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in
focus
Two recent Bills betray the mindset of the government: one, the Micro
Finance Sector Development and
Regulation Bill, 2007 (earlier known as NABARD Bill), slated to be
tabled in the current session of Parliament; the other, called
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Bill, first introduced as the Foreign
Contribution (Management and Control) Bill, 2005 (FCMC Bill) was
introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 18, 2006. They retain certain
obnoxious features from the
original drafts, which received a lot of flak from the public.
Another significant event has been the presentation of the Union
Budget. The newspapers and the audio-visual media are full of stories
and
analysis of corporate neglect and populism in favour of the social and
agricultural sectors. Is this really so? Simple calculations show that
this is still a budget with neo-liberal leanings, says P Sainath. For
example, the extension of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(NREGA) to
a larger number of districts, and the much touted increase in
allocations for social sector spending, are a sham.
In the same vein, we find that our phenomenal 'national growth' is not
translating
into jobs. This from none other than the ILO!
And again, of a piece with our continuing neo-liberal faith in
corporate delivery, the rules framed for the hard-fought-for
right to community radio have been skewed to favour non-community
controlled radio.
On to another story - a survey by Outlook Magazine tells us
people do not think much about
politicians - something that we already know. What does that tell us
aboout ourselves, asks Smita Gupta. We venerate businessmen - and envy
doctors and bureaucrats. Yet it is only the politician who is really
accountable and can actually deliver.
To retain faith in politicians and the the legislature,
we need to believe that their job is on matters of policy and
legislation. The MPLADS - Members of Parliament Local Area
Development Scheme - is an anomaly. Local area development is best in
the hands of the
local bodies.
Some news:
about politicians - good news!
It's probably the best example of democracy at work, since a people's
candidate has become the people's representative.
about people's struggles - not so
good news
The licence to fish of the Tawa Matsya Sangh (TMS), a cooperative of
tribal fisherfolk displaced by the Tawa dam in Madhya Pradesh, and now
operating in the
reservoir, has expired in December 2006. Since then all hell has broken
loose.
Read on ... some of the stories on these issues that we have picked out
for you this month.
[Issues in Focus Click here]
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here]
select clippings
Women's groups say it has certain
fundamental flaws; Micro finance organisations will be at the mercy of
corporates; Issue of high interest rates left unaddressed.
Women's groups have asked the Centre to withhold the tabling of the
Micro Finance Sector Development and Regulation Bill, 2007 (earlier
known as NABARD Bill) slated to be tabled in the current session of
Parliament. Plea to redraft
micro finance bill, The Hindu, March 07, 2007.
Aid donors have shown microfinance
can work. They should now leave their successes behind. SUCCESS
has many fathers. No wonder, then, that paternity suits are flying in
microfinance - lending small amounts to help the poor pull themselves
out of poverty. Thanks first to charities and, later, international
financial institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank, microfinance has
been shown to work. So, increasingly, is the for-profit sector,
including "socially responsible" investors and capitalists more
interested in the bottom line than the poverty line. Time to take the credit, The Economist, March 15 2007.
The new FCRA Bill poses a major
challenge to the voluntary sector. Through the new Bill,
the Government, instead of enabling the sector, has posed major
challenges by allowing a lot of discretionary powers to the
implementers of law. There are also a lot of administrative compliances
in the Bill which would become a big burden for the entire sector if
the bill becomes a law. Legislative
Brief on The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Bill, 2006, PRS Legislative Research, March
22, 2007.
... the trend of falling state
investment in sector after sector continues, this budget does not break
with neo-liberalism. India is still on a path damaging and
dangerous to the poor. "Growth for growth's sake is the ideology
of the cancer cell" said the late Edward Abbey, environmental activist
and writer. Few things grow as relentlessly as that cell does, with
such fatal results. As the cancer of neoliberalism claims an
ever-higher toll, its greatest theologians now include standard
disclaimers in their chant - Growth has to be "inclusive" and
"sustainable." Growth in India this past decade has been neither. The growth ideology of the cancer cell
by P.Sainath, March 05, 2007.
The ILO report for 2006 gives a grim
picture of the global crisis of youth employment. The
organisation's report, "Global Employment Trends for Youth", for 2006,
reveals the sorry state of youth employment in developing economies and
demystifies certain notions about the factors that cause unemployment
in the 15-24 age bracket. In
search of elusive jobs by T. K. Rajalakshmi, Frontline, February
23, 2007.
