Citizens’ Report on Third year of the NDA Government -2017 Promises & Reality Civil Society Initiative Coordinated by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan 01 ABOUT 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. Ph: 011-46082371 Email: [email protected] Citizens’ Review of Third year of the NDA Government -2017 Promises & Reality Civil Society Initiative Coordinated by: Wada Na Todo Abhiyan Editor: Sonalika Sinha Consulting Editor: Annie Namala, Thomas Pallithanam, A. K. Singh, Amitabh Behar and Paul Divakar. Coordinators John Animesh Gomes and Abdul Rauf Printed on: May 24, 2017 Design and printing: Aspire Design | www.aspiredesign.in ii Foreword Citizens Report on 3nd Year of the NDA Government - 2017: Promises & Reality’ is a Civil Society initiative reviewing government promises and performance with special focus on the elimination of poverty, discrimination and social exclusion. Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) anchored the process with contribution from eminent citizens. The basis of the assessment is Con- stitutional mandates, electoral promises made by the government and the national development goals. The Annual Citizens Review provides a broad report on the government’s performance to citizens’ concerns. WNTA is a large civil society platform of over 4,000 civil society organizations and individuals with its core focus on gover- nance accountability to eliminate poverty and social exclusion. An important piece of this process is the Annual Civil Society / Citizens’ Review of the Union Government and its promises to the people. WNTA anchored the first civil society review of the performance of the Union Government in 2005 of UPA I. Since then Annual Reviews have been published. Additionally, 100 days of UPA II and 9 years of UPA (I &II) was published. In the months leading up to the General Elections 2014, more than 16,00,000 citizens, from 250 parliamentary constituencies across 24 states, scripted the ‘People’s Manifesto - A National Agenda for Development, Rights, Services, Governance and Accountability’ through direct and indirect consultations. The demands, aspirations and needs of the people were shared with all political parties as inputs for their upcoming election manifestos. The Citizens Review is also civil society follow up on the Peoples’ Manifesto, 2014. The Citizens’ Review of the current NDA government was conducted on the occasion of its completion of 100 days on 1st September 2014. This was followed by the Annual Citizens’ Review at the completion of the 1st year of the NDA government on 24th May 2015. The review focused on big ticket promises and campaigns. The second year review was published on 23rd May 2016 and focused on different thematic and constituencies. As the NDA government completes the third year on 25th May 2017, this report, released on May 24th 2017, is an effort to assess the progress made on various thematic areas and constituency groups. Thematic areas include - Accountability, Bud- get, Climate Justice, Civil Society Space, Education, Environment, Food & Nutrition, Functioning of Parliament, Governance, Health, Housing & Urban Poverty, Human Rights, Labour & Employment, Land Rights, Livelihood, Peace, Security & Justice, Water & Sanitation and the constituency groups are LGBTQI, Children, Dalits, Minorities, Person with Disability, Senior Citizen/ The Elderly, Tribals, Women, and Youth. Citizens from diverse backgrounds, engagements and concerns have written these pieces. Authors include citizens working with communities at the ‘grass-root’ level and those influencing national and international policy frameworks, academics, activists, retired bureaucrats to name. Written as short pieces, they mirror the critical dimensions on the thematic area. This Citizen’s Report on the NDA third year (2016-17) provides citizens’ views on various issues of people’s concerns and national development. It holds a mirror to how people’s lives are impacted over the past year and how the nation has pro- gressed. We hope this report contributes to strengthening governance accountability towards deepening our democracy and inclusive development processes. A.K. Singh, Annie Namala, Amitabh Behar, Paul Divakar and Thomas Pallithanam Conveners Wada Na Todo Abhiyan 24th May 2017 iii iv Contents 1 Aakar Patel Human rights under attack 1 2 Aariz Mohammed People’s report card 3 3 Abhay