INDIA: Another hunger death fails to shame Uttar Pradesh government

The shelter of Late Chameli Devi in village Khantgiya, in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Subject Matter of Inquiry

Article 21 of the Indian Constitution promises a fundamental right to life. The term Life in this Article has been interpreted in a case named Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India AIR 1978 SC 597 to means a life with human dignity and not mere survival or animal existence.

In the light of this statement we can say that, the State is obliged to provide for all those minimum necessities which must be fulfilled in order to enable a person to live with human dignity, such as education, health care, just and humane conditions of work, protection against exploitation, etc.

Here our team inspects the following schemes and policies of government for right to food are as follows:

• Whether 75 years old lady Chameli Devi died due to hunger or negligence, laxity, casualness, slackness or carelessness of authorities.
• Whether she received any kind of aid form government and Gram Pradhan (in case of extreme deprived conditions of livelihood) and any medical procure or assistance from her family or villagers.
• Whether she was entitle to get the benefits from Vidhva Pension Scheme under the Senior Citizen Charter Act 2013or not ?
• Why Chamali devi has not utilized her first installment of Indira Aawas Yojna?
• Whether the ration shops were opening regularly, during fixed hours displayed on a notice board? Whether everyone was issued with a ration card? Is there any evidence of corruption in the Public Distribution System?
• To examine the following mentioned food related schemes, as they are functioning properly or not which are Antyodaya Ann Yojana (AAY); the Public Distribution System (PDS); the National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS), National Family Benefit Scheme.
• Whether there was transparency in the government schemes and allotment of colony for the member of village?

Introduction

Despite steady economic growth and robust social sector spending, India’s score in Global Hunger Index has returned back to the 1996 level raising questions over the speed at which it has brought down the proportion of undernourished people, underweight children and child mortality.

In 1990, India’s GHI score as monitored by IFPRI was 30.3, which fell to 22.6 in 1996. But again rose to 24.2 in 2001 and stood at 22.9 in 2012, much closer to 1996 levels. The lower the index, lower is number of incidence of hunger. Overall, India is ranked 65th among 120 major countries where hunger is prevalent, much below smaller nations like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan and Nepal.

India’s nearest economic rival, China has the second best score in GHI among the entire global world. Not, only that even Bangladesh has overtaken India on a range of social indicators including how fast it has reduced child mortality, the report showed.

This effectively means that from 1996 onwards, India’s hunger index has shown little improvement, despite India’s gross national income (GNI) per capita almost doubling between 1995-97 to 2008-10, the report said. The GHI index combines three equally weighted indicators like undernourishment, child underweight and child mortality in one index.

An instance that prooves why India so notorious in Hunger Index 2013 and unwanted hunger death which create a black day in Indian society history.

Rright to food can be co-related with Articles 39(a) and 47 to know the nature of the duty of the State in order to ensure the actualunderstanding of this right. Article 39(a) of the Constitution pronounced as one of the Directive Principles, fundamental in the governance of the country, requires the State to direct its policy towards securing that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood. Article 47 observes the duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people as a primary responsibility. The citizen’s right to be free from hunger enshrined in Article 21 is to be ensured by the fulfilment of the obligation of the State set out in Articles 39(a) and 47.

The reading of Article 21 together with Articles 39(a) and 47 places the issue of food security in the correct perspective, thus making the Right to Food a guaranteed Fundamental Right which is enforceable by virtue of the constitutional remedy provided under Article 32 of the Constitution.

“It is the duty of each State / Union Territory to prevent deaths caused by starvation and malnutrition”. This verdict was given by the Supreme Court of India. Over the years the court decisions has added significant judgment which improves the condition of the poor and the poorest of the poor in the rural area. The PDS system and schemes like AAY for below BPL families and schemes for BPL as well as APL family for which court has given remarkable judgment and has directed the government to take steps so that such gravious incidence like death due to hunger and starvation does not occur. The present report to the actual story behind the death of LT, Chamali Devi and the working of PDS system and awareness of the Government schemes in Khantgia village. A team of HRLN interns from different colleges had conducted survey in Khantgia village.

