It is a matter of shame for independent India that the working class, which successfully accomplished revolutions in many countries in the modern age, and which played its invaluable role in productive growth in India too since the freedom movement, is undergoing such tragic and inhuman suffering today in the days of Corona pandemic.

However, it can’t erase the role of working class from history. Even, in their returning home, the workers have exposed the class cruelty of Modi government. This state of working classes against the fascist politics will give birth to new political equations. These workers had not migrated just to earn their livelihood, but they, too, had their dreams of decent life and modern values.

Workers are not hapless, helpless creatures. They very well recognise those faces and forces that neither made arrangements to send them home, nor provided them economic help to survive. They will definitely punish them politically when the time comes. Even in their worst crisis, the workers are not dependent on anybody’s mercy; rather they are exhibiting indomitable courage and determination.

Working class, even today, has infinite ability to register political protest and it is capable of providing a new democratic political system to the country. What is needed is its education and organisation.

Their returning back to homes is not their nature but they are forced for it.

Compelled by the circumstances they, along with their families and children, have set out for a long journey to their homes on foot. To hold them responsible for it and their harassment by police on the way is barbaric. There is still time, the government must ensure to send them home safely. The government has no dearth of resources.

It is also true that if the government had made arrangements to send migrant workers and others to their native places before declaration of lockdown, it would have helped in containing the spread of Covid.

Now, it is incontrovertible that the government of the ‘superman’ has miserably failed not only in dealing with the Corona pandemic but also the devastated economy. Modi government’s economic package of 20 lakh crore or 10% of GDP (as claimed) in the name of bringing back the economy on track is a hoax.

Most of the economists are of the view that to stimulate economy and deal with the rising unemployment, there is need of direct cash transfer instead of loan fair so that demand increases in the economy.

According to the economists, out of this declared 20 lakh crore, the government has given only around 2 lakh crore from its treasury which is less than even 1% of GDP.

It is well known that many countries are transferring substantial amount of cash to their people from the government exchequer. Modi government’s slogan is ‘local to global’ but in practice, the government is handing over all public property to the foreign forces. Jokingly, people say that self-

reliance of Modi government means self-protection and serving the Reliance.

Its propagandists may call it the government of ‘superman’, but the reality is that this government is scared and extremely weak. It may be putting into jails those who are raising people’s issues and are active in democratic movements, but it is completely helpless before its corporate friends and cronies. Let alone impose inheritance tax and wealth tax on the corporate houses, this government is even scared of increasing the limit of fiscal deficit which is urgently needed today. It is afraid that it will weaken India’s global economic rating and result in flight of foreign capital.

How can the foreign capital fly away if Modi government dares to decide that no capital can fly away for 5 years? It is also afraid that if the deficit increases, then the corporate houses would be annoyed because then they would be forced to repay more against their foreign borrowing from international market.

However, economists are of the view that one need not worry about the devaluation of rupee as it will enhance our export. Let the economy of the country be destroyed, but the corporate houses must not repay more- this is the policy of Modi government which urgently needs to be reversed today.

To meet the challenge of demand and make economy self-reliant, agricultural investment must be increased, remunerative prices to the tune of 150% of the cost price must be given to the farmers, investment must be made for cooperative farming of the small land- holdings, agro-based industries must be encouraged for job creation, government must directly spend for MSME sector, concession should be given for the loans they are given , they must have control over the market and there should be complete ban on the import of the items produced by the MSMEs. Cooperatives of workers and entrepreneurs should be formed and workers participation must be ensured in running the enterprises.

In these days of Corona pandemic, cash must be transferred to the workers, they must be given jobs. There should be expansion of MNREGA in cities. There must be complete loan-waiver for peasants and the poor. With direct investment in poultry, fisheries, dairy etc. people should be encouraged for production and market must be assured for them. Import in these sectors also should be stopped. The unemployed must be given unemployment allowance. Expenditure must be increased on health and education, and government health services must be expanded from towns to village levels.

Government must bear the full expenditure of the treatment of Covid-19 patients. Health employees and Corona warriors must be given life saving PPE kits. Those dead and injured in the pandemic related accidents must be given proper compensation. The Vista project for new Parliament complex, involving expenditure to the tune of 20 thousand crores must be stopped with immediate effect.

All this is possible if Modi government is ready for increasing expenditure by transcending the limit of fiscal deficit in this hour of crisis. Economists are of the firm view that if the government directly spends 7- 8 lakh crores and makes cash available for the people, then the crisis of pandemic as well as economic depression can be successfully dealt with and demand can be revived in the economy.

