In April 2001 People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) approached the Supreme Court of India arguing that the government has a duty to provide greater relief in the context of mass hunger. The litigation has now become the best known precedent on the right to food internationally. This paper reviews the litigation with a view to understand various strategies used by the litigants to create and enforce far-reaching entitlements in a near legal vacuum on the right to food. This is followed by a discussion on the lessons from this case for rights based approach to development at large.

Citation:  S. Vivek and Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, “Rights Based Approach To Development: Lessons From The Right To Food Movement,” in Food Insecurity, Vulnerability and Human Rights Failure, Studies in Development Economics and Policy (Basingstoke: UK: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007).

Click here to download the article.

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The level of corruption in the public distribution system has been one of the rallying points in the cry for change.  The following are some of the corruption related arguments for change:

There is large scale corruption in the system

It is undeniable that there is a lot of corruption in the PDS, and something needs to be done about it.  In arguing that we should shift from PDS to coupons or cash transfers, we have to ask if the chances of corruption will be lower in the proposed systems compared to what we have.  There is little evidence to make that argument.  India has a number of cash transfer programs such as old-age pensions, maternity benefits, family benefit, etc.  P. Chidambaram introduced a well-publicised coupon system in one of his budgets, and there are other benchmarks for the suggestions being made today.  If one wishes to do so seriously, they could examine the level of corruption in such programs and compare it with the PDS.

The proponents of PDS reform have not offered any evidence as to whether these alternatives work.  There are scattered references to a cash transfer program in Mexico, and in other parts of the world completely ignoring the reality at home.  I suspect that there are two reasons why we see no evidence that cash transfers work better: nobody has chosen to carefully evaluate the alternatives for the lack of interest in such an exercise, and in part because the unpublicized official evaluations of coupon experiments are not flattering making it difficult for proponents to use them for their purposes.  The proposed reform is thus not evidence-based in the Indian context; it is a purely ideological project based on the mainstream economics today.

The fact that the proposed reform is mainly an ideological project should not deter us from the possible merits of the reform proposals.  If a well considered idea has a promise, it is well worth giving a shot.  Is the reform proposal a well-considered idea?

Corruption is entrenched in the PDS

One serious argument is that moving to channels that we know to be less corrupt than the PDS could be a strategic way of reducing corruption.  This is certainly a serious argument to consider, especially given the deeply entrenched culture of corruption in the PDS.  While I do believe that corruption is deeply entrenched in the PDS, I do not believe that the system is irredeemably lost.  Many State governments have demonstrated that they could make the system work if it becomes a political priority, Chhattisgarh being an important example.  Beyond the PDS, one can take the example of Bihar that was considered a hopeless government, but a determined CM has shown how things can turn around dramatically with some political will.  Where the political incentive is to make money off such programs, the odds are that a proposed alternative would suffer equally.

Proponents have also argued that the banking system is less corrupt, and so using that channel would help in reducing corruption.  It may well work in areas where there is a good banking network.  It would be a move worth considering in urban areas, but then the use of banks does not eliminate every scope for corruption.  Ghost beneficiaries could continue to exist, those who issue periodic identification documents to beneficiaries could charge them, shortages in overall allocation could be created (as it gets created in PDS), which could then be used for arbitrage.  Other possibilities abound.

It does not work since the subsidy is not given directly

One curious argument that found its way to the economic survey 2009-10, and has been repeated by some prominent economists is that the PDS does not work since the subsidy is not given directly to the citizen, but is instead routed through intermediaries.  The idea that cash transfers or coupons will eliminate intermediaries is silly.  We don’t expect beneficiaries to have the direct access to the coffers of the Ministry of Rural Development from where beneficiaries will directly take their allocation of cash without the interference of any official whatsoever.  Cash transfer will have its own set of intermediaries.

If intermediaries are the problem, then replacing the PDS with coupons is the silliest idea possible.  First of all, there will have to be a system of distributing the coupons periodically to the beneficiaries.  This will necessarily involve multiple layers of the government.  Beneficiaries will then have to collect their entitlements from a grocery store or other shops, which are nothing but intermediaries.  Private shopkeepers will not have the same kind of accounting formalities, or any other measure of accountability that ration shop dealer will have to maintain.  In essence, the grocery store is an intermediary with little accountability.  The grocery store owner will in turn have to submit the coupons to a government agency which will reimburse her.  This additional channel will create its own set of opportunities for corruption.  In all, the coupon system only represents more intermediaries and less accountability.

