 Hello and welcome to Dispatches from India, a show by People's Dispatch where we bring you the top stories from the country, what Indians are talking about and the impact it will have on economy, polity and society. The Sayyukkisan Morcha or the SKM is a coalition of more than 40 farmers unions that had come together to protest three controversial farm laws that were implemented by the BJP-led ruling party in 2020. In December last year, the year-long agitation was called off after the government acceded and rolled back the farm laws. However, the demands also included a law guaranteeing minimum support price for farmers produced and withdrawal of criminal cases against farmers during the course of the protest, among other things. The government had promised to adhere to these demands in the months following December, but almost seven months later it seems to have forgotten about these promises. The SKM has decided to launch a second phase of the agitation beginning July 31. Here is farmers leader Ashok Dhavle speaking on the issue. See the second phase will be a very big phase, a very intense and extensive thing. Already preparations all over the country. In fact, all over from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Gujarat to Gauhati, everywhere the messages have given the preparations have started and we are anticipating on the 31st of July and of course from 18 to 30th those will be conventions at the district level. But the single action will be on 31st July. On that day we are expecting lakhs of farmers to come on the streets to block the roads all over the country for four hours in a day. So, that will be a really big action. The first one really big action after the suspension of the agitation in December. We will have an SKM national meeting say by the end of August. We will take a review and certainly we have decided to fight till the end. There is no doubt about that. On this MSP issue, it is really a very, very major issue throughout the country and actually farmers are getting no MSP in large parts of the country where they are getting Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. There also there are a lot of problems in the sense that they are not getting MSP at one and a half times the comprehensive cost of production which was recommended by the Dr. MS Swaminathan commission, the national commission on farmers. So even the Punjab, Haryana and the UP presentry is not getting that amount. But in the rest of the country where there is no central government procurement, they are not even getting whatever MSP is declared. Also MSP is given only for paddy and wheat. Basically, none of the other 23 crops for which the central government, Khareep and Rabi, which they declare MSP, those other crops do not get at all anywhere in the country. So this is a very, very major issue that is the main reason for the suicide of more than 4 lakh farmers in our country in the last 25 years. Out of them, 1 lakh farmers have committed suicide only in the last 8 years of the BJP RSS government led by Mr. Narendra Modi. So therefore, all this has to stop. If the agrarian crisis has to be controlled to some extent, this MSP demand is absolutely a must. There is no doubt. So on this issue, this will have to be a nationwide struggle in the true sense because every state is involved in it. And therefore, how exactly the struggle will proceed, for that we will have to sit together and decide out the next steps and all that. That will certainly be done after the success of this July and August struggle. That certainly all of us will put our heads together and the Sayukta Kisan Morcha will come out with a very, very powerful alternative part of struggle in the days to come. The rich are getting richer in India at a time when nearly 70% of the population can not afford a healthy meal. According to the latest report published by UN's Food and Agriculture Organization or the FAO, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet around the world rose from 112 million to 3.1 billion, reflecting the impact of rising consumer food prices. The numbers for India are shocking. The report noted that over 970 million Indians or about 71% of the country's population are unable to afford nutritious food. Around 800 million Indians are dependent on subsidized food rations provided by the government under a scheme which the government is now planning on withdrawing. The report further stated that with only eight years remaining to end hunger, food security and all forms of malnutrition, according to the Sustainable Development Goal targets, the world is moving in the wrong direction. We are joined by Professor Surajit Das to explain the matter. As far as India is concerned, we have looked at the recent periodic labour force survey data which is brought out by the Government of India National Statistical Office. According to that, if we look at the quarter just before lockdown pandemic forced lockdown took place in India, in that quarter, if we look at the proportion of labour force who earned less than rupees 200 per day on an average which is lower than the wage rate in our employment of last resort program which is called Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, their average wage rate was rupees 202 in 2019-20 and 2021. Just before lockdown, the proportion of labour force who were earning below that wage rate was around 47 per cent in India and that includes unemployed people, that includes people employed with zero income, people employed with anything between zero and rupees 200 a day income and so on. So it is understandable that for all practical purposes they were poor, in fact extreme poor and as high as 47 per cent of