Women stage 'famine raid'

The BJP's Federal Minister of State for Commerce and Industries, Ch. Vidaysagar Rao for the first time expressed doubts over the distribution of the rice given by his governent to the state under the Food-for-Work (FFW) programme in Mahbubnagar on Saturday. "I doubt whether the rice reached those who should actually benefit by it, he said."

Rao, elected from the state, also expressed concern over the huge migration from Mahabubnagar district. An English daily reported bus loads of unskilled workers were leaving for Mumbai daily in search of work."

The Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) is Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's favourite programme for poor rural women. The programme was successful to the extent that the UN Secretary General Kofi Anan and former U.S. President Bill Clinton bought handicrafts made by women on visits here.

Hundreds of womem members of the DWCRA collective groups, in a pre-planned raid stole 125-100 kg bags of FFW rice kept in the village for six months. They then distributed two bags each to households. Poverty and the severe drought drove them to their act, which the police and government will find difficult to act in accordance with the law.

The women explained to government revenue officials their plight afterwards and the circumstances which forced them to loot the rice, saying instead village government officials and the fair price shop owners should be held responsible.

In terms of women fighting literally for survival, the raid cannot not be compared even with women joining the People's War Group Naxalites or the 'famine raids' carried out by armed men.

A DWCRA group leader, Rajamani, fearlessly said, "We had prior information the rice was being shifed out and we kept a watch on the house and decided unanimously we would take the rice and distribue it.

Though the FFW rice was kept in the village, no effort was made to give it to villagers. Even our pleas were ignored she said.

According to her, free official mid-day meals prepared by the local teachers' association and another organisation, Rythu Samakhya, sustained the hunger stricken villagers for 40 days.