Sonu Sood calls for human rights education program about government food schemes
Sonu Sood today joins actors and filmmakers including Sonakshi Sinha, Raveena Tandon, R. Balki, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Imtiaz Ali, Nandita Das, Saket Chaudhary, Alankrita Shrivastava, Ruchi Nair, and Shonali Bose, each taking a stand for the human right they feel is most important.
On the Born Free & Equal podcast by United for Human Rights, where Sonu chose to talk about the human right Food and Shelter for All, he said, “Food and Shelter is the right that everyone needs and deserves to get. Imagine all these poor guys who are on the roads - they're not getting food with them for two days, three days. What we realized is that government distributed food reaches a lot of places, but we also had at least 30 to 40% of people who still get deprived of all their needs and their rights, so the question is how to make that awareness? Yes, the law and rights to food and shelter exist, but how many people are really enjoying it – in the heartland, there’s a lot of classism, there are a lot of people not aware of their rights and, like what this Born Free and Equal podcast is doing, it’s just about bringing that awareness - awareness of your rights. Half of the people, I would say five out of 10 people, they are not aware, or if they are aware, they don't know how to make use of their rights. So, I think that that's a little bit of a knowledge that needs to be given to these guys.”
Sonu was joined on the podcast by actress Sheena Chohan, South Asia Ambassador for United for Human Rights, who was awarded the Hero Award at the United Nations in New York last year. Sheena said. “The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Indian Constitution make it clear that people have a right to these basic rights. Article 47 of our Constitution says raising the level of nutrition, standard of living and health is among the state’s most important duties. So, it’s wonderful to have someone like Sonu, who has done so much to provide for those without food and shelter in this crisis, call for education programs which would permanently see that awareness of the food schemes provided by the government to comply with the constitution, reach everyone who needs it.”
