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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The Fruits Of Tenacity by Saikat Datta, Anuradha Raman

The Fruits Of Tenacity by Saikat Datta, Anuradha Raman

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published Published on Jan 26, 2010   modified Modified on Jan 26, 2010

Activists realise it takes a fight to translate democracy from thin paper to thick action

In the winter of 1997, advocate Ashok Agarwal filed a petition in the Supreme Court opposing the nearly 400 per cent hike in school fees. This was the year the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations were implemented and the salaries of teachers shot up. Parents trying to cope with the overall price rise were suddenly hit by hefty school bills.

In November 2007, Agarwal filed his first pil on an education-related issue with nothing but newspaper clippings for evidence. “The judges told me they needed more to adjudicate the matter, so off I went with my camera to the government and MCD schools, looking for evidence,” he says. Thus began a journey to seek out the true meaning of the Constitution of India, which created the Republic of India and promised equality, liberty and fraternity to all citizens.

Agarwal’s journey has been replicated by many others who have fought for the rights of India’s forgotten citizens in a republic that unfortunately often behaves more like an oligarchy. They have pushed the boundaries of the law to reaffirm the Constitution and guarantee fundamentals like the right to life, equality, dignity and freedom of speech.

We now have the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Right to Information Act (RTI), the Right to Education Act (RTE) and the Panchayati Raj Act, all of which reasserted  and reinforced rights denied to many. But these empowering instruments did not come easy. A dedicated band of activists—from diverse backgrounds but united by a vision—had to fight to eventually bring life to words enshrined in the Constitution.

One of them was Nikhil Dey. In 1990, he had returned to India after abandoning a bachelor’s degree course at the George Mason University, outside Washington DC. He travelled to Tilonia, in Rajasthan, and met Shankar Singh and Aruna Roy. Together they set up the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Sanghatan (MKSS). Soon after, Kushalpur and Samelia, villages in Rajsamand, began protesting to seek accountability.

“The villagers wanted to know what was happening to the public works, their PDS allocations, their anganwadis, land pattas—all basic needs,” says Dey. Singh and  Roy had played a major role in mobilising people and the first jan sunwai (public hearing) was held in Kot Kirana in 1994. On April 6, 1996, a dharna was organised demanding the right to information. It continued for 40 days. A year later, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, then chief minister, announced  that the assembly would legislate for an information act.

The fact that the UPA government at the Centre finally passed such an act is now history. But the recent judgement of the Delhi High court that the chief justice of India too falls under the RTI act led to a broadening of its ambit. The court upheld the earlier single-bench ruling that the cji did come under the act. “For the first time the scope of the act was increased to include Article 14 of the Constitution (the right to equality), Article 21 (the right to life) and, of course, Article 19 (1) (freedom of expression). This is a huge step,” says an ecstatic Dey. While there is more denial than information dissemination, lesser penalties than rejections, the RTI has now crossed the Rubicon.

But for people like Agarwal, the fight to empower children through education is far from over. For years he walked hundreds of kilometres through dirt, filth, facing the apathy of school administrations. “No one cares. If you speak about private schools, the media sits up. No one talks about government schools, where lakhs of children study. They work without books, drinking water, roofs, benches—the most basic things. Is it fair?” he asks.

Article 38 of the Constitution says wealth should not be concentrated in a few hands; it must be equally distributed. “Is that our reality? It also says in Article 45 that the state shall provide free and compulsory education to every child up to the age of 14 years. Do you see that? Instead, the Right to Education Act is also flawed and actually creates inequality by grading schools in a hierarchy. Children who go to better-graded schools will get superior education while  the others suffer.”

Former minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, during whose tenure the panchayat raj ministry became newsworthy, recalls his time at St Stephen’s College, Delhi, where  “power to the people” was often debated. Later, with friend and former PM Rajiv Gandhi, he and his team worked towards the 74th amendment to pave the way for a village-level representative administration. He says it’s been a journey that has both elated and agonised him.

He’s elated because, barring a few states,  the panchayati raj system is actually functioning with 33 per cent representation of women in positions of power. But Aiyar rues the lack of political will to hold on to the belief that without power to the people, democracy would be just in name and economic growth may well be a figure to be bandied about. “If a 100 Indians control 25 per cent of our GDP and 77 per cent of Indians live on less than Rs 20 a day, economic growth has not really led to an economic development of all,” says Aiyar.

In trying to seek a solution to how the world’s largest democracy can be more equitable and inclusive, Aiyar offers this formula. “Allow the panchayati raj ministry to take over the ministries of home and finance. If power is to actually devolve to the peo- ple, it’s high time we change the notion of delivered development to one that is participatory.”


Outlook India, 27 January, 2010, http://outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263893
 

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