By I Jothi
Kolkata: Thousands of daily wagers on November 22 joined food activist in various parts of India to demand immediate implementation of Maternity Entitlement as promised in a law on food security.
Some 5,000 people, mostly mothers, turned up at Kolkata, capital of West Bengal. They came from different districts of the eastern Indian state and marched to the capital in two rallies to assemble at the downtown Esplanade. One group came from the Howrah and another from Sealdah, two major railway stations in the city.
The meet heard testimonies from lactating mothers and pregnant women.
Sombari Mandi, a mother from Burdwan district who lost her new born child in September because of malnourishment, lamented her child would have survived if she had enough rest and proper food. She had to go for daily wages even in her ninth month of pregnancy.
Latha Kisku from Hooghly district, who came with her eight-month-old child, demanded 6,000 rupees immediately.
“I was born a citizen in this country and don’t I need the same rest, respect and financial help that a government employee gets from the government? Is my motherhood any less from the government servant?” asked the daily wage laborer. She said she had to work in agricultural farms and at home until the day of her delivery. “Within weeks of delivery I had to get back to normal way of life,” she explained.
Many food activists addressed the gathering and demanded the federal and state governments take various steps to help unorganized rural poor and women.
Their demands include granting every pregnant woman 6,000 rupees immediately as promised under Section 4 (b) of National Food Security Act. They want the Maternity Benefit Act 1961 amended to allow all women, including housewives, to get paid for 26 weeks at minimum wages during pregnancy. All workplaces should open crèches, they added.
Another demand is to stop immediately disbursing subsidies to workers of tea estates in the state through their management. “Ensure that all workers get their industrial rations from the management” in addition to the food act and Anthoya Anna Yojana (food for the least project) that guarantees the poor 35 kilo food grains every month. They also want the public distributors to replace poor quality wheat flour with wheat grains.
The activists also want the government to set up Monitoring and Vigilance Committees with the participation of voluntary and community based organizations.
Udayani Social Action Forum, the social wing of Calcutta Jesuit province, was among organizers of the event and brought maximum participation from their area.
In a press release issues on November 21, the organizers regretted that the maternity entitlement of 6,000 rupees a month is limited only to 52 of the country’s 687 districts. The scheme would require 150 billion rupees annually if implemented throughout the country. However, the current financial that ends on March 31, 2017 has provided only 4 billion rupees for the project.
However, the same budget allows loan waiver to the tune of 600 trillion to the country’s top industrialists, the press release regretted.
It also noted that 96 percent of women who work in the unorganized sector are deprived of the 26-week maternity leave and crèche facilities their counterparts in organized sector now get after the government recently amended the Maternity Benefit Act of 1961.
In West Bengal, a scheme to help tea workers has failed since the government designed the management as ration shop dealer in at least 200 estates, the statement said.
The management promptly stopped their own rations which they gave to their workers as part of wages and replaced it with the subsidized food given under the food security act.