NOW that the government has decided to not to allow question hour in the ensuing parliament session, a group of mass organisations, civil society groups and others organised a ‘Janta Parliament’ from August 16 to 21. Every day there were two online sessions held on different subjects concerning the Indian people.

The three objectives of Janta Parliament were: To demonstrate that it would not have been difficult to convene a Parliament session, online, had the government intended to; to set agenda for what must be discussed whenever the Parliament session is convened; to have issue based discussions instead of political rhetoric.

Some of the important sessions include: Health; Food Security and Nutrition; Education; Environment; Technology and Surveillance; Agriculture; Economy; Impact on Vulnerable Communities; Industry, Labour and Employment; Civil Liberties, Laws and Governance.

There were eight resolutions passed in health session: ensuring effective, generalised implementation of the Clinical Establishment Act (2010); universal implementation of the patient rights charter;  safety and security of health care workers involved in Covid 19 job;  regularise all contractual health workers;  increase public investment in education and training.

On food security there were five resolutions: universal public distribution system without mandatory aadhar; comprehensive nutrition for children; maternity entitlements; free community kitchens for homeless and migrants and community kitchens and relief in flood and cyclone affected areas.

On education there were eight resolutions: on growing privatization of education; on financing school closure; on NEP and on social discrimination.

On agriculture there were seven resolutions: against corporate control and loot in agriculture; on employment and livelihood support; on food and nutritional security and cash transfers; on policies and legislations and on fish workers.

In the economy session there were three resolutions passed: on banking issues; on corporate corruption and on the fiscal challenges.

Some of the demands generated in Janta Parliament include:

COVID RELATED POLICIES
• Increase the number of testing centres and its capacity to ensure that samples are taken from all such settlements which typically accommodate marginalised communities.
• Take particular care of the elderly at risk by making geriatric OPDs follow a Covid standard operating procedure and make tests and treatment for senior citizens free.
• Make a law as per the right to privacy judgement to regulate Aarogya Setu which should be completely voluntary.
• Direct private companies to provide Covid-19 specific insurance covers to all their employees.
• Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health should meet immediately and assess the situation, both in terms of ground situation and the policy pronouncements, and advise the government
• Reserve Bank of India should form a dedicated committee to ensure that all the COVID relief measures are implemented by banks completely.

HEALTHCARE
• Increase public spending on health to 5 per cent of GDP in the long run and to at least 3 per cent of GDP by 2024. Transfer to state governments on the basis of the Finance Commission formula. Increase public investment on health research. Channelize allocation towards strengthening the public system in a sustainable manner rather than directing funds to purchase care from the ill- quipped private sector.
• Expanding the Clinical Establishment Act of 2010 along with ensuring it’s effective, generalized implementation immediately. Establishing regulation of rates as a central feature of this Act.
• Universal implementation of Patient Rights Charter, making it legally mandatory, and establishing an empowered Patient Grievance Redressal mechanism.

FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION
• Immediately release more food grain stocks to state governments for free distribution for 3 months, to those in need (80 per cent of population to be defined by the states, irrespective of ration card status).
• In order to avoid exclusion errors, PDS benefits must be made universal for all residents without making Aadhaar/UID mandatory.
• The coverage of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana must be doubled to cover all vulnerable groups such as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), old people and single women.
• Grains, Pulses and Edible Oils: 10kg of grains, 1.5 kg pulses/dal and 800gms of cooking oil must be provided per person per month, through the PDS, at subsidised prices.
• Provide compensatory food security allowance for at least 100 million families who have been excluded from the NFSA since 2013, despite population growth.

EDUCATION
• Table National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) in Parliament for discussion.
•  Extension of Right to Education Act 2009 from 3-18 years to universalise of school education.
•  Declare timeline for allocation of 6 per cent GDP to education.
•  Parliament should review implementation of RTE Act and set the new timeline for its complete implementation.
•  Stop exclusion through online instruction and explore alternative means.
• Take steps to stop commercialisation and regulate non state actors in education; address specific barriers to education faced by dalit, adivasi, minority children, and children with disabilities, girls and other vulnerable groups.