The system is too large to monitor

There have been reports in the media that the Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms. Shiela Dixit, advocated cash transfers since the PDS is too large to be monitored effectively.  This is curious in a lot of ways.  Delhi is one of the smaller states, and the size argument should be the least problem there.  It should be even less of a problem compared to other states, considering the fact that the state has fantastic transport and communication infrastructure that makes monitoring easier.  Curiously, the argument of size has not been offered on Public Works Department or other departments that are much larger in the state.  Will we even consider eliminating them?  Delhi also has a well established right to information movement that has focussed on the PDS from the beginning that would assist a well-meaning Chief Minister in the quest to monitor.

Delhi’s RTI activists have met the Chief Minister time and again with well-documented information about corruption in specific ration shops, only to find the CM stonewalling.  If monitoring is THE problem, we would expect the Chief Minister to act on the information she was given.  Alas, that is not the problem.  How do we know that cash transfers will work better in her government? Do we know that existing cash transfers in Delhi work a lot better?  Sheila Dixit has been a wonderful Chief Minister for Delhi in many ways, but in this case her arguments cannot be less convincing.

The promise of right to information

Given that the PDS involves straightforward entitlements to specified beneficiaries, the right to information movement offers a terrific tool to contain corruption in the system.  Using the right to information, it is possible to identify precisely whether there is corruption in the system, who is corrupt and by what magnitude.  There is much that could be done to strengthen the RTI regime including proactive provision of information via notice boards, the Internet, mobile phones and other means.  If control of corruption is a goal, then we have to focus on means that we know to work, and means that have a promise instead of focusing our attentions on ideological projects with no demonstrated or theoretical reasons for the alternatives to work better.

The bottom line is that there is no doubt that there is a lot of corruption in the PDS and that something has to be done about it, and there is scant reason to believe that the proposal to change to coupons or cash transfers will reduce the level of corruption.  The government of Chhattisgarh offers to send a text message to anyone who wishes to monitor ration shop, whenever grains are delivered to such shops.  In addition, they have introduced stricter norms of documentation including the requirement that delivery trucks have to take a picture of the truck in front of the ration shop and send an MMS to the State government.  Such measures, along with the fact that the State government has responded more actively to complaints about the PDS have contributed to a major improvement in the system.  The power of right information can be extended even further using digital technologies more effectively.

A lot could be done to redress grievances about the PDS, which will automatically have an impact on how the system functions.  For example, setting up independent ombudsman, imposing penalties to officials who do not comply with PDS regulations, initiating independent call centres that could receive and officially lodge complaints, training the judiciary to respond to at least large-scale complains on the PDS, et cetera could be done.

Those calling for reforms have paid scant attention to other alternatives for better accountability.  It is particularly surprising when Chief Ministers and other powerful officials call for the reform, especially when we know that they could do a lot to change how the system works without radically reforming the system, if only it were their priority.

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One of our colleagues, Lalit Mehta, was brutally murdered  in Palamu, Jharkahand recently.  A sloppy report has prepared by the Deputy Commissioner and the SP, Palamu indicates that the Jharkhand police is either insincere in pursuing the murderers or actively protecting them. Lalit was in the process of organising a survey on NREGA along with Jean Dreze and a band of volunteers. Instead of pursuing the murders, the report casts aspersions on the survey team and even goes on to suggest that Jean could have been involved in the murder.  It also claims that the survey team manufactured evidence of fraud in NREGA works.
I have been a part of such surveys before with similar teams and I have only one word to describe the insinuations in the report – Ridiculous! Corruption after all can thrive where it gets active support of the police.  I only understand this shabby report by the police (see details below) as a attempt to protect the corrupt murderers in nexus with them.

There is now no room to have any confidence in the police in this matter.  I demand a CBI probe into the murder so that some confidence can return to to those who want to see the culprits punished.  Copied below is a statement on that is being circulated for a signature campaign on this issue.

We are shocked by the recent report prepared by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Palamau, commenting on Lalit Mehta’s murder as well as on the survey of NREGA conducted there in May 2008 by the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad.  This report is a deliberate attempt to divert attention from the real issues, which effectively protects those responsible for corruption and violence in the area.

