Religious and social workers met recently to discuss how to help poor villagers fight for their “right to food,” as guaranteed in various government schemes.

Many villagers do not know their rights and thus are unable to demand them from the administration, said Holy Cross of Chavanod Sister Gracy Sundar, one of 40 Religious and lay participants at a two-day workshop that ended on Sept. 1.

The Justice, Peace and Development Commission of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI) organized the event in Konchowki on the outskirts of Kolkata.

The workshop highlighted the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act as means of claiming entitlements for the poor.

Eleven members from the Jesuit Udayani (awakening) Social Action Forum,  from six districts of West Bengal state, also participated in the workshop.

West Bengal villagers, mostly illiterate people, are unaware of government schemes for their welfare, said Udayani director Jesuit Father Irudaya Jothi.

His organization will train youths, self-help groups, farmers and women groups on their entitlements and help them to claim these benefits from the government, he said.

The Justice, Peace and Development Commission has been advocating the rights-based approach for claiming benefits under at least eight schemes, said commission secretary, Capuchin Father Nithiya Sagayam.

The organization has conducted over 700 workshops in the past four years on people’s right to food, said the priest, who is also secretary of the Office of Human Development of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.

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