Right To Food: Analyses
The lives of over a million weavers of the famous Banarasi Saris are at risk as a result of insensitive policies vis-à-vis the WTO.
With the upcoming ministerial level meeting at Hong Kong on WTO, civic society groups are actively demanding that the Government of India protect agrarian interests. Anti-WTO caravans, civic society recommendations, petitions and study groups are all recommending that current WTO programs will adversely affect farmers, artisans and agrarian communities at large.
The employment guarantee bill, passed by the Lok Sabha in August 2005 guarantees employment for one hundred days every year to every rural household, at minimum wage. The act is a significant one �with the government for the first time acknowledging that it has responsibility towards providing some measure of employment protection to the citizens.