The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA) on Friday, January 10, organised a public meeting addressing the issue of food insecurity and hunger, ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the national capital.
More than 300 people living in basti (slum settlements) across the city attended the public meeting and put forth their problems regarding accessing their rights entitled under the National Food Security Act.
All political parties contesting the Delhi polls were invited to the event. Congress leader Pawan Khera, Communist Party of India’s Annie Raja, Surya Prakash of the CPI Marxist-Leninist and Anurag Saxena of CPI(M) attended the meeting. They said their parties will include these demands in their manifesto.
Social activists including Anjali Bhardwaj, Harsh Mander, Indu Prakash Singh, Biraj Patnaik and Siya also attended the meeting.
A public meeting organised by the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA). Photo: DRRAA
Concerns were raised about the people’s homes being demolished due to which they were rendered homeless and children not being able to go to anganwadi. Just last year, at least 14 shelters for homeless in Delhi were either demolished or locked up with no alternative provision being made, according to the DRRAA.
Many complained that their ration cards were not working or that they were not getting the entitlements guaranteed to them. Others lamented that even though they are registered on the e-shram portal (database of unorganised sector workers) and the Supreme Court has repeatedly ordered that all the workers on e-shram must be provided ration cards, they were still not covered under the National Food Security Act.
More than 16 lakh people in Delhi who are registered on the e-shram portal but do not possess a ration card, according to DRRAA.
Also read: It’s Not Just Food Price, India Is Facing a Food Security Challenge
Neha, a resident of Sangam Vihar, said that she works as a domestic help and her husband is a labourer. Despite her registering on the e-shram portal, having an e-shram card and making multiple visits to the food department and applying for a ration card, she has not received a ration card. She was told she is on the waitlist because the quota for Delhi is exhausted.
Gulzar, who is homeless and has a disability in both legs, shared that despite applying for a ration card and pension scheme, he was repeatedly turned away on some or the other pretext.
Several women have been facing difficulty in accessing their maternity entitlement guaranteed to them under the NFSA despite registering at the Anganwadi centre. The money has not been released, they said at the meeting.
The DRRAA also presented a charter of demands through the campaign. A list of 12 demands included universal food security coverage, expansion of food basket under the public distribution system, community kitchens, nutritional meals for children, adequate shelter and facilities for homeless persons, universal pensions and employment guarantee, among others.
Also read: Food Subsidy: Union Budget Betrays Those Living with Hunger and Malnutrition
Currently, only about 33% of Delhi’s population is covered under the public distribution system even though more than 50% of the population lives in slum settlements and unauthorised colonies and more than 90% of the workforce is in the unorganised sector.
“Despite repeated orders of the Supreme Court to address the large scale exclusions and issuing ration cards to all those registered on the unorganised sector workers database, there has been no increase in coverage,” the organisers said in a press release.
They highlighted that the eligibility criteria of annual household income of less than Rs 1 lakh for applying for a ration card needs to be done away with as it is completely unrealistic given the cost of living in Delhi and does not account for the highly volatile nature of poverty in urban areas.
The delay in carrying out the national census, which should have taken place in 2021, has further caused the exclusion of nearly 13 crore people in need, the release stated.