Against the Privatisation and Commercialisation of Healthcare The 21st Party Congress of the CPI (M) notes with grave concern the sustained attempts by the BJP government at the Centre to further erode public health services through a variety of measures that are designed to increase the profits of private corporate hospitals and insurance companies, throwing the mass of people at their mercy. At the same time it has permitted the increasing commercialisation of medical education which goes against the interests of public health services. The 21st Congress rejects the BJP’s vision of healthcare services, which involves an insurance based system with an increasing “partnership” with the private sector and also encouraging the setting up of highly expensive multi-speciality hospitals in the private sector. In some States, Government hospitals are being transferred into private hands. Laboratory and other services in Government hospitals are being outsourced to private companies who charge high fees. This is the same vision that the UPA government has tried to foist on the country over the past decade. The principal medium of the insurance based system for providing care, that the UPA government had promoted, was its Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana. The BJP government has clearly indicated that it stands for an expansion of the RSBY. There are numerous reports which indicate that private hospitals, who are the main providers of care under RSBY, have repeatedly been indicted for indulging in a range of unethical practices. The National Rural Health Mission continues to be grossly under-funded. In a clear indication of its future strategy the present government has slashed the funding of the NRHM and the overall funding for health in the 2015 union budget by about 20 per cent. At the same time the Union budget has increased the tax concessions available to those who avail of private health insurance. Even though it has no say over the ESIC scheme for workers, it is trying to dilute the scheme with attempts to impose privat insurance through the IRDA on workers. The BJP government’s policy in the health sector represents a vision for the health sector which is anti-people and pro-corporate. Public health expenditure, in the past two decades, has stagnated at slightly over 1 per cent of GDP (among the lowest five in the world), leading to a dysfunctional and poorly resourced public system and a growing private system. The BJP government is poised to accelerate this process. Continuing its assault on the working people the BJP government is also engaged in denying working wages and decent working conditions to all health workers, especially anganwadi and ASHA workers. At the same time because of the absenceof social control, medical personnel, particularly nurses in private hospitals, face extremely poor working conditions and exploitation of numerous kinds. In the pharmaceutical sector too the BJP government’s pro-corporate bias is clearly evident. Prices of drugs in India continue to rise and are beyond the reach of ordinary people. The Government has obstructed the effort of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to bring more drugs under price control. The government has also abandoned an old promise, starting from the time of the UPA Government, to support the supply of all essential drugs, free of cost, at all public health facilities. The 21st Congress demands of the government that it increase allocation to health care to at least 3 per cent of GDP in the medium term and use these resources to strengthen public health services. All essential drugs and accessories should be made free of cost in public health facilities. The Congress demands that all health workers must be treated as salaried workers and paid real wages. It demands strict regulation and social control of private health care facilities and institutions The Congress resolves that the CPI(M) will contribute to the development and strengthening of a mass-based movement for universal health care and strnegthening of public health services and institutions. Against the Land Grab Bill The 21st Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly protests against and condemns the pro-corporate and anti-farmer amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation, Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, that the Modi Government is trying to push through Parliament by using its single-party majority status in the Lok Sabha. It has failed to push the Bill through the Rajya Sabha because of the united stand of most opposition parties. The Government response, that of promulgating the Ordinance a second time, underlines the authoritarian nature of the Government. The scrapping of the draconian colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and the unanimous adoption of the new law in 2013 came after much struggle against forcible land acquisition and sacrifice by peasants and the rural poor and their organisations. Although the 2013 Act had several weaknesses as far as protecting food security, farmers and the rural poor were concerned, with respect to which the CPI(M) had moved amendments in Parliament at the time, the present Amendments moved by the Modi Government seek to eliminate whatever protection the 2013 Act provides farmers. It is noteworthy that, at the time, the BJP itself had voted for the Bill. The CPI(M) and the Left seek to strengthen the Act to benefit farmers and the rural poor, while the Modi Government aggressively pursues the line of helping business corporations at the cost of the farmers and the rural poor. This Party Congress rejects the false propaganda of the Modi Government that those who oppose the Land Bill are anti-development. As the amendments to the Bill clearly show, the path of development of the Modi Government is corporate development and not people-centric development. The main thrust of the Modi Government amendments are to weaken the mandatory requirement for consent of farmers by expanding the list of projects for which consent of