Why poor rural tribals will remain poor for generations

A new survey by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre identified 15 regions spread over six states where poverty is getting concentrated and chronic, and found that tribal and forested areas are likely to remain poor, with the decline in poverty among the rural tribal population going from 51.9% to just 47.3% .

  Poverty is becoming hereditary in India, at least for a sizeable population. That is the conclusion derived from a three-decade tracking of poor households in rural India.
A survey by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), an international association of researchers and academicians, claims that those who are chronically poor may pass on poverty to their next generation. What’s more, people residing in tribal and forested areas are likely to remain poor forever, fomenting violent conflicts in future. Most of India’s forested districts are already dens of Naxalites.

The survey, India Chronic Poverty Report, comes at a time when the country is awaiting its latest National Sample Survey for estimation of poverty. On April 21, while unveiling the approach paper to the 12th Five Year Plan for 2012-17, the Planning Commission disclosed that poverty has reduced from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 32% in 2009-10. The estimate is critical for the next Plan and the eagerly awaited and much debated National Food Security Law.

A controversy erupted the day the commission made the disclosure. The Supreme Court ordered the commission to explain how it fixed percentage of people below-poverty-line (BPL) at 36%. The percentage helps the commission decide the direction of development programmes and distribution of foodgrains under the public distribution system.

The apex court’s observation came in the wake of a petition filed by nonprofit People’s Union for Civil Liberties. The petitioner contends that adequate foodgrains are not being given to people living below the poverty line. This case is known as the Right to Food. The court also challenged the commission’s estimates of BPL families. “There cannot be two Indias,” said the apex court while describing the country’s high economic growth and consistent poverty. “The poverty level is reducing but at a slow pace,” says Biraj Patnaik, principal adviser to the court’s commissioners for the case.

Two Indias
The survey by CPRC explains the “two Indias”. “Why do some people remain poor for a longer period of time? Why do poor areas remain poor forever? These are the questions answered by the survey,” says Aasha Kapur Mehta, professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Public Administration in Delhi, who leads CPRC in India.
The survey followed about 3,000 households for almost 30 years across the country. It adopted a three-pronged approach to poverty: what drives poverty, what retains poverty and what causes exit from poverty.

CPRC has published 32 research papers in the past five years explaining various aspects of poverty in India. It defines the chronic poor as people who remain poor through their lifetime. Analysis of the papers shows that at least 50% of India’s poor are chronic poor. The survey identified 15 regions spread over six states where poverty is getting concentrated and chronic (see map). “Persistent backwardness and inequality have led to concentration of poverty in certain parts of India. So there is a geographical dimension to poverty,” says the CPRC report.

The count of very poor (with a consumption expenditure of Rs 9 per day per person) is an indicator of chronic poverty. Though the number of very poor is decreasing, the percentage is quite substantial. Their number was 115 million in 2004-05—37% of the total poor. The percentage of the very poor in the total population has declined in all states except Orissa, between 1983-94 and 2004-05. The percentage in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh is higher than the all- India figure.

The share of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh in the total of very poor people rose from 57.5% in 1983 to 66.8% in 1993-94 and to 70.6% in 2004-05. “This is alarming because the next generation of these people will also be poor. Thus a vicious cycle is created,” says Mehta.

According to the survey, people in tribal and forested or degraded forest regions are more likely to remain poor forever. Nine of the 15 identified regions are forested; they have been targeted for poverty alleviation programmes since the early-1950s.

The report says, “In forest regions, the issues are not so much agronomic or natural conditions as poor people’s access to the resources that are there, their human capital endowment and the way they are incorporated into labour market.” The survey points out the poverty reduction among tribals is slow. Estimates for 1993-94 and 2004-05 indicate that against a decline in poverty for the entire population from about 37% to 27%, the decline among the rural tribal population was from 51.9% to 47.3%.

Amita Shah, director of Gujarat Institute of Development Research, says, “Poverty reduction programmes must include issues of economic growth, employment generation, socio-spatial equity, environmental sustainability and political stability within a holistic framework.”