The report shows that the police have made no serious enquiries into Lalit Mehta’s murder. It does not provide any credible clue to this murder, but raises a number of mischievous conjectures using selective evidence. For instance, the report refers to interviews with Lalit Mehta’s brother and his sons, without mentioning that the sons are one and three years old, respectively. Meanwhile, evidence from extensive interviews with Lalit’s wife, Ashrita, is ignored. Further, the report is full of factual mistakes. Even the date of the murder is incorrect: Lalit Mehta was murdered on 14 May, not on 15 May as stated in the report.

Instead of presenting a serious analysis of the circumstances of the murder, the report makes  absurd insinuations, such as Jean Drèze’s possible involvement in the murder, or the allegation that he and his team manufactured evidence of fraud in NREGA works. Equally ridiculous is the unsubstantiated claim of the possible role of an old family dispute about Lalit Mehta’s inter-religious marriage being the cause for the murder.

The report also makes insidious allegations about the survey team, Vikas Sahyog Kendra, and Lalit Mehta’s family. For instance, the report presents a ludicrous picture of the social audit activities conducted by the survey team, and even accuses the team of using devious means to collect testimonies. No-one familiar with the team’s work (which was conducted in a transparent manner in full view of the public and the media) can take this seriously. Casting  unwarranted aspersions on people like Jean Drèze, who is a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (and therefore mandated to monitor and investigate NREGA implementation anywhere in the country), and on students from Delhi University  and other reputed universities, is in fact an attempt to snuff out any independent monitoring of government expenditure.

The report reinforces earlier suspicions that there is an entrenched and deep rooted nexus of corruption and violence surrounding NREGA in Palamau, with powerful connections. Otherwise, why would the district’s seniormost officers go to such length to undermine a forthright examination of the use of NREGA funds in this area?

We demand that the report of the DC and SP Palamau be rejected by the Central Government as well as by the State Government, and that a CBI enquiry into Lalit Mehta’s murder and the corruption in NREGA works in Palamau District be initiated immediately.

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The rights based approach to development and the human development perspective have both become popular in the recent past.  Despite a similar philosophical base, they were both developed in distinctly different communities and so they have different strengths and weaknesses in practice.  One of the major strengths of the human development approach is that it has a lot of statistical techniques that have been developed by economists involved with the approach over many years.  The rights approach always had a legal-political leaning and so it did not have the same kind of statistical tools for planning and for assessment.  Rights based approach can be enriched by the rich information that HDA can provide with its vast array of reports and statistical tools.  HDA can in turn be enriched by the legal and political tools of RBA so that the issues that HDA raises can materialise effectively.  This paper highlights some such possibilities.

This paper was developed for mid-career government officials in India for a training programme at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.   Click here to download.

S. Vivek, “Exploring linkages of rights based approach to development & the human development approach,” produced for Course on human rights and human development (Bombay, India: Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 2009).

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Right from the word go combating corruption in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been a major agenda of activists of the Right to Food Campaign. Needless to say, it brings activists into conflict with the vested interests that are deeply rooted in India today. This week in Palamu, a young and committed activist – Lalit Kumar – was murdered, perhaps a result of his actions to secure the poorest of people their rights. I am reproducing an appeal below from the website of the right to food campaign on this issue:

We are deeply disturbed by the recent murder of Lalit Kumar Mehta, member of Vikas Sahyog Kendra (Palamau District), who was brutally killed on 14 May 2008 as he was returning from Daltonganj to Chhattarpur on a motorcycle.

The circumstances of this murder are disturbing. Lalit (aged 36), an active member of the right to food campaign and Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, has been working in this area for more than 15 years on issues related to the right to food and the right to work. He was a very gentle person and his work was widely appreciated. However he was also fearless in exposing corruption and exploitation, and often came in the way of vested interests.

At the time of this incident, Lalit was helping a team of volunteers from Delhi and elsewhere to conduct a social audit of NREGA works in Chainpur and Chhattarpur Blocks of Palamau District. Attempts had already been made to dissuade the team from conducting this investigation, particularly in Chainpur Block. Is it a coincidence that Lalit was murdered just one day after the investigation began?

If this murder was an act of intimidation, it did not succeed. Friends and supporters from all over Jharkhand gathered at Vikas Sahyog Kendra on 17 May. They unanimously resolved to continue the campaign against corruption and exploitation in this area.