Today country needs a mass movement, a new political discourse. For this, the workers peasants, small-medium entrepreneurs who are facing the crisis today must be organised for political protest. In fact, this is the era of political protests. There is urgent need to mobilise all exploited and oppressed classes, sections and communities in political protest and develop leadership among them.

The socialist countries which stopped direct political participation of the masses and even deprived the workers from political activities and right to unionise, had to pay its price and today also, the socialist countries which have isolated the masses from political process will pay its price sooner or later.

So those who want to confine workers only to trade union activities and are unwilling to mobilise workers directly in political action, must learn from the mistakes of socialist countries and must mobilise the crores and crores of workers hitting the streets in political action against Modi government. The mistrust generated among workers because of the failure of Modi government in dealing with the Corona pandemic and their alienation from it must be given political voice because Modi government is losing its moral authority to rule. This is the political dharma of the opposition today.

One thing more, today, there is concerted move to divide the people and impose divisive political, cultural agenda upon them. There is urgent need to combat it. This is organised, institutionalised effort of divisive forces with full state patronage. So, there is urgent need to combat it socially, culturally and politically.

Constitution is the basis of our citizenship and modernity. It is needed that the values of citizenship percolate down to the lower levels. This is our task, today, to help people stand in their role as citizen and play their human role as a citizen. We must remember that social, political and economic movements are parts of one integral whole and complementary to each other. So, the movements must be conducted in a holistic manner.

* This is a guest blog by a member of the Swaraj Abhiyan. Opinions expressed belong to the author.

The post Modi Government has lost the moral authority to rule the country appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Deaths due to heat wave are reported usually without classifying their state of ‘class’ or ‘caste’ . If carefully analyzed most of those who die are from dalit and marginalised sections who work ceaselessly throughout summer for their daily bread and face risk of sun- strokes.

Consequences
The amount of overall heat energy trapped by greenhouse gasses is jaw- dropping. Between 1971 and 2010, the IPCC’s Assessment Report tells us that earth gained 274 million million billion Joules. As James Hansen said, this is ‘ equivalent to exploding 400,000 Hiroshima Atomic bombs per day 365 days per year. Since 1970, the energy trapped is equivalent to four Hiroshima bombs per second. Thus, the consequences of global warming are very grave and need to be addressed quickly and serious measures should be taken to reduce loss of life.

Estimates
The number of people dying due to heatwaves has been on the increase. In the last decade, with over 2,000 people being reported dead during 2015 heatwave in India. A paper published in ‘Science Advances’ establishes a mammoth 146 per cent increase in the probability of heat – related mortality in India due to the increase summer mean temperatures. Rising global temperatures are leading to extreme weather climate conditions like droughts, floods heatwaves, etc. The rise of temperature has been 0.5 degree Celsius over last 50 years.

In 2010, Russia had 55,736 deaths due to heat wave in June. The costliest heat wave occurred in China in 2008 with estimated damage of 21.2 billion  US$. In Italy, heat wave (2003) caused over20,000 deaths.

No assistance
During summer, the vulnerable sections face lot of suffering and diseases due to heat and humidity. They do not have proper health- care mechanism nor do they have provision of food and clean water. The slum dwellers , mostly SCs and STs or OBCs, have no proper shelters during day time. The women and their babies have insufficient protection from heat and are often exposed to hot air in the day. Governments  have done little to assist these sections. They have no income to take precautionary measures.  Even the supply of ORS packets is inadequate.
The labourers, especially women, lead pathetic lives. They have little time to protect their bodies from heat because of the nature of work. There is no policy for these people to protect themselves from such manual work that demands hours of exposure to the sun. Their labor goes unnoticed.

Social activists should take up their travails and tribulations in a proactive way and put pressure on rulers to frame policies which give them help in summer and restrain them in working in sweltering heat without any minimum protection. Some sort of economic social and medical benefits programmes should be formulated to tackle intense heat by the marginalised  sections.
—
Courtesy: Counter View

The post Benefit programmes should be formulated to tackle impact of intense heat on marginalised sections appeared first on SabrangIndia.

