. Enact a comprehensive Act that safeguards the rights, dignity and interest of the Domestic Workers who are very vulnerable to various types of exploitations! Take urgent measures to prevent the trafficking of women and children. Enact strong legislations to check female foeticide and infanticide. Promote economic empowerment of rural poor women. 7. Ensure freedom of religion and minority rights Enact Communal Violence (Prohibition) Act to end all forms of communal violence. Take effective measures to deal with organizations involved in communal violence. Accord Scheduled Caste status to Christians and Muslims of Dalit origin. Eliminate discrimination based on religion and repeal Para 3 of 1950 Presidential Order. Make public and implement the Ranganath Mishra Commission Report. Quick and adequate compensation be made to Sikh victims of 1984; Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984; Gujarat victims of 2002; Kandhamal victims of 2008. Implement the major recommendations of the Sachar Commission Report on Muslims and ensure and promote education of Muslim women. Repeal all anti-conversion laws and ban all the re-conversion gatherings such as “ghar vapasi” Any attempt to offend religious sentiments, respect for the other or to distort the history and cultural diversity of India in the minds of young in educational system should be stopped. 8. Promote transparency in governance, accountability and People's participation Strengthen the office of Comptroller and Auditor General: Conduct periodic social audit of the various government departments and private companies, as a public-private exercise. Stop watering down the present RTI Act. Ensure that all citizens of this country are accountable to this Act. Promote transparency and accountability in governance both in the private and public sector. Initiate and strengthen Lokpal, Lokayukta and form independent vigilant bodies at every governing structure to stop corruption and ascertain transparency. Anybody found guilty of corrupt practices must be penalised. Enact an effective Anti-corruption Act immediately that could put an end to many ailments of Democracy. Speed up the judicial reforms to reach justice to the poor. Appoint the vacant posts of Judge and clean up the system of corruption. Enact laws for the return of black money in foreign banks and other financial institutions and to prevent all those responsible for this practice from all public office. Those who violate monetary law need to be appropriately punished. 9. Preserve environment and promote sustainable development Prevent commercialisation of natural and mineral resources. Frame and implement poor friendly and eco-just policy with regard to the governance of natural and mineral resources. Let no development project be sanctioned at the cost of environmental damage. Regulate the mining activities and relate these with the development of local communities. Fill in the pits caused by the opencast mining. Follow the “polluter pays” principle so that rightful compensation would be paid to the communities. Make the corporates liable for the pollution they cause. Promote sustainable development through regeneration of natural resources by mobilization, promotion of non conventional energy and judicious use of natural resources especially water, forest and land. Strictly implement the environment protection laws as they apply to industrial effluents and disposal of hazardous materials. CRZ violations should be taken seriously and so also the pollution of water bodies by hotels, spilling of oil in the sea causing damage to the marine life and pollution through garbage dumped by casinos in the rivers. All the best, dear voter! Your vote is very precious! ###