A public hearing of NREGA will be held in Chhattarpur on 26 May. We appeal to all those who stand in solidarity with Lalit and his work to participate in this event.

Our immediate demands: (1) CBI enquiry into this incident; (2) strict action on all the complaints and irregularities emerging from this social audit of NREGA.

Balram (Right to Food Campaign), Jean Drèze (Allahabad University), Jawahar (Vikas Sahyog Kendra), Meghnath (Akhra, Ranchi), Vinoy Ohdar (ActionAid) and others including all members of Gram Swaraj Abhiyan.

Local contact: 06566-290013 (Vikas Sahyog Kendra) or rozgar@gmail.com

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Executive summary

The Right to Food Campaign in India began in 2001. It was a time of absurd paradox. Even as the foodgrain stocks held by the government rose to 50 million metric tons, several parts of the country were reeling from a third consecutive year of drought. The threat of severe hunger loomed large, yet efforts to address this threat were insufficient. In April 2001 the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan, an active civil society group in the north Indian state of Rajasthan, submitted a writ petition to the Supreme Court of India. Briefly, the petition demanded that the country’s food stocks be used without delay to protect people from hunger and starvation. This petition led to a prolonged “public interest litigation”1 (PUCL vs. Union of India and Others, Writ Petition [Civil] 196 of 2001). Supreme Court hearings have been held since then at regular intervals, and significant “interim orders” have been issued by the court from time to time regarding the scope and implementation of eight food-related schemes of the Government of India. The litigation provided a springboard for the Right to Food Campaign.

The Right to Food Campaign (RFC) asserts that “everyone has a fundamental right to be free from hunger and malnutrition and that the primary responsibility for guaranteeing these entitlements rests with the state” (Right to Food Campaign 2005). Further, if people’s basic needs are not a political priority, then state intervention itself depends on effective popular organization using democratic means. In broad terms, the RFC’s role is to ensure that hunger and malnutrition become a political priority and that resources reach the intended beneficiaries. The Right to Food Campaign is, however, not merely a pressure group that secures increased allocations to food schemes. It is a social movement with a much broader agenda, playing an important role in bringing down the barriers that people face in gaining access to the programs and resources to which they are entitled.

In the Indian context, barriers of various kinds, including corruption, apathy, and many forms of social discrimination, make it difficult, and at times even impossible, for the intended beneficiaries to gain access to the programs expressly meant for them. Those at risk of hunger are necessarily poor, but also tend to be socially powerless and marginalized. The RFC recognizes that the realization of the right to be free from hunger and malnutrition depends critically on entitlements to livelihood security, such as the right to work, land reform, and social security.

From the perspective of people within state institutions, social movements such as the Right to Food Campaign pose a confounding dilemma. On the one hand, the Right to Food Campaign is an ally in the government’s fight against hunger and malnutrition. The RFC achieves its goals through collective action—by taking on the state and its functionaries, often exposing the weak links, leakage, and corruption. How do policy makers engage with such a social movement?

Your assignment is to recommend how the Government of India can engage with the Right to Food Campaign as an ally in its fight against hunger and malnutrition. What can it do at the macropolicy level to address these issues? And what measures can it take to break the network of vested interests that undermine the implementation of food-related programs?

Citation:  S. Vivek and Sudha Narayanan, “Food Policy and Social Movements: Reflections on the Right to Food Campaign in India,” in Food policy for developing countries: The role of government in the global food system (Ithaca: New York: Cornell University, 2007).

Click here to download the article.

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It looks like there is a large attrition of young people from social movements in India, and perhaps elsewhere. I guess a part of it must be for financial and professional reasons. But that is clearly not the whole story. Social movements are by nature a place for discussion and rebellion – and tend to produce a lot of misgivings within. I was with a group of wonderful people in the Right to Food Campaign. I continue to cherish my association with most of them. But my memories overall are bittersweet. With some people, I felt taken for granted. Democratic values are not respected all the time in social movements though these are given much importance. Copied below is a small section of a much longer letter I wrote in considerable anger reflecting some issues that I’ve heard through other young people involved in different campaigns.

