OneWorld.net (U.S.)

New Delhi: The 'Wada Na Todo Abhiyan' (WNTA; 'Keep Your Promises Campaign') is a new social movement that dares to ask about broken promises. WNTA - which was formally launched during the National Convention of People's Struggles held at Delhi in November 2004 - is a coalition of NGOs and people's struggles that have come together nationally in their collective urge to put an end to poverty. Their common objective is "to build local, national and international alliances to fight poverty and injustice".

The constituents of WNTA include Aashraya Adhikar Abhiyan (AAA), which works for right to shelter for homeless people; Ekta Parishad (EP), which is active on land rights; NAFRE (National Alliance for Right to Education), an alliance focusing on education for all; Indian Social Institute (ISI), which is active on the rights of forest-dwellers; ActionAid, an international developmental agency; and National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), which furthers research and media interventions on people's issues.

The various organising groups are active round the year on various issues connected with world poverty: basic health, livelihoods, housing rights, education and de-addiction. They have evolved a variety of strategies to pursue their goal of poverty eradication. P V Rajagopal and his colleagues in the EP have, for instance, been relentlessly pursuing the goal of 'land for the landless' through legal aid, padyatras (people's marches), and mobilising awareness around unemployment and food security issues. Their work is located in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.

As Rajagopal says, "Policies in these areas - as in the rest of the country - are directly dictated by global interests. We have massive land alienation and deforestation, which is displacing adivasis (tribals) and dalits (the lowest group in the caste hierarchy) from the land that they have lived on for centuries. This is entirely for the benefit of multinational corporations, supported by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other monetary agencies. The poor are losing their means of livelihood and getting increasingly marginalised. Their very survival is threatened."

AAA's work with homeless people in Delhi for the past five years is another example. They have provided night shelters as well as night-and-day shelters for the homeless, mobile medical clinics, counselling, referrals for drug de-addiction, informal education as well as vocational guidance and support for formal vocational training. The organisation is now in a position to highlight and discuss appropriate ways to move forward on issues of urban poverty.

To work in a concerted manner towards the elimination of poverty, WNTA is holding an Asia-level People's Summit Against Poverty on September 3 and 4 in New Delhi. The Summit is expected to see the participation of around 10,000 national and international delegates. During the Summit, a Shadow Report on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), prepared by WNTA member-organisations, will be released. This will provide a ground-level picture of the actual situation and possibilities as regards the achievement of MDGs.

Some 180 governments and major international institutions have agreed to the MDGs, which articulate specific goals in poverty, health, education, gender equity and sustainable environmental development. Poverty goals include the reduction by 50 per cent of the number of people in the world living in absolute poverty, between the years 1990 and 2015. With only 10 years left to meet this goal, it seems rather unrealistic - unless a massive, coordinated worldwide effort to end poverty is actually made.

Paramjit Kaur, Director of AAA, explains that this is indeed the intention: "The People's Summit will culminate in the creation of a People's Forum Against Poverty, which will network to consolidate all the different anti-poverty strategies and activities being carried out by different groups."

WNTA organisations believe in a rights-based approach. Eradication of poverty is not couched in a charity or philanthropic framework; rather, it is seen as the inalienable right of every person - a right that every nation is bound to uphold. The New Delhi Summit is linked to the Global Call to Action Against Poverty - a global platform committed to making world leaders accountable to their own stated commitments on poverty eradication.

So long as national and international bodies continue to pursue profit-oriented policies that are socially callous, poverty will persist. At the same time, ordinary citizens must join the struggle against poverty. Widespread awareness is required to consolidate anti-poverty work and turn the tide and move towards people-oriented developmental policies. As Indu Prakash Singh of ActionAid says, "An important part of our work against poverty is to build tools for advocacy, and inspire a change in the mindsets of the middle classes...Our work with the poor is a personal challenge for each of us. When we work on the ground with people who are poor, the work changes us. We begin to ask searing questions about our own assumptions and prejudices."

Questions like: Who benefits from developmental projects, and at whose cost? At what point does 'Garibi Hatao' (Remove Poverty) become 'Garib Hatao' (Remove the Poor)? Whether it is New Delhi or Mumbai, or indeed Zimbabwe, why and how are we allowing the poor to be treated as 'garbage' - so much dispensable human waste? The Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy notes, "The fact that the wealth of a minority of people is growing rapidly while millions live in abject poverty is one of the major ethical challenges facing humanity today."

The People's Summit is a reminder of the strong linkages between local conditions and global forces. It will provide space for grassroots workers from different regions to discuss their work and evolve joint strategies to pressurise their governments to meet their obligations, as well as create initiatives that pave the way towards large-scale transformation.

In a country where hunger and starvation stalk the land - evidenced by starvation deaths of infants in Maharashtra and elsewhere; farmers' suicides in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab; corruption in subsidised food rations (the Public Distribution System) in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi - the present anti-poverty coalition is a ray of light. Far from being a natural phenomenon, poverty is the result of social, political and economic policies.

The age-old slogan 'Think Globally Act Locally' is apt today too. However, people working at the grassroots have realised that action restricted to the local level is no longer sufficient. Today there is need for local voices to be heard at international levels as well. It is important to critically consider the global context, which has shaped government policies, which in turn have had a tremendous impact on the lives of people.

For people to make a difference, they have to join hands, build a collective voice, and evolve joint fronts through which to intervene effectively in the processes that impact upon them, as they live in different parts of the world. Coalitions like WNTA are trying to turn the tide so that policies that empower the poor can actually be put in place.

Source: Women's Feature Service