Activists urge SAARC nations to curtail defence budget : India Business

New Delhi, April 2 Labelling SAARC as a forum for bureaucracy and politics, activists from South Asia Monday urged member nations to curtail the security budget and divert money to poverty alleviation projects.

Hundreds of activists have been holding a conference for the last two days in the Indian capital where the 14th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit is to start Tuesday.

Over 10,000 people and activists had organised a massive convention at Kathmandu last month to form a 'People's SAARC' forum to voice the grievances of the masses.

'The SAARC Summit has turned into a celebration forum for the politicians and bureaucrats of the seven countries. People's issues are no more dominating their thoughts,' said Arjun Kakri, coordinator of the South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication, Nepal, at a press conference here Monday.

India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives are the member nations of SAARC.

'We appeal to all the governments to spend less on defence and security and divert that money towards poverty alleviation programmes,' Kakri said.

He said during 2006, Nepal spent Rs.18 billion on defence as against just Rs.2 billion on agriculture.

'More money on defence means more bloodshed and a bigger magnitude of human rights violation. Should we not spend more on education and employment?' asked Zakia Jowher, founding member of the Indian Muslim Women's Movement.

Kamal Mitra Chenoy, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said: 'India has pegged a whopping Rs.960 billion for defence in 2007-08 budget but the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme gets only Rs.120 billion.

'This speaks about our mindset and role in improving poverty,' he added.

Mohan Tamang, a leader of Bhutanese refugees, said nearly 110,000 people from Bhutan were living outside their country - in Nepal and India - and New Delhi must ask Thimpu to act on this front.

'Nearly 30 percent of Bhutan's expenditure comes from India and we appeal to the Indian government to get involved in tripartite talks involving Bhutan, Nepal and India to resolve this huge human right issue,' Tamang added.