Hundreds of youths and citizens will launch ‘Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra’ in different states of the country from March 12 to April 14!

 Aditya Vikram Singh

Youths and citizens to commemorate the legacy of revolutionaries under the banner of ‘Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra’ by marching for employment, education, healthcare, housing, and brotherhood!

Students-employees-youth-workers will unite against unemployment, inflation, corruption, communalism, and the loot of the toiling masses!

New Delhi. March 1, 2023 | In a press conference at Delhi’s Press Club on behalf of the convenor organisations of ‘Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra’, the concept behind this countrywide march was presented. This yatra will take place from March 12 to April 14. During the conference speakers from Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union, Disha Students Organization and Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI) were present on the panel.
Representing the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI), Yogesh said that today, the people of the country are struggling with problems like rising unemployment, back-breaking inflation, and education and health being out of reach for people. Frustration and despair plague a large section of the youth. Every section of the common masses, including students-employees-workers, is a victim of the anti-people policies of the prevailing BJP government. Every socio-economic security, from employment opportunities, pension-allowances to various services and labour laws, is being snatched away from us. On the one hand, inflation, unemployment, corruption, poverty, hunger, and exploitation have broken the back of the common toiling masses. At the same time, simultaneously, they are being swayed by the frenzy of religion to divert them from the real issues of their lives. A false enemy is being projected from within the people to keep the real enemy hidden. The present government is faithfully implementing the British divide-and-rule policy. In the 75 years of independence, the public has seen the truth of all the parties like BJP, Congress, SP, BSP, RJD, JDU, and AAP, having given them a chance. The towers of luxury of big capitalists, wealthy pigs, owners, contractors, big shopkeepers, builders, rich farmers, and all kinds of wealthy animals are getting taller and taller amidst the sea of tears of ordinary people; neither are ‘acche din’ coming nor is ‘poverty going away’. So, to break this deadlock situation and refresh the spirit of revolution, we are launching “Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra”. 

Shivani Kaul, President of the Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union, while sharing the goals of ‘Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra’, said that the purpose of this yatra is to awaken, raise the people’s consciousness, and organize them to fight for their fundamental rights. The purpose of Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra is to make the people aware that employment, equal and free education for all, equal and free medical care for all, housing for all, state insurance for every citizen, and a genuinely secular state are our fundamental rights. If a government does not give us any of these fundamental rights, then it has no right to continue being the government. If any system does not give us this right, then that system has no right to continue. The goal of the Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra is to bring a new revolutionary awakening in society, and it aims to reveal that if the people unite on their real issues and struggle, they can get their rights, change the world, and create history.

Priyamvada, on behalf of Disha Students Organization, said that whether we talk primary education or higher education, both are standing on the verge of destruction today. The condition of primary education is such that according to data presented by the government in the Lok Sabha recently, there are 9,07,583 vacant posts of teachers in primary schools in the country. Talking about higher education, two-thirds of the posts of teachers are lying vacant in central and state universities across the country. In the name of promoting ‘self-finance courses’ in these government universities, they have been pushed towards privatisation for a long time. The New Education Policy brought in by the Modi government is going to increase the process of privatization-communalization of education manifold. This is the reason why a huge increment in fees has started in universities across the country.

Vishal, representing the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, docked the current system on the issue of employment and said that today the youth of the country are facing a terrible crisis of unemployment. During the tenure of the Modi government, which came to power on the promise of providing two crore jobs every year, the situation is such that about 32 crore population of the country is facing the brunt of unemployment. According to the data of the CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy), at present the unemployment rate in the country has reached the same level as what it was at the time of COVID. The same statistics show that one out of every five youths who were forced to lose their job in the era of COVID has been unable to get employment till now. Many reputed companies have started retrenchment while reducing the number of their employees. The scale of this retrenchment can be understood from the fact that Twitter has shown the way out to 80% of its employees in India. Recently, Amazon has talked about removing its 18,000 employees, and HP has talked about removing more than 6,000 of its employees. Since July 2022, retrenchments have happened three times at Microsoft and twice at Netflix. Hard drive maker Seagate has laid off more than 3000 people. This is the condition of the highest and richest companies. The same is true in all the factories, offices, shops, workshops, etc. in the whole country. The BJP, which declared selling pakoras and begging as employment, has made a mockery of unemployment.

Concluding the press conference, Shivani said that for our fundamental rights, we must  organise and unite to struggle against the present government and system. For this purpose, ‘Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra’ is being taken out to awaken the people.
Our main demands are that
1.) Employment should be included in the constitution as a fundamental right. Pass the Bhagat Singh National Employment Guarantee Act (BASNEGA) in Parliament, under which it is the responsibility of the government to provide jobs to all eligible citizens, and in case of failure to do so, at least Rs. 10,000 in the form of an unemployment allowance should be given.
2.) All labour laws should be strictly implemented, new proposed labour codes should be repealed; an 8-hour working day, weekly holiday, overtime at double rate, the right to form a union, and the right to security provisions should be ensured, informal factories in the area should be brought under government regulation, contract practice on regular nature works should be abolished, and the violation of labour laws should be made punishable by bringing them under the criminal category.
3.) To control inflation, a law should be made to ban hoarding, futures trade and betting, under which these should be declared punishable offenses, and the system of distribution of basic goods and services should be nationalized. Food should be made available to all citizens by universalizing the public distribution system. To reduce inflation, indirect taxes should be completely abolished, and the system of progressive direct taxes on the basis of property should be strengthened.
4.) Education should be included in the constitution as a fundamental right. The anti-people New Education Policy – 2020 should be scrapped.
5.) To ensure a true secular state in place of the fake secularism of ‘Sarva Dharma Samabhav’, a law should be brought under which any mention or use of any religion, community, or faith by any pulic leader in any form should be made a punishable offence.

With these demands, ‘Bhagat Singh Jan Adhikar Yatra’ will march through Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and Chandigarh in several phases, during which yatra groups will go among the public in villages and cities of these states.