AGRICULTURAL SECTOR AND FARMERS, ENVIRONMENT
• Remunerative Minimum Support Price for all crops at C2+50% with guaranteed procurement.
• Employment at minimum wage of Rs 600/day to all agricultural workers.
• Increase of PM-KISAN to Rs 18,000 per year and extending benefits to tenant farmers and complete loan waiver for landless, tenant, small and middle peasants.
• Access to interest free credit. Crop credit coverage is very low and that can be improved this season with complete interest subvention.
• Ensure access to grazing lands to livestock workers, feed, infrastructure, health care for all livestock needs to be provided. Common lands, banjar and poramboke lands have to be surveyed and reclaimed from those who have encroached on those lands and have to be handed over to the gram panchayats for grazing animals and growing fodder for livestock and for common use.
• Consider and pass the two vital bills crafted by the All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee: The Farmers’ Freedom from Indebtedness Bill, 2018 and The Farmers’ Right to Guaranteed Remunerative Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Commodities Bill, 2018.

WORKFORCE
o All the employees working in Covid-19 ward should be provided with adequate PPE kits, regular health check-ups and Covid- 19 tests; long duty hours need to be reduced and regularised as employees.
o All workers in the healthcare sector, like nurses and ASHA workers have been at the forefront of fighting Covid-19. All such workers must be regularised to at par with at least D-grade employees of the government. All nurses in the private sector must also receive the same employee benefits as their public sector counterparts.
o Expand the Employees’ State Insurance Scheme (ESIS) to include the entire working population in the unorganised sector.
o All contractual workers (including safai karamcharis) should be given special incentive/additional wages for their COVID 19 related work.
o All health care and allied workers both permanent and contractual involved in COVID 19 duty should be compensated Rs 50 lakh if the worker dies and on getting infected they should be given equal treatment facilities without any discrimination.
o Any permanent work being done in any industry must not be done by contract workers. All permanent jobs must be done only by regular employees and therefore the fixed term employment ordinance must be scrapped immediately.
o Provide Rs 7,500 per month for 3 months of lockdown as compensation for lost incomes and three months after as the economy recovers. Expansion of unemployment benefits to informal sector employees through means-testing. This livelihood support must include all segments of the population, including those both in stigmatised professions like sex work and begging, and in unseen unpaid work such as domestic work.
• Unconditional transfer of Rs 10,000 in the name of women for all the poor rural households with emphasis on single women and female headed households for at least six months.
o Monthly allowance of Rs 15,000 up to three months be provided in advance, for fishworkers and those engaged in allied activities and develop a proper relief package for the sector in consultation with fish worker organisations.
o Enumerate all the returning migrants, maintain a database, do skill mapping, skill upgradation and create employment programs with the coordination from panchayat level upwards to the district and state level.
o Recognize the urban- rural connection of migration cycles. Ensuring portability of ration cards as well as enabling women to gain access to credit on low interest for short term economic needs such as vending, hawking horticulture, poultry etc. is essential.
o Registration of workers must be done under the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008, BOCW Act or any other state laws on access of welfare entitlements.
o The Indian Labour Conference (ILC) must be held urgently to collectively deliberate on labour policies. Workers organisations are ready to understand / have dialogue with the industrial fraternity and concerned government authorities in the spirit of tripartitism and social dialogue to fix the complex question of the economy.

CONCLUDING SESSION
The concluding session of the Janta Parliament was held on August 26 in which Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M) also participated. He congratulated the Janta Parliament for being meaningful and productive. He said that it has been a very useful exercise since the Parliament has not been convened since the lockdown. Lamenting that the pillars of our democracy and Republic are being replaced, be decried the intense attack on rights, such as the right to food and RTI, and civil liberties that is taking place to make them defunct. He strongly asserted that any attempt to impose uniformity in the country will dilute the idea of India. While he acknowledged that the Party was in agreement with most of the proposals, he also considered the possible way forward. He suggested that a common minimum programme (CMP) like draft be prepared based on which unity should be forged between political parties and peoples movements. He made it clear that this cannot be a battle fought by one party or one movement. He also offered that the CPI(M) will cooperate fully with all such efforts.
The others to participate in this session: D Raja of CPI, K Raju and Kodikunnil Suresh of Congress, Sanjay Singh of AAP, Manoj Jha of RJD. The closing remarks were made by Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Andolan, Aruna Roy and Nihkil Dey from Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghathan.

Aruna Roy said this session of the online Janta Parliament was adjourned after 43 hours of discussions with around 250 speakers, over a hundred resolutions, over a thousand voting participants and engaging with over one lakh people on social media. The specific plans for further advocacy around the issues in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament will be announced after the Jan Sarokar organising group meeting which is likely to be held at the end of this month.