Citizens' Report on Four Years of the NDA Government 2014-2018
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Citizens' Report on four years of the NDA Government 2014-2018 Civil Society Initiative Coordinated by : Wada Na Todo Abhiyan WADA NA TODO ABHIYAN Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) is a national campaign focused on Governance Accountability to hold the government accountable for its promise to end Poverty, Social Exclusion & Discrimination. WNTA emerged from the consensus among human rights activists and social action groups who were part of the World Social Forum 2004 (Mumbai). The purpose was to create an environment through focused and concerted effort and try to make a difference in India where one-fourth of the world's poor live and experience intense deprivation from opportunities to learn, live and work with dignity. In this regard, WNTA highlights the aspirations and concerns of the most marginalized sections of the society – Dalits, Adivasis, Nomadic Tribes, Minorities, Women, Sexual Minorities, Children, Youth and the Person with disability to the government through People's Manifestoes before elections. Further, WNTA reviews and monitors the performance of the government on its promises and plans towards the marginalized sections on the framework of Constitutional mandates, National development goals and International commitments set in the UN Millennium Declaration (2000) / The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. We work to ensure that the concerns and aspirations of the marginalized sections are mainstreamed across programs, policies and development goals of the central and state governments. Contact : Wada Na Todo Abhiyan C-1/E, IInd Floor, Green Park Ext., New Delhi - 110016. Phone : 011-46082371 Email: [email protected] Citizens' Review of Four Years of the NDA Government – 2014-18 Civil Society Initiative Coordinated by: Wada Na Todo Abhiyan Editors : Sonalika Sinha and Bijoy Patro Consulting Editors : Annie Namala, Thomas Pallithanam, A. K. Singh and Amitabh Behar. Coordinators : Lubna Sayed Qadri and Syeda Tanbir Azmi Printed on : May, 2018 Design and printing : JSR Graphics www.jsrgraphics.co.in ii Citizens' Report on four years of the NDA Government 2014-2018 PREFACE Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) is a national civil society platform of over 4,000 civil society organizations and individuals with its core focus on 'governance accountability to eliminate poverty and social exclusion'. WNTA provides a multi-stakeholder platform for civil society organisations and networks to jointly review government promises and performance across multiple sectors. An important piece of this process is the Annual Citizens' review of the Union Government and its promises to the people. The first review was held in 2005 of the UPA1 government followed by annual reviews. In addition to the 9 years of review of UPA (I & II), 100 days of UPA II, and 100 days of NDA was also done. The reviews of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of NDA government were done in May 2015, May 2016 and May 2017. As the NDA government is completing four years on 25th May, 2018, WNTA coordinated and anchored the civil society initiative to review the governments' performance (2014 – 2018) on its electoral promises within the framework of the Constitutional mandates. This becomes an important juncture as the government will soon complete its term and political parties will once again be reaching out to citizens for the next elections. The report “Citizens' Report on the “Four Years of the NDA Government, 2014-18: Promises & Reality” – a civil society initiative' is a collective work by experts, development networks and civil society organisations working on diverse concerns and issues with the marginalized and vulnerable population groups – Dalits, Tribals, children, youth, women, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, bonded labour, urban poor to name a few. The report also compiles articles on critical development issues of education, health, water and sanitation, land rights, economy, budgets, fiscal policies, civil society space, media, human rights, labour and employment, environment, parliament functioning, governance to mention some. In addition to the report, various individuals and organisations have used the visual media, making short videos on their critical concerns about the government's performance. 10 videos are shared on social media over the month to draw government's attention to people's concerns. In the months leading up to the 2014 General Elections, WNTA had anchored a process of reaching out to more than 16,00,000 citizens, from 250 parliamentary constituencies across 24 states through direct and indirect consultations. The concerns, issues and voices scripted the “People's Manifesto 2014 - a national agenda for development, rights, services, governance and accountability”. The People's Manifestowas shared with all political parties as inputs for their upcoming election manifestos. When the manifestos of various parties were published, WNTA undertook a comparative review of the commitments/promises of the political parties and the NDA government in particular on 'Achhe Din' (Good days) to the people along with 'Sab Ka Saath Sab ka Vikas' (Development for