the labour force was like that before lockdown. Now after lockdown, immediately after lockdown, that percentage went up from 47 per cent to 57 per cent. So 57 per cent of the labour force was earning less than rupees 200 a day in India at least in the first three months or first quarter of lockdown and after that the situation improved a little bit, then there was the second wave and during second wave again the ratio went up to 47-48 per cent according to our calculation. So that is the situation and situation is very precarious. In that situation, number one is government announced some relief measures like providing free ration, free food grains through fair price shops to the poorer section of population and so on. Government must not withdraw those things but that is alone not going to solve the problem. It is an acute demand crisis. People have lost their purchasing power as a result of that demand for all commodities and services have shrunk and as a result of that employment opportunities have shrunk, employment generation I mean has been stalled and government should take policy so that you know I mean purchasing power of people increases in the market and also the production becomes profitable and employment generation takes place again. To do that not only I mean our suggestion was first of all until and unless it is happening there should be some employment guarantee program in the urban areas as well. We have it in rural areas but not in the urban areas and secondly government must spend more on things like education, health etc so that people's out-of-pocket expenditure on health education comes down relatively and anyway we I mean in India the government spends the least as compared to entire world major all major country groups around the world. India spends the least in on health and education so we must enhance expenditures government expenditures on health education etc and through social wage the purchasing power of people would be enhanced as a result of that I mean the active demand crisis can be overcome and employment generation at large scale may possible in future to overcome this ongoing humanitarian crisis in India. Any object made of plastic that is intended to be used only once before being disposed of is known as a single-use plastic. The Indian government released a notification on July 1 banning the manufacture, storage, exchange, import and distribution of 21 single-use plastics. These include thermocol and plastic cutlery among other things. Though this is a step towards environmental conservation it has led to the immediate closing of 88,000 plastic manufacturing units in the country and rendered nearly a million people jobless according to manufacturers. We spoke with Tikindar Singh Panwar the national convener of National Coalition for Inclusive and Sustainable Urbanization on the matter. Hi my name is Tikindar and I write on environment and ecological issues and I was the deputy mayor directly deputy mayor of a mountain town called Shimla which is which used to be the summer capital of British India till 1947 and so we are one of the first towns in the country to implement a single-use plastic ban which the government has taken a ban in their decision effectively from July 1, 2022. So we have seen some dramatic and amazing results not just in Shimla but also in the entire state that's the match of today which is a mountain state in the Himalayas and it was a single-use plastic was a real nuisance because A we have very poor solid waste management processes and in the town so most of the waste that used to get collected was dumped across the mountains and what we call valley view we have the hill view we have the hillside and the valley side and then when it used to rain and then the rain used to actually bring out you know our deeds I mean the city government and of course local government so it's a real nuisance and I think it's a step very in a very right direction I mean that something that should have been done long long long back but the way this has been done I think there has to be a little caution because I believe it's already a two billion dollar economy in the country and then we have nearly a million people who are employed directly or indirectly and you know the largest employment that comes from the MSMEs is the one which would be very badly affected having said that I think what the government should have done actually the process should have started maybe a year or two years ago and brought in all the stakeholders you know just pent up the skill process so that you know once there is this major disruption that's going to happen now this disruption is taking care of through skill upgradeation and maybe adjusting the workforce somewhere else so but having said that I think it is very important that we also revisit some of our solid waste management rules because actually the nuisance comes not because of single use of plastic the nuisance comes from our poor solid waste management in the towns and cities because all this could have been you know brought into the circular economy which doesn't happen at all and the waste gets stumps and we've seen the kind of cliché that happens later but yeah I think it's important and it's important that you know the government enforces it but enforces it in a phased manner allows you know some kind of buffer for the industry and more important for the people who are engaged with this process but I think this is the decision that should have taken long long long there is all there is for this episode of Dispatches from India for more such news go and visit peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on instagram youtube twitter and facebook