The following is the statement issued by the All India Agricultural Workers Union and the Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union, on October 24.                                                                                                        THE growing atrocities on dalits all over the country have become a matter of the gravest concern today. The number of murders have risen from 570 in 2010 to 744 in 2014. Rapes have increased from 511 in 2010 to 2,233 in 2014.

DAL prices have continued its upward trend causing real suffering for the people. Tur Dal is now more expensive than chicken with its retail price at Rs 220 per kg. Prices of arhar and urad are double what it was in October 2014. The prices of pulses is not just a problem of price rise, it is also of food security as the bulk of the population derive its protein requirements from pulses. As against the recommended daily requirement of 50 to 60 grams, current availability of pulses is less than 30 grams per day.

Decrying the rising intolerance and attack on the freedom of expression in the country as manifested by incidents such as the murder MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and the lynching of Mohd Akhlaq, many eminent writers, as a mark of protest, have returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards or have resigned from the posts they held in the Sahitya Akademi. They have written to the president of the  Akademi on why they have returned the award or resigned from various positions.

THE International Labour Organisation (ILO) provides useful data on the world labour force. The concept of “labour force” includes both the employed and the unemployed. The employed part of the labour force consists of: wage and salaried workers (who are called “employees”); the self-employed workers with “employees” (who are called “employers”); and the self-employed workers without “employees” (among whom are “own account workers”, unpaid family workers, and members of producers’ cooperatives).

THE fact that a riot in which two people belonging to the minority community were lynched and escaped death only because they were rescued by the police occurred in Karhal, Mainpuri which is a bastion of the Samajwadi Party in which all other parties have been marginalised is a matter of great concern.  Mukut Singh, state secretariat member, CPI(M) visited Karhal on October 14 after the market re-opened.  He had been closely monitoring the situation from October 9 onwards.  His report is as follows:A cow belonging to Thakur Ghanshyam Singh died on the 8th night.  He appealed to two Quraishi