farmers is exempted. These are now to include industrial corridors as well as infrastructure projects in the PPP mode, which will cover the majority of projects. Equally objectionable is the exemption given to these projects from any social impact assessment. This means that the numbers of those affected, cost-benefit analyses of projects in terms of their social impact, and even objective assessments of the actual extent of land required for individual projects will not be undertaken, and that corporates will have a free run. The protection given in the 2013 Act against the acquisition of multi-cropped irrigated land, though inadequate in itself, has been scrapped altogether. The special reference to maintaining the requirements of food security has also been scrapped. The provision for the return of unused land within 5 years has been weakened. The amendment permits acquisition for one kilometer of land on each side of a designated road or railway line of an industrial corridor to be handed over to corporates, which will mean the acquisition of a very large amount of land without having to obtain the consent of farmers. If the Government is so sure that this is in the interests of the farmers then why is it afraid of taking farmers’ consent? The fact is that there is mounting discontent and anger against the Land Bill across the country. The 21st Party Congress of the CPI(M) notes that the Government amendments are coming at a time when official records show that land previously acquired for industry is either unused or misused for real estate purposes. The Comptroller and Auditor General found gross violations of regulations in 17 States. He also noted that, out of a total of 45635.63 hectares of SEZ land allotted until 2014, work had begun in only 28488.49 hectares. The 21st Congress of the CPI(M) calls upon its units to mobilise people against the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill. The CPI(M) will resist any attempts at unjust land acquisition and land grab. The Party will build the broadest possible unity against such moves and will intensify efforts to ensure that land is distributed to the landless. This Congress resolves to intensify its protests against the Bill, and to support all struggles of kisans, agricultural workers, Adivasis and all other affected sections for the withdrawal of this anti-farmer Bill. Ensure Implementation of Recommendations for Minority Development Programmes This 21st Congress of the CPI(M) demands that the recommendations of the various committees that have studied the condition of the Muslim minority community be implemented without delay. These include the recommendations made by the Sacchar Committee and the Ranganath Mishra Commission, and, more recently, the recommendations of the Evaluation Committee headed by Professor Kundu. The Modi Government has declared that the 15-point programme to take forward the recommendations of the Sacchar Committee, which was appointed by the previous Government, will be continued. No action, however, followed. On the contrary, communal violence against Muslim communities, depriving them of the right to housing, as in Gujarat, and provocative and objectionable statements, including calls to deny Muslims the right to vote, have made minorities even more insecure. In the 2015-6 Budget, the allocation for development projects for minority communities constitutes an abysmal 0.23 per cent of the total allocations. This paltry amount makes a mockery of the democratic requirement that urgent steps be taken to address the serious problems of the Muslim minority that were exposed by the Sacchar Committee. These include problems of poverty, educational and social backwardness, and social and economic discrimination. The post-Sacchar Evaluation Committee set up in 2013 under the chairmanship of Professor Kundu submitted its report to the Government in October 2014. The report shows that there has been little or no improvement. Recruitment of Muslims in the Central Government sector stagnated at around 8 per cent of the total. Priority lending by financial institutions, a pressing need, remained unsatisfactory. While lending from public-sector financial institutions to the minorities increased to 16 per cent of the total, Muslims and Buddhists (the latter are mainly Scheduled Caste), who constitute the larger minority communities, received less than half of the funds available. Even as school-enrolment levels of both Muslim boys and girls increased, the drop-out rate among them remained high and unchanged. Scholarship reach has, however, increased. One of the most important programmes suggested by the Sacchar Committee was the Multi-Sectoral Development Programme (MSDP), which was to be undertaken in 90 districts of the country that were identified as being “minority concentrated.” According to an earlier review of the Standing Committee of Parliament, the UPA Government failed utterly to take this proposal forward. In 2012, plans had been finalised for only 28 districts. Less than 50 per cent of the targets, including housing targets, were met. As a consequence of the low level of allocations, this important Programme has virtually been shelved. The Kundu Committee also pointed out the exclusion of Muslims from OBC lists; such exclusion deprives Muslim OBCs of reservations recommended by the Ranganath Mishra Commission. The former Left Front Government in West Bengal was the first to conduct the required study and ensure inclusion in the list of more than 75 per cent of all Muslims, who had been identified as OBC in the study. In contrast, the present Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra has shamefully withdrawn all reservations for Muslims. The 21st Congress of the CPI(M) demands: 1. that a Minority Sub-Plan be put in place to ensure that funds commensurate with their share in the population are made available for the all-round development of minorities; and 2. that the recommendations of the Kundu Committee and the Ranganath Mishra Commission including on the issue of reservations for minority communities be accepted and implemented. The recommendation of Sacchar Committee to establish an Equal Opportunity Commission be implemented. 