남아시아의 빈곤은 불평등을 수반한다.

남아시아의 빈곤, 기아, 불평등에 대한 협력

남아시아 국가의 빈곤은 불평등을 수반한다. 최빈곤 상태에 있는 사람들의 숫자는 증가하고 있고, 빈곤 문제는 점차 고착화되고 있다. 각 국의 지도층은 경제 성장이 가장 중요한 것이라는 사실에 즐거워하고 있지만, 많은 지표들은 국가들이 높은 경제 성장률을 기록할 때 오히려 소외와 배제가 나타남을 보여주고 있다. 최근 지구적 기후 변화 위기는 자연 재해의 증가를 목격하고 있는 남아시아 국가들의 당면 과제이다. 민주적 권리와 인권은 새로운 규제와 시민 사회 운동의 축소로 위협받고 있다. 경제 위기는 노조의 투쟁과 근로자의 권리를 억제하는 수단으로 사용되고 있고, 인종 청소와 난민의 강제 송환 등이 자행되고 있다.

우리는 정치 지도자들에게 책임성을 요구하는 바이다. 이러한 재난의 공통적으로 발견할 수 있는 요소는 물리적, 경제적, 행정적, 법적 그리고 다른 면에 있어서 준비성의 결여와 장기적 안목의 부족이다.

우리는 남아시아 정부들과 남아시아 지역협력연합(SAARC)이 재난관리 정책과 경감 계획을 수립하는 데 실패한 것에 실망을 금할 수 없다. 우리는 미래에 기후 변화 및 지구 온난화로 야기될 재난을 다루기 위해 즉각적으로 일반 계획을 채택하고 대책 위원회를 설립할 것을 촉구한다. 임시 조치와 구조․회복․재건을 위한 정책 체계의 결여는 생존자들의 적법한 권리에 대한 부정이다.

남아시아의 여성
남아시아에 살고 있는 여성의 상당수는 빈곤 속에 배제되어 살아가고 있다. 이들은 남아시아 난민의 대부분을 구성하고 있고, 분쟁 이후의 상황은 불안, 성폭력 및 보호의 부재 등으로 가득하다.

국제적․지역적 위계 관계
우리는 세계화의 확산, 테러와의 전쟁이라는 미명하에 일어나는 군사화, 점증하는 국제적 재조정, 민주적 공간의 축소, 인권의 배제, 지속 불가능한 개발 패러다임 등에 대처할 일관적이고 장기적인 전략을 발전시켜야 함을 인정한다.

남아 있는 과제
지배적인 발전 모델과 패러다임은 모든 가능성을 상실한 채 실패했다. 빈곤은 사람들에게 있어 능력의 박탈이고, 이는 자유와 인권을 부정할 뿐만 아니라 지속적으로 그들의 사회․경제․정치적 영향력을 제거한다.

우리는 오래된 구호들이 조직화와 동원을 위해 불충분한 것임을 인지하고 있다. 우리는 빈곤, 기아와 불평등에 대해 연합하여 대항해야 한다는 현대적인 이해에 기반을 두어 배제된 여성들, 천민, 토착민, 종교․언어․인종적 소수자들의 필요를 강조한다.

SAAPE는 소외된 집단들, 가난한 자들과 연대하여 정부의 책임성을 경각시키고, 지역 내 빈곤과 삶에 수반되는 위험성을 앞으로 제거하기 위한 사회적 책임성을 불러일으키기 위해 노력할 것이다.

Declaration of South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) Annual General Meeting (AGM)

4-6 September 2010
Nagarkot, Nepal
Fighting Unitedly against Poverty, Hunger and Injustice in South Asia

Context
We, the members of SAAPE from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka met at the AGM from 4-6 Sep 2010 to deliberate on the theme- “fighting unitedly against poverty, hunger and injustices in South Asia” .We affirm our committment to `intervening’ on issues of poverty and exclusion contributing for the eradication of poverty and injustice, rejecting the neo-liberal development paradigm and economic strategies and striving for sustainable alternatives that are pro-poor people’.

Poverty in countries of South Asia is accompanied by disparity. The increase in the number of poor is common in all countries. However, this number only indicates the ‘absolute poor’. The number would be far higher if other aspects of a dignified quality of life are considered. The problem of poverty, even in a big country like India that boasts of substantial economic growth, is persistent. Some sections seem to even lapse back into poverty. The situation is thus one of perpetuation of poverty.

There is reason to believe that the ruling elite in all our countries is enamoured by “economic growth” as the “be all and end all” of the development process. On the contrary, ground reality strongly indicates that even when the country registers high growth rate, there is huge exclusion and marginalisation. SAAPE feels that the time has come for all of us to work not only with the exploited classes but also with the excluded social groups.

We are profoundly saddened by several recent incidents which has had long lasting implications for the rights of people and their livelihood. The armed conlfict in Sri Lanka came to an end with a large number of people from Vanni being displaced and held in internment camps with restrictions imposed on their mobility and fundamental freedoms.

