Successful campaign by Lok Raj Sangathan for basic rights of Delhi’s working population

As reported in the June 1-15 issue of MEL, Lok Raj Sangathan has launched a campaign to highlight the utter lack of basic services such as water supply, sewage and sanitation, roads, health and hygiene, public transport, schools, etc., in the slum colonies and resettlement colonies across Delhi.

As reported in the June 1-15 issue of MEL, Lok Raj Sangathan has launched a campaign to highlight the utter lack of basic services such as water supply, sewage and sanitation, roads, health and hygiene, public transport, schools, etc., in the slum colonies and resettlement colonies across Delhi. The Lok Raj Samitis (committees of residents organised by Lok Raj Sangathan) in at least seven such colonies in different parts of Delhi met in early June, to highlight their demands. These demands were put forward through a memorandum, which was submitted to the Delhi CM’s office for immediate action.

Taking the campaign forward, the Lok Raj Samitis in several of these residential colonies have been organising public meetings to take the struggle for these and other rights foward. The common thread of all these meetings was the enthusiasm amongst the youth and women activists, and their burning desire to get organised and fight for their just demands. The correspondent of MEL was invited to some of these meetings, which are reported here.

Sangam Vihar residents demand regular water supply in every home

Sangam Vihar, a predominantly working class residential area in south Delhi, faces an acute water shortage, with residents having to walk several kilometres carrying cans of water. The Lok Raj Samiti of Sangam Vihar organised a public meeting in Gupta Colony, in this area on June 28. The youth activists of Lok Raj Sangathan from this area played a very active role in organising the meeting and mobilising the residents to participate in this action, addressing this most vital need in their lives. Hundreds of people, men, women and youth, participated in the deliberations and contributed their suggestions towards the solution of the water supply problem. The banner on the stage carried the message: "Drinking water connections to every home!" and “Establish committees for struggle at the local, national and all-India level to assert the rights of the people!".

The meeting began with a rousing song "aao uthein mere deshvasiyon . . .” calling on all to come together, rise up and take up the struggle for a better life.

Lalit Kumar, an youth activist of LRS, welcomed the participants. The meeting was addressed, among others, by Birju Nayak, convenor of the Delhi Regional Council of LRS, Poonam and Sucharita. Lokesh Kumar, Pradhan Mantri of the Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha, who had been nominated a candidate for the Delhi Assembly elections by the Lok Raj Samiti of this constituency, also addressed the gathering.

Lokesh Kumar called on the people to take up the struggle to solve our problems and not have faith in the promises made by various political parties at the time of the elections. Time and again, these promises have never been kept. He expressed optimism that we will succeed in our struggle, because large numbers of youth as well as elders attended, bringing both their youthful energies and wisdom and experience into the struggle.

Birju Nayak raised the question that when electricity connections and meters can be provided in every household, then why piped and metered water supply cannot be provided, if the government decides to do so. He emphasized that people should not get divided along party lines, but unite to solve their common problems. He declared that the residents are ready to cooperate with the government if it takes up the problem of water supply to the area for solution, but they must also be prepared to fight militantly for their rights against the government, if it delays in solving the problem. For this, it is extremely important to organise themselves in Lok Raj Samitis.

Sucharita pointed out that the government abdicates its responsibility of providing the basic needs of life to our people. She called upon all to join the Lok Raj Samitis and take up the struggle for their basic rights. Poonam referred to the strike of the resident doctors of Delhi, for better conditions in the hospitals, to show how the government and the media try to discredit the people when they fight for their rights; in this case the government and media were suggesting that the resident doctors were selfish and uncaring towards the patients.

Prof. Bharat explained how it was technically very possible to work out the correct sizes of the pipes and supply piped water to every household, provided the government had the will to do so.

Comrade Prakash Rao pointed out that the residents of Sangam Vihar work throughout the city to keep it running, but ironically, they are unable to maintain their own homes because of the lack of basic amenities such as water, sanitation and hygiene. Expressing his confidence that when people are united and ready to fight for their rights, they cannot be defeated, he called on the residents, particularly the women, to come forward and make their struggle for water supply a success.