All of us have gathered here to work on a common cause, and not private profit. Each of us is giving what is precious to us. I hope to work in an environment where I can put my best for some social cause that I aspire. I am lucky to be working with all of you, each of whom is distinguished in many ways. Given that, I am a highly self-willed person who evaluates the usefulness of what I do. While I am willing to do certain things I don’t believe in, for the sake of teamwork, I consider that I am not obliged to do so. If I am asked to do something, I will evaluate the value addition of the work to be done. I am capable of taking things up only when I am convinced of the merits of doing it. This scheme of things is considered healthy in a horizontal set up. Without asking any of you about it, I have declared myself an equal partner in this common venture (liberty shall not descend onto me, I shall raise up to it). Luckily for me, most of you have accepted me as such. This has enabled me to dialogue with you. The dialogue has helped me understand your positions and on most occasions be convinced of your opinion. Unfortunately, there is a great generation gap between X and me. This is stifling dialogue. In the extreme case, he even questioned if I should be a part of the campaign when I did not subscribe to his view on BT cotton (we never discussed my stand, but with values of yester generations it is often the case you either support the other’s view or be termed the ‘advocatus diaboli’). I wonder if there is some way of dialogue between generations!

I feel that I am working with wonderful people and have a lot to gain from you all. I am certain that I am doing as good a work as I can at my age. I urge you all to make the best use of me, I am glad to be of use. I urge you to try influencing me; I have strong but pliable opinions. I urge you to point out to my failings when I am in my good mood (which is more often the case) and I am inclined to accept change. I am more than willing to play that part with you. While I am willing to work hard without a sense of reward, it is important for me to feel that my time is usefully spent. For this I demand that the group does its homework. I demand that you think and plan well before asking me to take up a task. I demand that you convince me of the effectiveness of proposed measures, by articulating your understanding and by convincing me of its foundations. I demand that I am not taken for granted, expected to do what is given or repeat what is said. Work with me with democratic values, intellectual honesty, adequate homework and courtesy; I will promise you a rewarding experience.

Thus went the mail and a lot of smoke went up the air subsequently.  The wonderful-of-the-lot continued to support me and lived the values I expected of them.  The rest continued to live [] ever after.

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The Government of India passed the all-important National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in 2005 (for an intro click here). Whenever I mention it to my friends in USA the first question they ask me is, “is this like the new-deal”. The new deal has many similarities with NREGA, but is a much wider concept. NREGA is a programme dealing exclusively with labour-intensive, unskilled work. Employment programmes under new deal were much wider in scope including large-scale employment of artists, writers, among others. There were so many agencies and programmes under new deal that Roosevelt’s administration was called the ‘alphabet-soup government’ (due to acronyms such as WPA, CCC, etc.). In this alphabet soup, one programme comes close to NREGA – that is Civilian  Conservation Corps (CCC).

CCC aimed at creating employment under the condition of mass unemployment and in the process assist environmental regeneration. CCC and other fellow programmes are credited with creating numerous national parks in the US, soil conservation, reforestation, and other important feats that have improved the environment in this country. Let me pause for a moment to confess that I have read only a little about CCC so far, and am not acquainted with its criticism – hopefully, I will work on it soon. In any case, the ambition of NREGA is similar to CCC – to provide employment so that people do not suffer from hunger and destitution and at the same time create useful assets. Among useful assets are ‘Jal, Jungle, Jameen’ i.e. water, afforestation and soil conservation.

Employment or assets?

One of the many criticisms of the Employment Guarantee Act is that projects often do not create useful assets. Critics argue that if transfer of money to poor people is the aim, then it is better done directly rather than making people do hard work that yields nothing. Even if NREGA yields no assets, it serves a useful ‘selection’ function i.e. since only poor people tend to take up hard physical work for minimum wage, NREGA ensures that money goes to people who need it the most. That said, the argument that NREGA is not creating assets is a serious one and should get the attention it deserves.

I have not come across detailed studies about asset creation by NREGA. What we know of it so far is from the record of Employment Guarantee Scheme in Maharashtra and of the various food-for-work programmes across India. There is some evidence in Maharashtra that it had a good impact on some sectors – particularly horticulture. But on the whole I think there is some merit to the notion that wage-employment programmes did not produce useful assets. Given the potential do good work, this is a pity. Somehow there seems to be a division between creating employment and assets – at least administratively.