The current global crisis of climate change is a big challenge facing the South Asian countries which are witnessing increasing natural disasters causing devastating impacts. The recent floods in Pakistan are disrupting the lives of over 20 million people, nearly 12% of the population and this is a reminder of this gruesome reality.
 
We appreciate the historic judgement given by the supreme court of Bangladesh reviving secular character of the constitution and declaring past military regimes illegal. The court also made it clear that the World Bank does not enjoy any immunity. At the same time we are disappointed by the fact that the government of Bangladesh has succumbed to the pressure of the factory owners by imposing wages at a level much below the demand of the garment workers.

Democratic and human rights continue to be thereatened with the imposition of new regulations and the curtailment of civil society activities. In the rise of people’s resistance their leaders are threatened, and face extrajudicial killings and disappearances.

We are alarmed that the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in Sri Lanka is facilitating immense powers to the Executive virtually creating a Constituional dictatorship thereby  threatening democratic parliamentry norms. It is also regretable that GOSL has failed to provide a long lasting political solution for the ethnic problems/national problems based on an effective power sharing model.

The economic crisis has been used to attack trade union struggles and curtail worker’s rights. We condemn the killing of two trade union leaders in Pakistan.

We condemn ethnic cleansing and demand unconditional release of all the political prisoners and repatriation and rehabilitation of the Bhutanese refugees to their homestead with dignity.

As South Asians, we watched with great appreciation the unique manner in which the Constituent Assembly of Nepal was created. We were particularly overjoyed with the introduction of proportionate representation and equal representation for women, and men in the Constituent Assembly, but today we are disappointed that the work of Constituent Assembly has come to a standstill because of the political impasse. We urge all concerned and especially the members of the Constituent Assembly to rise above narrow considerations reach consensus and put in place a Constitution which will be a trend setter for all other countries in South Asia and beyond. We call for an immediate resolution of the political impasse in Nepal for the consolidation of the democratic processes and introduction of effective agrarian reform.

Similarly, we stand in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and Maldives in their struggle to achieve democracy and long lasting solutions for securing human rights and fundamental freedoms.The region continues to be militarised combined with nuclearisation.

We demand accountability from our political leaders. As demonstrated in Pakistan though  natural and human induced calamities are a frequent occurrence in South Asia, the common element in all this is our shocking lack of preparedness (in physical, economic, administrative, legal and other aspects), coupled with a lack of  long term vision, especially, to help the excluded groups.

We are disappointed with the south asain governments and SAARC as a body for their failure to develop a common regional disaster management policy and a mitigation plan. We urge the immediate adoption of a common plan and the establishment of a Task Force to handle disaters in the future arising from climate change and global warning.

We also demand the repudiation of all debts of Pakistan and  provide the necessary resources and funds for relief and rehabilitation of communities affected by the recent floods.

Ad hoc approaches and an absence of a policy framework for relief and rehabilitation and reconstruction is a denial of the legitimate rights of the survivors. On the other hand, in a democratic polity the right to relief with dignity and development are the fundamental right of every disaster victim and it is the responsibility of the state and civil society to ensure that.
 
This is also a unique opportunity for South Asian countries to express their solidarity in terms of aid and political solidarity with the beleaguered Pakistan, and develop common disaster management mechanism in line with the relevant SAARC Charter.

Women in South Asia
The majority of women in South Asia remain excluded and impoverished. They form  the bulk of the displaced in South Asia.  The post conflict situations are fraught with increased insecurity, gender based violence and lack of protection which is directly linked to poverty.

We  appreciate the efforts made by Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India to facilitate and recognise the greater and effective participation of women in politics and governance challenging the age old prohibitions of patriarchal ideology through legislative enactments and policies. It is regretable that Sri Lanka has not been able to achieve it’s heights in this regard and wish to express our support to all efforts taken by civil society and women’s groups working for urgent reforms in this area.

It is important to stress the need to respond immediately to specific needs of women affected by floods in Pakistan as our gesture of solidarity to empowerment of women in practice.

International and Regional Power Dimensions
We recognise the need to evolve consistent multi-pronged strategies to combat the influence of globalisation, continuing repression and militarisation in the name of war on terror, growing international re-alignments including India-US, and China, shrinking democratic space, marginalisation of human rights, unsustainable development paradigm.

Our Challenges…
Dominant development models and paradigms have failed. It has exhausted all possibilities. We see the accentuation of deprivation at all levels of the people. We see poverty as deprivation of capabilities of people which deny them freedom and human rights and keep them continously in a state of disempowerment social, economic and political.

We are aware that old slogans are not sufficient for organisation and mobilisation. We need to call for all exlcuded women, dalits, indigenous, all minorities ethnic, religious and linguistic based on our contemporary understanding to unite to struggle against poverty, hunger and injustice.

The fight for entitlements such as employment, food, education, health. housing, human security, social security, dignity and the like needs to be carried out through the agency of the exploited masses as well as the excluded social groups. SAAPE will work with excluded groups and associations of the poor to alert governments on their responsibilities and to bring a collective sense of social responsibility within the region for future reduction of poverty and the attendant risks of living in that condition for the millions of  the poor in South Asia.