Many residents of the area who addressed the gathering were unanimous in their appreciation of the role of Lok Raj Sangathan and the youth, for taking this initiative in solving this most crucial problem in their lives. They vividly described the gravity of the problem – that earlier water would be available from borewells in the nearby Kali Mandir or Gali no. 6, but now there is very little or no water in these; so their children have to carry buckets of water from over 2 km away, to meet the family's daily needs. They condemned the excuse given by the government, that it cannot provide piped water supply because this is an "illegal" colony. They raised the point that they all have legitimate voter cards and ration cards, they cast their vote to elect the government, so how can they be considered "illegal"? It is the government, they pointed out, that has no right to exist if it cannot provide people water, the basic need of human life. They wanted photos and videos of children of Sangam Vihar, carrying buckets of water, sent to the politicians and put up on social media for everyone to see the violation of their basic rights taking place right here, in the capital of the country.

The MLA from the area, Shri Mohania, had been invited to the meeting but failed to come. Residents resolved to take their demands to the MLA as well as pursue the memorandum that had been given to the government by the Lok Raj Sangathan and Lok Raj Samiti. They emphasised the need to strengthen their Lok Raj Samiti and take forward this campaign for water supply in a united manner. They eagerly came forward to give their names for being part of the delegation that has to meet the various authorities of the government to push for action.

The meeting ended with the song, "dekho rang badalrahahaiaasmanka …” which talks about the awakening of the people and their struggle for a better society.

MEL has learnt that in the week following the meeting, the activists of the Lok Raj Sangathan in the area have worked out a plan of action to force the authorities to fulfil their demands. They have begun implementing this plan.

Youth and women in Jasola take up the campaign for their rights

Taking forward the Lok Raj Sangathan initiated campaign for civic amenities, activists of LRS who have been closely working with community in the Jasola area organised a meeting on July 5, to plan the future course of action. Mohalla samitis from Jasola Gaon also joined the campaign.

Young women activists of LRS, Boby, Chhaya and Poonam conducted the meeting. They encouraged the women and youth to give their views on how to take the struggle forward. Many youth and women came forward with their proposals. They volunteered to form a samiti and send a delegation to pursue the memorandum submitted to the chief minister and put pressure on the authorities to provide drinking water connectivity in their houses.

Addressing the gathering, Renu Nayak of LRS narrated the struggle they had waged for basic rights and the lessons learnt. She stressed the need to get organised and form a samiti to fight for our rights. Lokesh Kumar, the Pradhan Mantri of HNES,appealed to the youth to come forward to solve the local problems. The meeting resolved to form a committee to carry on the struggle along with LRS and to mobilise more people in the community for this.

Indira Kalyan Vihar residents organise meeting to demand their basic rights

Indira Kalyan Vihar, a slum colony located in the heart of Okhla Industrial Area in South East Delhi, is home to thousands of workers. Like most slum colonies across Delhi, people here are forced to live without regular water supply, toilets, sewers, proper schools or health services. On the evening of July 5, 2015, the Lok Raj Samiti of Indira Kalyan Vihar organised a meeting toraise the demands for the basic rights like water, sanitation, access to schools and healthcare facilities, etc.

The youth of the locality played an active role in organizing the meeting. The meeting was conducted by Comrade Santosh Kumar and was addressed by the Lok Raj Sangathan President, Shri S Raghavan and the Delhi Convener, Shri Birju Nayak and several other speakers. The banner on the stage called on the residents to unite for their rights.