Facts

• We the interns at HRLN got to know about Hunger Death case in Khantgia village Jasra / Bara district through a Hindi Newspaper article published on dated 23/12/2013 in Hindustan.
• Our team had a proper discussion with our sir Adv. K.K Roy and our coordinator (interns) Adv. Smriti Kartikeya regarding the case and subsequently a team was formulated which will visit the place and collect the facts of the same.
• On 28th Dec, 2013 at around 10:30 a.m. as we entered into the village we witnessed the condition of the particular village.The condition of the houses of poor people was unfit for their survival in extreme weather conditions.
• Our team directly visited the place of incidence of Late Chamali Devi where she died. It was so shocking to see the place where Chameli Devi an old woman of 75 years of age was residing, it was an ordinary area of 10 meters covered with a plastic roof and open from both the sides.
• Our team also came to know that people of the village were under the pressure of Gram Pradhan, due to which they were concealing the actual facts from the fact finding team and also misleading the team.
• Discrimination on the basis of Caste: Our team also observed that the people residing in that village were discriminated from general sections living in nearby areas. Neighboring areas had high voltage current passing through cables sufficient for supplying electricity in that village. Even on repeated filing of applications in Tehsil they were not provided with the supply. On extreme, when people collected their own funds to setup the electricity poles then also they were not supplied with electricity and the location was just beside the busy market (Jasra Bazar) and the general sections got fullfledged benefit of electricity from the same electricity cables which clearly depicts casteism.
• Our team after interaction with the people of that village came to know that they are given foodgrains at varying prices which is much higher than at what they should get.

Local Hindi Correspondence Newspaper

• A local Hindi newspaper Hindustan stated in its news report over the incident was “Hazaro Rupaye Pade reh gaye, or chameli bhukh se Marr Gayi”. (Chameli died of hunger, the money she had got wasted). Her house collapsed in rainy season last year.
• In spite of this news the authorities did not show any interest.
• The concerning authorities did not show interest in this matter. The Hindustan newspaper claims that she died due to hunger and even her son Ram Murat (Lala) confessed that his mother did not eat anything for three days before her death.
• When the team inquired his son regarding his statement he refused to it and said that his mother was not died due to hunger.
• According to the son victim’s body got swelled up before she died.

According to Ex-Gram Pradhan

• When our team had conservation with Ex-Gram Pradhan he told the team that she did not die due to hunger.
• Ex-Gram Pradhan blamed the higher authority by saying that the BPL List of 2011 has not been issued till 2013 to him and the list of 2002 is still continuing.
• She was not having a BPL card; ration was issued to her on the old ration card which was entered in a register.
• The money under Indira Awas Yojana was allotted to her1 or 2 month before she died, but she didn’t had a CBS account because of which she could not get money.

According to a local resident (Amit)

• He belonged to an APL family and had no information about getting the foodgrains at subsidized rates.
• According to him the gram sabha took no measure to make them aware of the beneficiaries being provided to them. His family is purchasing foodgrains from the market.

According to Gram Pradhan

He told the fact finding team that as being a Gram Pradhan of this village he provided Chameli Devi a Cheque of Rs 1900/- from the government account from which she has purchased a plastic polythene to cover the roof of her residence to live in it which was not sufficient to protect herself in the falling temperature of 9 to 10 degrees. It was just equivalent to live under the open sky.

• The Gram Pradhan and the Family members of the victim did not take her to the government hospital for her treatment in spite of the fact they took her to a non-specialized doctor (Bengali doctor).
• According to their point of view victim died due to her illness and age factor not because of hunger.
• The old age pension scheme was not provided to Chameli Devi.