Why poverty becomes chronic
According to the survey, there is inequality in the efforts made to prevent people from poverty and get them out of it. The numerous poverty alleviation programmes are inadequate and insufficient. Of the 29 such programmes studied in the survey, only nine could prevent people from falling into the poverty trap. Thirteen could enable escape from poverty and 16 could alleviate chronic poverty. Consequently, says Shashanka Bhide, a senior fellow of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, a significant proportion of non-poor households may fall into poverty while a large proportion of poor may not manage to escape it.

The report is a wake-up call. “Social conflict may find easy recruits among the chronically poor, who have less to lose by engaging in conflict and might be mobilised by the politics of grievance,” says the report. Anand Kumar, professor of sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, says, “The report points to four major deficits the country is facing—development, legitimacy, governance and democracy. This created another crisis, time deficit.” He adds, “People are no longer willing to wait; there is a sense of urgency, suggesting the need for continued mass mobilisation and protests.” 

The full report is available http://www.chronicpoverty.org/publications/details/india-chronic-poverty-report
 
This article first appeared in Down to Earth, May 31, 2011. Richard Mahapatra is a senior environmental journalist presently with Down to Earth, and a former Infochange Media Fellow.

Source: http://infochangeindia.org/poverty/books-reports/why-poor-rural-tribals-will-remain-poor-for-generations.html

 

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

India raises official poverty estimate

After a lot of deliberation, the Indian government has concluded that it has around 100 million more people living below the poverty line than in 2004. This was after the country’s top policy planning body raised its estimate of the nation’s official poverty rate to 37.2% of the population, from 27.5%, a key development as the government drafts legislation to give the poorest Indians a right to state-subsidised foodgrain.

The move by the Planning Commission, which wasn’t announced formally but was confirmed by a senior government official, pegs the number of Indians in poverty at around 410 million -- more than 100 million above the previous estimate.

The change comes after critics said the earlier poverty estimate left too many destitute households out of the government’s food entitlement programmes. But the new poverty figure is unlikely to please food activists and politicians who feel it still vastly underestimates the number of people in need of assistance.

The 37.2% poverty line is based on a new methodology recommended by a panel headed by former economic advisor Suresh Tendulkar, in a report submitted to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in December 2009. Although the report still has to be officially accepted, for the limited purposes of food security the Planning Commission agreed to Tendulkar’s recommendations at a recent meeting of its members.

The earlier definition of poverty was based on calorie intake, according to which only 27.5% of people were living below the poverty line and the number of BPL families was around 65 million. With the Plan panel accepting the Tendulkar methodology, 37.2% of the total population, or 81 million families, will be placed below the poverty line.

The new poverty estimate, which will reflect the impact of high growth recorded during the decade, will be available in 2011. Computation of the number of BPL families at this stage assumes significance in view of the government’s decision to enact a food security law under which 25 kg of foodgrain will be provided every month, at Rs 3 per kg, to every BPL family.

The Planning Commission, mandated by the empowered group of ministers, chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to finalise the BPL numbers, will now meet the secretaries of food and expenditure to calculate the cost of providing food security to so many poor.

The burden on the central exchequer for implementing the food security law will depend on the number of BPL households and the quantity of subsidised foodgrain available with the government. Food subsidy stood at around Rs 72,000 crore in the last financial year.

“Two different poverty lines -- one for food security and the other for all other purposes -- for one country sounds odd. But this has been the most expedient solution for the time being,” said an official who did not wish to be named.

This will raise the number of those eligible for free food significantly -- but nobody’s sure how much. The widely quoted number is close to 10 crore families; some states put it at over 11 crore; the Planning Commission puts it somewhere between 7.5 and 8 crore. The worry is that it demonstrates, again, a dangerously halfhearted commitment to food security: dangerous because it will neither be abandoned nor effectively implemented, and the country could end up with a system that feeds too few and costs too much.

“This is a very low, suppressed poverty line. We reject it,” Kavita Srivastava, an activist who led a ‘right to food’ rally in the capital recently, said. “As far as we’re concerned, it still doesn’t tell us the real number of poor.”

Among the protesters at the rally was 50-year-old Kesar Sahu who lives in a slum in Rajasthan’s capital, Jaipur, and supports herself and two daughters by sweeping floors and cutting vegetables at schools. The Rs 1,000 she earns in a good month isn’t enough to make do, even with existing government subsidies, she said. “We’re only getting 35 kg (of foodgrain) now. We really need 50 kg to get by. Everyone should get that much.”