Shri Santosh Kumar welcomed the participants. He read out the petition sent to the Chief Minister of Delhi by the Lok Raj Samiti, which highlighted the major problems in this area – absence of piped water supply, government schools and a dispensary, and also the presence of a large and dirty nallah running through the colony, which was the source of many diseases. Pointing to the neighbouring Crown Plaza Hotel, which consumes more water that that consumed by all the residents of Indira Kalyan Vihar together, he said that the political parties, who come seeking our votes at the time of elections, promise to solve our problems, but they are nowhere to be seen after the elections. We cannot rely on their promises. We have to come together and struggle for our demands, he emphasized.

Birju Nayak, who has been repeatedly selected by Lok Raj Samitis to contest both assembly and parliamentary elections from this constituency, exposed in his speech the hollowness of the Swachh Bharat campaign of the government, which asks people to use toilets but does not provide them toilet or sewerage facilities. He highlighted the pathetic conditions of the schools in the slum colonies, the lack of basic infrastructure and teachers, the absence of dispensaries and primary health centres, etc. Our rulers want to keep us in perpetual deprivation, he said, so that we do not come forward and demand our rights. He called upon all present to get organised in Lok Raj Samitis and fight for our rights.

Shri Raghavan elaborated on the campaign for rights, initiated by Lok Raj Sangathan. Our experience shows that we achieve nothing without a struggle, he said. He explained that in this system we don't have real power and we are limited to only voting once in so many years. LRS is fighting for a system in which people will have political power to bring about changes in their lives. For this it is essential that we unite and shed all illusions that anything can come to us through voting in the elections. We have to fight for our rights by joining this campaign. Only if people join in large numbers in this campaign, we will be able to succeed in getting our demands, he said.

Lokesh Kumar, pradhan mantri of HNES, recited a few lines from a Bhojpuri song, which meant that the netas get all sorts of privileges while the workers are always cheated. He recounted his interaction with the area MP , a few years ago, who told their delegation that there was no water to supply through pipes. Lokesh said that then they filed RTI applications to get information about the amount spent on tankers to provide water and the number of bore-wells that were there. It was an eye opener that the Municipality spent 1 crore 64 lakhs every year to provide water to Sanjay Colony (another slum colony in Okhla) where 64 tankers are sent daily. There are supposed to be 36 bore wells but when the residents searched for the bore-wells in the colony, they found out that there were only four! Obviously, huge amount of money is being siphoned off by the leaders and people are not getting even the basic facilities. Lokesh said that so many people come to Delhi from villages in UP and Bihar with the dream that their children will get educated and earn enough money for them to go back to their native place and live comfortably. But their dreams are soon shattered. He said that we must not allow ourselves to be divided by parties of the ruling class. Instead we have to come together to solve our common problems. He ended his address with another Bhojpuri couplet which urged the people to unite to bring change in their lives.

Sucharita said that workers produce all wealth in society but have no rights or basic facilities, whereas the capitalist owners enjoy the fruits of workers' toil. She explained that this was so because the capitalist class wielded the political power and decided through elections, which government can best defend their interests. In this system only capitalists have rights and workers have no rights because the political power is with the capitalists. We have to challenge this system; we have to be able to select the candidates who are allowed to stand in the elections. We have to keep the elected representatives in our control and recall them if they fail to defend the interest of the toilers. All these mechanisms don't exist today and we have fight for these so that we have a life worth living. If we don't fight for our rights, then our children's life will be even worse than our own lives, she concluded.

Shri Santosh invited the residents to give their views and come forward to join the campaign. He clarified that everyone was welcome to join the campaign irrespective of which party they belonged to. He asked the participants to give their contact details so that they could be invited for the actions in the future. Several people came forward and gave their contact details.

Meetings have also been held in Madanpur Khadar on July 3, and in Sanjay Colony on July 9th.There was enthusiastic participation of people of the area in these meetings as well.

The LRS initiated campaign for our rights and the meetings held in various localities clearly show that people are fast losing faith in the present system and the political parties in power. People are organizing to build their unity and take up the struggle to win their rights and defend them. MEL hails this initiative of LRS and calls on the working people of Delhi and all over the country to initiate and carry forward such campaigns for our rights.

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