all and with all) as 'samajiknyay and samrastha' in the new India which we all envisaged. This Citizen's Report on the four years (2014-2018) provides a review from the citizens' perspective of how much their aspirations and demands in the “People's Manifesto' have been grounded and translated. It holds a mirror to how people's lives, particularly of the marginalized and vulnerable are impacted over the past four years. As we are at the cusp of the closing year of the current government and preparations for the next union elections, we hope this report contributes to strengthening governance accountability towards deepening our democracy and inclusive development processes. Annie Namala, Thomas Pallithanam, A. K. Singh and Amitabh Behar. Citizens' Report on four years of the NDA Government 2014-2018 i i i iv Citizens' Report on four years of the NDA Government 2014-2018 CONTENTS Executive Summary List of Contributors 1. AADHAR 5 Governance failure of biometric state 2. ACCOUNTABILITY 9 Reneging on the promise of a Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat 3. BONDED CHILD LABOUR 13 Always left behind 4. BONDED LABOUR 17 The continuing reality 5. BUDGET 19 Taking stock of promises - spending in social sectors 6. CHILDREN 26 It is a raw deal for them 7. DALIT COMMUNITY 30 Broken promises and unbroken realities 8. ECONOMY 33 Economic Review 2014-15 to 2017-18 9. EDUCATION 41 Universal education not on government's priority list 10. ENVIRONMENT 45 Environmental governance over the past four years 11. FISCAL POLICY 49 Corporate Friendly Reforms: Regressing People's Rights 12. FUNCTIONING OF PARLIAMENT 55 Disruptions and ordinances setting new standards 13. HEALTH 58 A grim four years 14. HOUSING AND URBAN POOR 62 Unequal Realities: The Challenges of Urban India 15. HUMAN RIGHTS 68 A looming threat 16. HUMAN RIGHTS 72 Freedom attacked 17. JUDICIARY 76 A house not in order 18. LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT 80 An assessment at the current juncture 19. LAND RIGHTS 84 Wrongs instead of rights Citizens' Report on four years of the NDA Government 2014-2018 v 20. LGBTQ 88 Promises and Reality: Being LGBTQ in India 21. MEDIA 91 NDA-II legacy in the shadow of a general election 22. MINORITY COMMUNITIES 94 Reeling under Violence in the NDA regime 23. MINORITY COMMUNITIES AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 97 Legislations need to protect not violate religious freedom of minorities 24. PERSONS WITH DISABILITY 100 Focus on the sector a must 25. RENEWABLE ENERGY 105 Look beyond laurels 26. TRIBALS 109 Adivasi report card on NDA II governance 27. VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS 113 Shrinking Space 28. WATER AND SANITATION 117 Long way to go 29. WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT 122 Too many gaps 30. YOUTH DEVELOPMENT 124 High on promises - low on performance vi Citizens' Report on four years of the NDA Government 2014-2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Since the time Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) came out with its first Citizens' Report on the BharatiyaJanta Party (BJP) led National Development Alliance (NDA) government in May 2015, India has witnessed an unprecedented political change whose sheer continuity has surprised many. Simply put, this is about the impressive electoral journey of the BJP which has, by now, expanded its footprint and formed governments in every region of the country, Karnataka being the most recent. Ideally, this tectonic political shift should have resulted in a much better synchronisation between the Centre and the states where NDA is in power. This exactly has also been the BJP's argument during the various state election campaigns. The ideological commonality of the Central and state political leaderships — besides the fact that Prime Minister Modi is now seen as the undisputed, universal leader of the ruling side — should have transformed the country's development contours. The moot question, therefore, is: Has this political change actually helped end poverty, social exclusion and discrimination in India? This penultimate Citizen's Report, being released as the NDA government enters its last year in office, is a humble and dispassionate attempt to evaluate its working through the watchful eyes of civil society observers. The current Citizen's Report, takes a comprehensive look at the four years of the government, makes an objective assessment of the direction that society and economy have taken and makes its statement. For instance, it is evident that the flagship 'UjjwalaYojana' has helped reduce the distress of rural women in millions of poor households. They have moved away from the traditional smoking chulha (oven) as the scheme has provided them with free LPG connections. It has made life easy for women while also reducing their health hazards. But this is only half the story as a good number of beneficiary families have actually reverted to the smoking and polluting oven after their first free LPG cylinder got over. The reason for this was as basic as it could get: The families did not have the money to buy the second cylinder! The history of independent India is replete with instances of too many well- meaning development schemes going bad due to similar pitfalls which result from careless planning.