Though India’s economy emerged from the global downturn with a solid gross domestic product growth of 7.2% in the year ended March 31, the country’s poor are struggling to deal with year-on-year food inflation that is hovering around 17%. Even before rising food prices, India was struggling with high malnutrition rates.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government has pushed for legislation that will provide 25 kg of wheat and rice per month to households deemed officially below the poverty line. India already has a programme in place to distribute about 35 kg of subsidised foodgrain to poor households, but the rate is about 50% more expensive than what’s now being proposed.

Moreover, there is no law that guarantees food subsidies -- they are given at the central government’s discretion. And the current programme is plagued by corruption, with one-third of grain pilfered or rotting before it reaches needy households.

Experts say a third of the world’s poor are in India, living on less than $ 2 per day, worse than in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Source: http://infochangeindia.org/201004198258/Poverty/News/India-raises-official-poverty-estimate.html

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) completes five years

The challenge is to honour every household’s right to quality healthcare. The Mission, which has set up a community monitoring system in nine states, now needs to make it universal before the end of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan so that local communities begin to demand healthcare as a right, says a review

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) completed five years on April 12, 2010. Launched in 2005 as a seven-year programme, the government may extend it by three years, to 2015, as many of its goals are still to be achieved, say senior health officials in New Delhi.

The Union government’s flagship scheme to improve healthcare services in rural areas seeks to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, prevent disease, control population, and ensure gender balance in rural India, according to the government website.

One of the visions of the NRHM was to increase public spending on healthcare, from around 0.9% of India’s gross domestic product in 2004-05 to 2-3%. This has not been achieved. The national health accounts of the health ministry says it increased from 0.84% in 2004-05 to 1.1% in 2008-09, while the Economic Survey 2009-10 put the increase from 1.19% in 2004-05 to 1.45% in 2009-10.

“There are some goals that the NRHM still has to achieve… So, the Centre is thinking of extending the NRHM by three years before beginning the next phase,” said the head of a non-government organisation that works closely with the government under the programme. He added that plans were being drawn up with the 2015 deadline in mind. When asked if the Mission would be extended to 2015, Union Health Secretary K Sujatha Rao said: “I suppose so.”

“In 2012, the Twelfth Five-Year Plan will start so it (the extension) will depend on that. But it is likely that the NRHM will be extended, even though no decision has yet been taken,” said Amarjeet Sinha, joint secretary (NRHM), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Poor utilisation of allocated funds and a shortage of medical professionals and administrators seem to have slowed the initiative’s progress. An audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India stressed the need to build public-private partnerships under the NRHM to better utilise the money.

However, in a statement, the health ministry said that spending was poor at the local level initially due to decades of over-centralisation. It added that the situation was improving and that a number of local-level institutions were making better use of funds.

A mid-term review of the programme claims it has unleashed a lot of positive synergies and that the government should make an all-out effort to deepen the processes of community health in such a way that every household is able to seek its entitlement to healthcare.

The review says the 700,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) -- the first port of call -- across the country have demonstrated their ability to link households with facilities. The challenge in the coming years would be to honour the entitlement of every household to quality healthcare that is accessible, accountable and affordable. This would also call for a behaviour change in the way the public system interfaces with poor households, particularly women.

The challenge before the NRHM is to craft credible public systems. This would call for new systems of public recruitment that are institution-specific and based on service guarantees with complete local-level accountability. “The NRHM has promoted this culture of local recruitment and local accountability through contractual appointments. There is the need to develop a new paradigm of public recruitment based on the learning of the last five years,” the report says.

Quoting evidence-based studies, the mid-term review added that basic protocols of care at all levels, with wide publicity at facilities, must be universalised. There is a lot to learn from the protocols followed by the armed forces hospitals and dispensaries, in this regard.

While a lot has moved on delegation of administrative and financial powers, the NRHM needs to further deepen decentralised management and accountability by engaging non-governmental organisations for community monitoring at all levels. The NGO programme of the ministry needs to be revised in such a manner that the presence of quality NGOs for community monitoring and skill development can be crafted from block to district to state levels.

Further, the review says, while resources have reached institutions across the length and breadth of the country, under the NRHM, it is time for every facility to develop a detailed institutional plan for utilising the untied resources being made available to it.