Interestingly, the debate on whether wage-employment programmes should concentrate on creating employment or assets is neither new nor restricted to India. When the debate was raging in 1930s FDR (then president of USA) Harry Hopkins and one Harold on a particular day. When Harry Hopkins argued that employment should get the priority and FDR answered, ‘you are perfectly right’. Later in the day Harold argued that assets should get the emphasis and FDR answered, ‘you are perfectly right’. His wife had watched the two and she confronted him that he had said both opposing views were correct. FDR looked at Eleanor for a moment and said, ‘you know dear, you are perfectly right’ [Recounted by J K Galbraith in a talk at Harvard May 9, 2002].

While one would think that there is a great deal of synchrony between employment and asset creation – administratively speaking they are two different equally worthy goals. Unfortunately though, within the scope of wage employment programmes such as NREGA, employment is the gaze with which the government looks and so asset creation does not get the emphasis it deserves. If the claims that I read about CCC were true, it has had remarkable achievements in a short span. Due to environmental mismanagement in the last century there were many environmental disasters in the mid-west including periodic floods, massive erosion of topsoil, etc. CCC worked in restoring things in important ways. Many parks were created that people continue to enjoy till today.

Employment for Environment

There is no question that India needs to invest in its environment, water, land and other resources. With our vast human resources, these are well within our reach. The question though is whether we will start putting our attention to these issues. NREGA offers the perfect opportunity for us to give environment the attention it deserves. With some push, we can make a lot happen.  Let the slogan be Employment for Environment.

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Citizens’ Initiative for the Rights of Children Under Six. 2006. Focus on children under six. Delhi: Circus.

This report looks at the status of children under six, and the status of India’s only major child care system – Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). The report is based on a six-state survey and numerous other materials. The focus report is a joint work by a large team. My contribution was on the Tamil Nadu chapter (in collaboration with other team members)

Drèze, Jean, and S. Vivek. 2002. Hunger in the classroom. Food and Nutrition World (Sample issue).

This was originally published as an editorial in Hindustan Times, a leading newspaper in India. It is a small piece on the role of school feeding in addressing classroom hunger.

Guha-Khasnobis, Basudeb, and S. Vivek. Forthcoming. Gender and the right to food: A critical reexamination. Paper presented at Gender and Food Security, Kolkatta.

This paper looks at the relationship between gender and the right to food by re-examining approaches in current economic literature and suggesting ways of understanding gender and food security. Click here for draft

———. 2005. Rights based approach to development: Lessons from the right to food movement. Paper presented at Hunger and Food Security, Jaipur.

The paper looks at the role of litigation for the right to food. Abstract: In April 2001 People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) approached the Supreme Court of India arguing that the government has a duty to provide greater relief in the context of mass hunger. The litigation has now become the best known precedent on the right to food internationally. This paper reviews the litigation with a view to understand various strategies used by the litigants to create and enforce far-reaching entitlements in a near legal vacuum on the right to food. This is followed by a discussion on the lessons from this case for rights based approach to development at large. Click here for draft.

Mander, Harsh, Drèze, Jean, and Vivek, S. Freedom from hunger and fear. Delhi: RGICS, 2002.

A report based on a meeting to dicsuss issues that could be taken up for advocacy with political parties in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections 2004.

Vivek, S. Forthcoming. School feeding as a global obligation. In Global obligation for the right to food., ed. George Kent. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Various international instruments profess the right to food directly or indirectly. Can there be global obligation that binds governments and multilateral agencies? This article looks at the question with respect to school feeding.

———. Forthcoming. Democracy and the politics of hunger. In Human right to adequate food: Definitions, interpretations and initiatives (tentative)., ed. Cecilia Florencio.

This is my attempt to look at the role of democratic practices in fostering the right to food. It looks at the role of social movements in creating political priorities and ensuring sound implementation of food programmes.

———. Notes from the right to food campaign: People’s movement for the right to food. Paper presented at Towards a hunger-free India, Delhi organised by World Food Program and M S Swaminatha Research Foundation.

This is my first detailed overview of the Right to Food Campaign. It looks at various initiatives of the campaign.

———. 2003. Hope in our hands. Humanscape X, (Xii; 10th Anniversary Series) (Dec 2003).

The article was written for a magazine covering social issues for its 10th Anniversary.

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This documentary by Jan Madhyam Productions gives a very good introduction to the right to information campaign in India and on how RTI is used with social audits to combat corruption.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In case you have trouble viewing it, please go to the permanalink by clicking the title above, or here

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