Xaxa Between devil and deep sea: Tribal affairs in NDA 5 4 Ajaykumar V B Demonetisation and the marginalised 6 5 Ajita Tiwari Padhi Climate justice: Rhetoric and policy imperatives 7 6 Amba Salelkar The year in review for persons with disabilities 9 7 Ambarish Rai Challenges in school education and status of RTE 10 8 Amit Narkar A story of missed deadlines and failed promises 12 9 Anjali Bhardwaj The jumla of Bhrashtachar-mukt Bharat 14 10 Ashok Row Kavi Failures and hopes 15 11 Bhanwar Meghwanshi Marginalised sections pushed further to edge 17 12 Bidisha Pillai Let’s keep our promise to our children 18 13 C P Chandrasekhar Focus on hype 20 14 Dipa Sinha Right to Food gone wrong 21 15 Dr Arun Gupta Conflicts of Interest in public policy 22 16 Dr Deepak S Nikarthil & Dyuti Marginalised by government, too 24 17 Dr Harsh Dobhal Reforms in NHRC crucial now 26 18 Dr indu prakash singh & Fumbling attempts at providing ‘Housing for All’ 27 Anil Kumar 19 Dr Palla Trinadha Rao Adivasis wronged 30 20 Dr Pam Rajput Constituency Women 32 21 Dr Sajjad Hassan Governance mantra a washout 34 22 Dr Santosh Kumar Giri LGBT rights: Words, words and words 36 23 Dr Santosh Kumar Singh Parliament’s performance 37 24 E Premdas Pinto Health policies sans political will 38 25 Fahad M Khan Union Budget: Through the minority lens 40 26 Fr Koshy Thomas Leave no child behind 44 27 Gagan Sethi Goals take backseat 46 28 Harish Iyer Happy to say I’m gay 48 29 Harsh Jaitli Crisis for CSOs 49 30 Harsh Mander Jobless growth 50 31 Henri Tiphagne Right to Association: FCRA misused by government to target CSOs 52 32 John Dayal Campaign mode keeps communities cowering in fear 53 33 Kirthi Jayakumar Put women in forefront 54 34 Kurian Katticaren Civil society faultline and the emergence of right wing fundamentalism 55 v 35 M G Devasahayam Core promises forgotten 57 36 Mandeep Tiwana FCRA is an affront to civil society, democracy 59 37 Manshi Singh & Status of housing, urban poverty 61 Roshni Nuggehali 38 Martin Macwan Approaching an unproclaimed Emergency 64 39 Mathew Cherian Elderly still an ignored lot 65 40 Mathew Jacob Human rights defenders: Shrinking of democratic spaces in India 66 41 Mazher Hussain Trend at 100, Tandav at 1,000 68 42 Mridula Bajaj & Devika Singh Early childhood low on govt priority 70 43 Naresh Chandra Saxena Flaws in schemes hinder growth 72 44 Ovais Sultan Khan Three years of hatred and bigotry against Indian Muslims and Christians 73 45 P Joseph Victor Raj Child labour unaddressed 75 46 Pamela Philipose Sentinels of power choke information 76 47 Prof Janaki Rajan An eluding manifesto 78 48 Rajesh Jha NDA’s policy for higher education: Profit making business 80 49 Ramesh Sharma Land rights: An unfinished agenda 82 50 Ravi Duggal Policy paralysis continues 83 51 Ravi Duggal Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas: Mere words 85 52 Reni Jacob The reality of bonded labour 88 53 Rituparna Borah & Being LGBT in India 91 Ritambhara Mehta 54 S P Udayakumar A government not for the ordinary 93 55 Santhakumar V India’s progress likely to be slow 95 56 Santhakumar V Life of girls in Indian context 96 57 Satyendra Kumar Youth Population Dividend – Myth or Reality? 97 58 Sharad C Behar Education for Social Change 99 59 Subhash Chandra Agrawal Demonetisation poorly implemented 100 60 Trinanjan Radhakrishnan Country’s socio-cultural fabric under attack 102 61 Urmilesh Kashmir: Three years of policy paralysis 103 vi Human NDA government has rights under enabled, rather than curb violations in the attack country The year 2016 saw human rights come under sustained assault by both state and non-state actors. Impunity for human rights violations by security forces remained a major concern. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which grants security forces sweeping powers and virtual immunity from prosecution, continued to enable human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern states. Authorities used crude colonial-era laws to silence voices of dissent. Despite several cases of racist violence and discrimination against black Africans, the Indian government refused to acknowledge the attacks as racist. Extrajudicial executions Impunity for security forces accused of extrajudicial executions continued, despite a Supreme Court ruling in July 2016 that armed forces personnel should not enjoy “blanket immunity” from trials in civilian courts.