India Social Forum, New Delhi, 09-13 Nov 2006 :
Indian Social Forum, part of World Social Forum, WSF, is being held in New Delhi from 9-13 November,
2006
As per the website of WSF India - WSFIndia,
the World Social Forum is not an organisation, nor a united front platform,
but "an open
meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of
proposals, free exchange of experiences and inter-linking for effective action, by groups
and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo- liberalism and to domination of
the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a society
centred on the human person". The Indian Social Forum, has been inviting volunteers for
managing and coordination, of various events at ISF. See http://www.wsfindia.org/?q=node/42
India Social Forum Opening in New Delhi - 9 November 2006
New Delhi : India Social forum is beginning on 9th November with around 50,000 people from all
over the India and from Asia-Africa.
An-all women panel of speakers will address the - Opening Plenary - of the ISF from 4 pm onwards at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium grounds.
All-women panel of speakers include among others, Ruth Manorama (Dalit activist from Karnataka), Tulsi Mai Munda
(Tribal leader from Orissa), Subhashini Ali (All India Democratic Womens' Association), Medha
Patkar (Social activist), Eileen Kuttab (Beirut), Wahu Kaara ( Africa), Irom Sharmila (Manipur)
and Rasheeda Bi ( Bhopal).
Cultural performances will be by Shahriyar (Urdu poet), Chirikure Chirikure (poet from Africa),
C J Kuttapan (dalit folk singer from Kerala), Ram Dayal Munda (Tribal artist from Jharkhand),
Prahlad Singh Tipania (Kabir singer from Chattisgarh), Rukma Devi (Rajasthani singer) and Raghu
Dixit Band.
Large number of tribals from Jharkand, Orissa, Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar
and North-eastern region will be there with their own cultural troupe.
Children in large numbers will be present in the run up of the Children Social Forum.
Youth from all over the country will also assemble on 9th to prepare for the Youth Social Forum.
Globalization :
Corporate globalization and food policy - Trade blocs and corporates are increasingly acquiring an
insatiable appetite to determine what is researched in laboratories, what is grown in the farm fields,
what is sold in the name of good wholesome food on global markets, and what eventually finds itself
in the plates and stomachs of a global consumer market. The direction of globalization is a critical
issue for Third World countries of course, but in a moral sense, it is also a test for First World
countries feeling threatened by competition from emerging economies in previously colonized
and, safely under control, countries.
Highlights :
- World Food Policy :
Majority World food policy perspectives
- Indian Food Policy :
Majority World food policy perspectives :
"Every sixth human being on the planet resides in India. Participatory, democratic food policy, is
meaningless
rhetoric without listening to the views of the Indian farmer. Global institutions, multi lateral
institutions, specialist First World food policy research institutes, urbane Third World think tanks,
that try to coerce and
drum up global concurrence, without ascertaining the views of the Indian farmers
vis a vis global food policies, can never be remotely democratic. Maybe their very mandate is
explicitly undemocratic.
- Mazdoor Kisan Niti :
Mazdoor Kisan Niti and its editors attempted to define and describe what was then called the new
Farmer's Movement in India. Sunil Sahasrabudhe, RK Gandhi, Surendra Suman, Vijay Jawandhia and
others were involved with movements like Shetkari Sanghathana in Maharashtra, Bhartiya Kisan Union
in Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, Central and eastern UP, Khedut Samaj in Gujarat, Ryot Sangha in Karnataka
and smaller movements in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar. A common characteristic of these movements was
that they were simultaneous to the Green Revolution and the issues of subsidization of farming, vis a vis
subsidization of industrial infrastructure in India and the issues of whether farming per se, could
at all be a viable profession in India.
Bharat and India :
- Reliance Retail knows where the bucks are :
Reliance Retail unveils an ambitious plan of delivering food to Indian middle class -"from the farm to the fork" !!!
It seems all middlemen are suddenly villains. One more company stiching invisible and
wonderful clothes for the Indian farmer.
-
Indian farmers will keep becoming marginalized by the unsustainability of farming and agriculture as a viable
profession while the urban Indian elite forms intricate alliances with global
corporate investments, trade blocs and bodies like WTO, World Bank, IMF, to bring about a new form of
"slavery to the farm" for the majority of Indian farm income dependant population in terms of liberal
farm debt, inadequate compensation for land acquired, dependance on external inputs, denial of control
on local resources like water, land and seeds, while ushering in contract farming and futures
commodities trading as the gateways to a golden heaven for Indian farm dependant populations, in the rhetoric
of another Green Revolution.
-
The uniform bankruptcy of ideas and inability of elected political parties to address the Indian
agrarian crisis and the deliberate marginalization of Bharat by India. Terms like liberal farm debt, farming and crop
diversification, genetic and technological re-engineering, rural infrastructure investments,
commodities trading, are
still being used by government think tanks, Oxbridge economists and externally funded food policy NGO's /
study centres, as mantras and cliches for solving the problem of large scale suicides amongst farmers,
without any attempt made to address the issues of sustainability of large agricultural populations
on farming incomes. Not one of these Oxbridge economists, think tanks and NGO's would agree to
send their own children into farming as a profession.
- An acceptable and forward looking formula, for decoupled farm payments, based on the land holding and / or the number of adults
and children depending on a piece of land, is still miles away, from Sixth Pay Commission deliberations.
This, while parliamentarians, raise their own salaries by mere acts of Parliament,
in the "national interest" and as a disincentive for corruption among elected members.
Food Policy websites :
- World Food Policy Portal : WFP
World Food Policy website :
- Indian Food Policy Portal : IFP
Indian Food Policy website :
- A simple survey of farmers of India would easily show that they will happily accept
contract corporate farming and commodities futures trading, if they are treated on par with
industrial labour, and given the same guarantees of assured income, offset against inflation,
in the Sixth Pay Commission. Why must farmers be excluded from Pay Commission diktats ?
Upcoming Events :
-
Indian Social Forum, 9-11 November, New Delhi
- Indian Food Policy
Indian Food Policy : Some Links
Cotton farmers of Vidarbha : Resources
Wheat Imports by Indian agriculture ministry at Rs 1200 per quintal : Indian farmers get Rs 700
CME, Medical Portals, 2d - 3d - Animations
Animations : Design : Software
