Visakhapatnam, November 29, 2007: Spandana, an alliance for poor, organised a three-day programme to provide platform to the various Dalit, adivasis, AIDS-infected, women, children, disabled, sex workers and weaver groups from the poor sections to share their struggles and experiences in exercising their basic human rights.
The discussions brought to the fore various burning issues like the lack of productive employment in the rural areas, forcing large number of population into distress migration. Though the State Government has been implementing development projects, there has hardly been any improvement in the quality of life in the rural areas.
SEZs
According to an estimate, more than 40 fishing villages will be wiped out due to industrialisation of coastal economy and more than 70 Special Economic Zones will be built that will transfer vast amount of agricultural lands to the industries in the coming years. Opening of forestlands and hills for mineral exploration like Jindal mining has created displacement problems for the tribals. The general scarcity of Antiretroviral drugs, lack of shelter homes, no women counsellors for addressing women issues in the rural areas pose serious questions in both rural and urban areas in the State.
The A.P. Dalit Samakhya is demanding two to three acres of land for each poor family, Rs.600 pension per month against the present Rs.200 and Rs. 1 lakh to be given for building a house but its implementation has not been done so far. The tribal group is demanding PESA Act implementation-Panchayati Raj extention in the scheduled area, implementation of the Forest Act passed in 2005 for getting ownership rights in reserved forest and enforcement of the Government programmes meant for tribals.
Source: The Hindu
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