ASHA’s response

This page has downloadable documents on ASHA’s response/feedback on various external developments in the recent past (policy/legislative etc.).

ASHA’s reaction to the WTO Bali Ministerial in December 2013 and India’s capitulation to external pressure. (Our hindi press release can be downloaded here).

ASHA’s position on FDI in Retail. (A hindi version of this position paper is downloadable here).

ASHA’s feedback on the Draft National Food Security Bill (draft NFSB 2011).

ASHA’s feedback on the (draft) Land Acquisition and Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill 2011 (LARR Bill 2011).

Amendments that ASHA seeks on the Seeds Bill 2004, with the amendments moved by the Union Agriculture Minister in 2010.

ASHA’s note related to Pesticides Management Bill introduced in the Parliament of India.

ASHA’s briefing paper on Hybrid Rice.

ASHA’s note on Golden Rice (being developed in Bihar with RKVY funds).

ASHA’s discussion note on Labour Issues in Agriculture & the Way Forward.

(This is a discussion note. The immediate context for the above note is set by recent developments which we believe need our collective engagement and response: the strong concerns about labour shortage in agriculture and the dwindling net incomes from farming, the demands to link agriculture and NREGS, the changing agrarian relationships at the village level, the push towards mechanization and corporatization of agriculture for which labour shortage is now being used as one of the justifications, and the promotion of ecologically unsustainable methods like weedicides, herbicide-tolerant GM crops, ‘machine-friendly’ cropping patterns. We know that this is tricky ground and some of the ideas might get a negative response or considered too sketchy; we see this as a basis to start a discussion in which some of the ideas might get strengthened/modified/ discarded while new ones might be added. Any response from you can be mailed to Kavitha Kuruganti at kavitha.kuruganti@gmail.com).