While New Delhi coddles
private-sector media, it stifles the public's right to community radio,
with broadcasting guidelines that make a mockery of intelligence. After
India's first, rather grudging, opening of the airwaves for community
use in December 2002, it took four years of intense effort by advocacy
groups to obtain a policy even halfway meaningful. But when the fine
print of the fresh set of guidelines on community radio (CR) services -
issued last December - was studied, it became clear that the
eligibility criteria have little to do with the purported aims of
community radio. The shackling of
community radio by Sukumar Muralidharan, HIMAL, March
2007.
For the chattering classes in upscale
drawing rooms, corporate boardrooms or television studios, politicians
are the lowest of the low, corrupt and venal. But is that a fair
description? No more than for any other powerful
group in society. Most significantly, most of our opinion-builders and
decision-makers "the media, judiciary, bureaucracy and the corporate
sector" form a homogeneous group. Barring a few exceptions, such as the
current chief justice of the Supreme Court, a majority are upper
caste/middle class Hindus, the tax-paying three per cent at the top of
the social pyramid, intent on creaming off all the advantages for their
own class. In fact, if India is still a democracy, it is because we
have a political class, it is they who provoke the real debates of our
times. The rest of the decision-making classes would prefer a secession
of the successful, leaving the vast sections left out scrambling among
the leftovers. The Ayes Have
It, The Ayes Have It by Smita Gupta, Outlook, March 26, 2007.
The Administrative Reforms Commission
recommends that for good governance constituency development funds must
be scrapped. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC)
has recommended the abolition of the Members of Parliament Local Area
Development Scheme (MPLADS) and the Members of the Legislative Assembly
Local Area Development Scheme (MLALADS) on the grounds that these
schemes "seriously erode the notion of separation of powers, as the
legislator directly becomes the executive". A scheme under fire by Era Sezhiyan, Frontline, March 09,
2007.
It's probably the best example of
democracy at work since a people's
candidate has become the people's representative. Adolf D'Souza was
nominated by the citizens of Juhu and contested as an independent. But
unlike other independents, he had help, that made his victory that much
easier and cost him just Rs 70,000.
"It's a victory for the people," said Adolf D'souza, Corporator. People power wins in Mumbai by Tejas Mehta, NDTV, February 03,
2007.
The future of the Tawa Matsya Sangh
(TMS), a cooperative of fisherfolk
operating in the Tawa reservoir in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad
district, is firmly on hold. On December 23, 2006, their licence
to
fish in the reservoir expired, and since then all hell has broken
loose. The reservoir was created when a dam was built on the river
Tawa, a tributary of the Narmada river, in 1974. TMS, comprising
tribals the dam had displaced, was formed as a platform demanding their
right to fish in the reservoir; TMS has managed fishing
there since
1996. Tawa Matsya Sangh, fishing
co-operative in Madhya Pradesh, loses licence by Shailesh Kumar, Down to Earth, March
15, 2007.
[Issues in Focus Click here]
[Select Clippings Click here]
what's new | what's news
at CED
At CED, last month we lost a great fighter - someone who by the age of
24 had written more than 100 uncompromising letters on development
issues ranging from tribal rights to city problems; played an active
part in every social forum, while being a regular student at Nirmala
Niketan; and within hardly a year of passing out, had worked with field
organizations in Madhya Pradesh, taken up documentation work in CED, as
well as inspired the setting up of "
Justice Corps".
Ronald Rebello, we
salute you! And we, your friends, colleagues and comrades will continue
the good work that you began.
Barely two weeks after he left us, there was a people's convention on
judicial accountability and reforms. While many will laud the
judiciary's intervention in critical areas of
public life, some of us expect it to take on what the executive should
do. The
Campaign
statement issued by the people's convention on judicial
accountability and reforms, ISI, Delhi, 10th March 2007, pledges to
fight for judicial transparency much along the lines of one of his
last letters.
|New Video
Capsules at CED|
Standards and Principles in Disaster
Management by Lalbiakhlui Rokhum,
EFICOR
"Disaster Management is just not
about relief response but about mitigation and preparedness as well."
In the presentation, Rokhum explains the meaning and significance of
the international standards set for disaster management. These include
Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, Sphere Standards and People in
Aid.
English, 23
minutes
Livelihood
restoration and market economy after the tsunami
An interview with V. Vivekanandan
of South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies (SIFFS)
In the interview Vivekanandan
explains the importance of brining together the fisher community for
their upliftment. Other important issues discussed in the interview are
globalisation and its impact on traditional fishing, Importance of
cooperatives and self help groups among fishers, challenges in taking
up alternative employment and educating the youth from fishing
communities.
English: 11
minutes; Tamil:
43 minutes
|CED's Monthly
Compilations|
Just to remind you of Docposts
(DPs) - our monthly outputs: Legal
Rights | Critical
Concerns | Habitat
| Disasters
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