3. that an Prevention of Communal Violence Bill be tabled in Parliament, while taking into account federal concerns. On MGNREGA The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemns the policy of the Modi Government to dilute and ultimately eliminate the legal right to 100 days of work on demand in rural India, a right established through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. In spite of all its weaknesses, MNREGA had a positive impact on rural employment and wages. The demand for work projected by the States in their labour budgets (2014-2015) required an allocation of Rs 61,000 crores. Instead, the Government allocated just Rs 33,000 crores in the interim budget presented after the Lok Sabha elections. The amount allocated in the 2015-6 budget remains the same, that is, Rs 33,000 crores. This is in fact a decrease, since the amount includes the backlog of unpaid wages of around Rs 6000 crores. The 21st Congress of the CPI(M) condemns the cutback, which has led to a drastic reduction in the number of days of work provided under the Act. In 2014-5 only 15.5 per cent of households demanding work had got 100 days work, compared to 51.7 per cent of households in 2012-3, and 46.6 per cent of households in 2013-4. The average number of workdays is now less than 37 days a year, the lowest since the Act was passed. Yet, the Central Government wants to further restrict its implementation to some backward district. Left-led Tripura, where the average number of days of employment was 88 workdays in a year, the highest number in the country and more than double the national average, has suffered cuts and delayed fund transfers. Despite these setbacks, the Left Front Government has maintained its excellent record with respect to the scheme. Although at the national level, the average daily wage rose to Rs. 142.80 in 2014-5, the actual expenditure on wages came down by Rs. 5737 crores. The move by the Government to spend less on wages will be intensified by the utterly wrong decision to change the ratio of labour to material expenditure from the 60:40 ratio by aggregating it at the district level. This will greatly strengthen the role of contractors. This Congress denounces the deliberate policy of delaying payment to the States. The Government is aware that such delay will lead to a backlog in wage payments and ultimately discourage workers from asking for work under MGNREGA. In the last years of its rule the Congress Government had also followed this cruel policy of delayed wage payments. The 21st Congress of the CPI(M) calls upon its units to mobilise the rural poor for struggles to ensure the implementation of MGNREGA. It demands that the Central Government should provide the required funds to States in time and that it should restore the funds allocation denied to Tripura. As part of this struggle the Party will continue to demand the strengthening of MGNREGA. Our demands include: the removal of restrictions on the number of days and adults per family; a more just schedule of rates, especially for women; timely payment of inflation-indexed minimum wages with periodic revisions; payment of compensation where work is denied; and no change in the ratio of labour to the material component, which must be aggregated at the panchayat and block levels. On Latin America The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemns the unjust economic sanctions on Venezuela imposed by the United States in order to destabilise the country. This is part of U.S. efforts to strangle the country by launching an economic war against it. The direct sabotage of the county's economy, the circumvention of the various means of control that the government has tried to implement in the economy, the planning of coups, the financing of paramilitaries and terrorist acts within the country, and other such measures have been organised in order to push Venezuela into a crisis and ensure a regime change. This Party Congress denounces the recent attempt to overthrow the Maduro government by reactionary right-wing forces. The elements involved in the 2002 coup against President Hugo Chavez continue to plot to overthrow the present Bolivarian government. The U. S. is actively encouraging and aiding various right-wing opposition groups to destabilise Left progressive governments in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador. It is pumping millions of dollars through USAID to fund their subversive activities. Its hand can clearly be seen in the coups in Honduras and in Paraguay. It sent its military to Haiti, and became de facto ruler of the country. The U. S. instituted illegal surveillance against various governments in contravention of international treaties. Brazil stood firm against such designs, condemned them, and also initiated steps to mobilise other countries against hegemonic U. S. control of the Internet. This Party Congress extends its greetings to the Left progressive governments of Latin America, which, in spite of the severe impact of the global economic crisis, continue to implement social welfare measures and policies to reduce poverty and empower the people, thus increasing popular support. In contrast to many other parts of the world, Latin American Governments such as those of Brazil, Ecuador, and Uruguay are being re-elected because of their alternative policies. This Party Congress notes with concern that ruling oligarchies in these countries, who have been kept out of government for long periods of time, are being encouraged by the imperialism to create chaos and violence. It is heartening to note that, in spite of these efforts of imperialism, the people of Latin America have stood firmly against such acts of destabilisation. The 21st Congress of the CPI(M) expresses its solidarity with the fighting people of Latin America in their struggle against imperialism, neo-liberal policies, and for the people’s economic and social advance.