National Alliance of People’s Movements joins in the Call to Action of the Right to Food Campaign
National Alliance of People’s Movements joins in the Call to Action of the Right to Food Campaign, demanding Government accountability in mitigating the impact of Covid 19, and preventing future economic, health and nutrition crises.
The Union Government has failed to respond to the unprecedented crisis posed by the pandemic, both in the first wave and the second wave of Covid. Migrant workers, workers in the informal sector, the agriculture sector and others, have suffered loss of livelihood and severe impact on health, nutrition, access to education etc. While the collapse of the public healthcare system has become apparent and left everyone reeling, the long-term impact on the majority of the population, in urban, rural and adivasi areas, which does not have social security benefits, especially on women and transgender people, dalits and adivasis, children, minorities, persons with disabilities etc, is yet to be reckoned with.
The Government response has been dismal. Rations during the first wave were delayed, insufficient, and impossible to access for many who needed them. The Union Budget 2020-21 made insufficient allocations towards health, food, education and tried to obfuscate the lack of targeted allocations which would have a chance of reaching Dalit, Adivasi, and other historically oppressed communities. The second wave of Covid-19 has seen from the Government more concern with image management than with transparency in decision making, and ensuring that all aid could be utilized to address most urgent needs.
NAPM stands in solidarity with the demands articulated by the Right to Food Campaign. We hold the Government fully accountable for the provision of Healthcare, Food Security, Livelihood and Income Security for all and ask all concerned citizens to come together through the month of June 2021 to make pointed demands and build public pressure on the State, to prevent a further deepening of the crisis.