नई दिल्ली। नोटबंदी के बाद सारे देश को लाइन में लगाने के बाद केंद्र सरकार ने अब छोटी- छोटी बजत पर नजर गढ़ा दी है। ईपीएफ के ब्याज दर में कटौती के बाद अब सरकार छोटी बचत योजनाओं पीपीएफ, किसान विकास पत्र, सुकन्या समृद्घि अकाउंट और सीनियर सिटीजन सेविंग्स स्कीम में मिलने वाले ब्याज दरों में कटौती कर सकती है। 

सरकार जनवरी-मार्च तिमाही के लिए नए ब्याज दरें घटा सकती है। गौरतलब है कि इस हफ्ते की शुरुआत में सरकार ने ईपीएफ पर मिलने वाली ब्याज दर को घटा दिया था। वित्त वर्ष 2016-17 के लिए कर्मचारी भविष्य निधि पर मिलने वाले ब्याज दर को 8.8 से घटाकर 8.65 फीसदी कर दिया गया था। वर्तमान में पीपीएफ पर 8 प्रतिशत का ब्याज मिलता है।
 
गोपीनाथ कमेटी की ओर से सरकार को सौंपी गई रिपोर्ट में छोटी बचत योजनाओं पर ब्याज दरें घटाने की सिफारिश की गई है। श्यामला गोपीनाथ कमेटी ने सुझाव दिया है कि इन सेविंग्स स्कीम की ब्याज दरों को सरकार के बॉन्ड से मिलने वाले रिटर्न से जोड़ दिया जाए। 
 
कहा जा रहा है कि अगर सरकार कमेटी की सिफारिशों को मान लेती है तो ब्याज दरों में करीब एक फीसदी तक की कमी हो सकती है। हालांकि विशेषज्ञों का मानना है कि नोटबंदी के चलते सरकार इतनी बड़ी कटौती नहीं करेगी। माना जा रहा है कि सरकार 20 से 25 प्रतिशत की कमी कर सकती है।
 
कर्मचारी भविष्य निधि संगठन (ईपीएफओ) ने 19 दिसंबर को ईपीएफ खातों में जमा राशि पर चालू वित्त वर्ष के लिए ब्याज दर को घटाकर 8.65% कर दिया था। वहीं ईपीएफओ ने चालू वित्त वर्ष के लिए अपनी कमाई का आकलन किया। ईपीएफओ ने वित्त वर्ष 2015-16 के लिए 39, 083 करोड़ रुपये की कमाई होने का अनुमान लगाया है। 
 
ईपीएफओ के 31, मार्च 2016 के आकंड़ों के मुताबिक 3,76,22,440 सदस्य, ईपीएफ में अपना योगदान कर रहे हैं। वित्त मंत्रालय ने इसी साल ईपीएफ पर ब्याज दर को 2015-16 के लिए घटाकर 8.7 प्रतिशत कर दिया था जबकि केंद्रीय न्यासी बोर्ड ने 8.8 प्रतिशत को मंजूरी दी थी। ट्रेड यूनियनों के विरोध के बाद मंत्रालय ने अपना फैसला वापस ले लिया था।
 

The post PPF समेत इन योजनाओं की छोटी बचत की ब्याज दरों में कटौती की तैयारी appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Based on what is called Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) survey of 1,47,938 participants in the age-group 35–70, the study also encompasses four lower- middle income countries (LMICs; China, Colombia, Iran, Occupied Palestinian Territory), seven upper-middle income countries (UMICs; Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Malaysia, Poland, Turkey, South Africa), and three high income countries (HICs; Canada, Sweden, United Arab Emirates).

Carried out between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2013, and titled “Availability, affordability, and consumption of fruits and vegetables in 18 countries across income levels: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study”, in all 29,421 participated in the survey in LIC, a great majority of whom were Indians, 25,448, followed by 2,185 from Bangladesh, 1,713 from Pakistan and just 75 from Zimbabwe.

Carried out on the basis of household income data, and authored by 36 health experts, seven of them from India, the study says, “The cost of one serving of vegetables relative to income per household member was more than 19 times higher in LICs than in HICs, and the relative cost of one serving of fruit was 50 times higher in LICs than in HICs.”

“The proportion of individuals who could not afford the recommended daily intake was highest in LICs (57·42%), compared with 25·42% in UMICs, 17·68% in LMICs, and 0·25% in HICs”, the study says, adding, “In all regions, unaffordability was higher in rural areas than in urban areas.”
 

 

The post To 57% Indians fruits and vegetable are “unaffordable”, same is true of other lower income countries: Lancet appeared first on SabrangIndia.