Conclusion

• After much of discussions and observations of this case by our team has come to various conclusions and recommendations which should be followed by Government so as such act does not occur in future.
• Chameli Devi’s death was caused by hunger: As she did not ate anything since past 2-3 days. Locals stated that she was unwell since long due to which she did not eat anything resulting to her death. We come to a conclusion that it was merely the negligence of the people comprising the Gram Pradhan who were least bothered about her. In actual sense after observing both the places where she was staying after the fall of her house in last rainy season ,she didn’t had a roof on her head since last 18 months which resulted towards making her unwell. The BDO and the Gram Pradhan were unable to provide her with the sum of Rs. 1000/- and food-grains as per the order of the UP govt. failing to which her body couldn’t survive hunger and the chilly winter conditions made her condition more worse.
• Authorities were responsible: As we enquired to the people of the village everybody was playing the blame game that Chameli Devi was herself responsible which appeared to us quite fake. On thinking practically we come to a conclusion that a woman of 75 years who was dependent and destitute on the State and family members, and if such person dies then the people behind her care and dependence are responsible for her death. There was no step taken to give her medical aid which might have prevented her worsened health condition. She lived in an open state of condition which gave her no protection from the conditions of weather since 18 months.
• Condition of PDS: The condition of PDS was alarming. After our survey in that area we concluded that people are getting food-grains at various prices like some told they get foodgrains at 90 rupees per month, some get at 100 while some at 200 rupees per month. There were also instances where people couldn’t receive foodgrains that they were supposed to get in that particular month and they were asked to pay the entire amount in advance so that they could get that in the next month. This used to go on and they were deprived of the actual amount of food grains to be supplied to them.
• Awareness and transparency of government schemes: There were no steps and measures taken by the Gram Pradhan to make people aware of the schemes launched by the government. There was no such notice board display on Gram Sabha and Government school as ordered by the Supreme Court displaying the beneficiary schemes launched by the Government. Maximum people being illiterate, keeping this in mind there were no awareness programmes and camps and measures were taken to promote awareness among the people. This is one of the major reasons why people are deprived of the benefits provided to them.
• Further observation of our team was that the people of that village were dalits and were deprived of the facility of electricity while on the other hand people of upper caste residing in nearby areas were given this facility which clearly depicts discrimination on the basis of caste. Even on repeated filing of applications by the residents there was no action taken by the authorities. Some people even complained that their daughter’s marriage got rejected due the non-availability of electricity in this village and students who aspire to study were unable to study at night as they used to get only 2 liters of kerosene oil in a month making it difficult for them.

Recommendations

• A committee should be set up for the enquiry in the death of Late Chameli Devi where the investigation should be done strictly and the people held responsible behind it should be punished. Adding to it, compensation should be given to her family.
• The court should order for a complete and thorough checking of the functioning of the PDS.A new ration card should be issued to the people since the condition of the card is terrible.
• There should be a speedy action for the electrification of the poles in the village as there is not much needed work required in that task since the poles have already been placed by the residents of that village.
• There should be awareness camps launched for spreading awareness about various schemes and beneficiaries provided to these people.
• A strict action should be taken to avoid discrimination on the basis of caste.
• Visits by the officials should be made compulsory once a week or twice a month and a full report of the same should be sent to officials above them to prevent loopholes in the system.

Acknowledgment

This report is a collective effort of interns from different law college and universities so as to probe in the matter of hunger death that occurred in one of the villages of Allahabad. This report also elaborates about the conditions of various government schemes launched for the people, which has turned out to be a big failure in this village. This report elaborates about the functioning of PDS system in that area and the pros and cons of it. Further, the report gives recommendations for what should be done by the government so as to prevent the occurrence of such incident. The fact finding team consisted of Deeksha Dwivedi, University of Allahabad, Shusant Bhardwaj, and Musaib Khan from University of Bhubaneswar, Ankit Singh and Ratnesh Dwivedi from BSLC, DehraDun, Praveen from IFCI, Dehradun, Anuj Tiwari of CNLU, Patna, Pranav from Nirma University and Mridul from UPSC, Dehradun. The team worked under close supervision and guidance of Senior Advocate and leading human rights activist K. K. Roy with help from Adv.Smriti Kartikeya.