Timely utilisation of such resources, their effectiveness and their efficiency must be periodically assessed. Governance reforms and greater supervision in this regard would help, the report concludes.

Source:http://infochangeindia.org/201004138231/Health/News/NRHM-completes-five-years.html

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Climate Change Science: Due Diligence for Future Generations?

Have we shown due diligence and proper consideration for the welfare of future generations by doing our best to scientifically evaluate the spectrum of climate change dangers and responsible mitigation management of our emissions?

Or are we in carbon addict denial refusing to do due diligence in evaluating what look to be serious, possibly even humanity threatening dangers to future generations because we don't want to accept the need to curtail our emissions? Are we turning a blind eye to the damage we are potentially causing to our kids and grandchildren because we are afraid that quantifying the dangers will force us to confront our present socio-economy and lifestyles?

What would constitute a due diligence process for quantifying climate change dangers, local and global, immediate and for the future? Is our present way of doing climate change science the best way of quantifying the climate change dangers?

We have known for more than a century the greenhouse gas (GHG) cause and effect and how burning fossil fuels should increase global temperatures, and that for several decades at least we have gathered evidence indicating GHG increase and global temperature rise. We now know from scientific examination of ice-cores and other long term climate records that small forcings can whipsaw large climate swings and that the 10,000 year Holocene period containing man's civilized history has been a begnine, stable climate that is now threatened. Yet our GHG emissions continue to rise. If we have not taken appropriate precautionary steps to limit our increasing GHG production, is it that our scientific foresight is incapable of quantifying the impacts and scale of dangers for future generations?

Or we just haven't tried hard enough to understand our culpability in our continuing GHG production because we don't want to know? Because we fear that hard answers about the consequences of our actions would be profoundly inconvenient.

Is the IPPC a proper due diligence process? The IPCC has been a very productive and informing ad hoc, volunteer approach for scientifically investigating climate change. Several thousand scientists globally have hypothesized, experimented, collected data and organized our understanding of climate change in the best quantification of cause and effect and probabilities of risk and danger that we have.

But is the IPCC due diligence in protecting future generations? The present Climategate furor has been orchestrated to cast doubt on both the IPCC process and the present state of climate change knowledge that this process has produced over nearly two decades. This MSM trial of the IPCC does not in any way undermine the body of scientific information published and is really about continuing to manufacture denial.

There are flaws in the IPCC process though: volunteer and underfunded, unwieldy and out of date, the offspring of a very weak organization with declining powers, and an inherently conservative process dependent upon consensus between not only scientists but with national political actors involved too.

This conservative consensus building is not due diligence in acting in a precautionary way to safeguard future generations. Presently emerging science and areas of science and policy that are bound to be controversial are marginalized, ignored or downplayed:

"(T)he 2007 IPCC Report worked within projections of a 90 percent confidence level which comes close to requiring full scientific certainty; this practice was in violation of the precautionary principle which affirms that where there is a threat of climate change the lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent the threat. If the IPCC had explicitly considered the risks of higher temperatures outside the boundary of a 90 percent confidence level, dynamical melting of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets, and non–linear responses to drivers of climate change this would have enabled States to have far more clarity in regards to the dire urgency of the climate crisis emergency."
http://timetobebold.wordpress.com/

The IPCC has been invaluable as a stimulus for and gatherer of climate change science but innovation is needed. The IPCC process must be better supported financially and politically; innovation is required to speed up publication and focus the emerging science. The IPCC should consider quickly documenting a 'worse case scenario' with probabilities and precautionary mitigation steps that might be necessary.

The UN is not the strong multilateral organization needed in confronting emerging global-scale problems. There is widespread agreement that the US as leading global economic and political power and developer of the present dominant socio-economy has to be world leader on climate change.

But America cannot lead because government is paralyzed, captured by business interests, and the American public is deeply mis-educated and divided about climate change.

Those in the science community and those in positions of responsibility in government who do know the science and recognize the seriousness of the climate change danger must innovate to try and get the majority of at least informed Americans onside, on the same page about climate change dangers and mitigation steps necessary.

A Presidential Commission organized at the highest cabinet levels and facilitated by either the AAAS or NAS with the process and resulting quantification of dangers posted transparently on the web in something like a controlled access wiki could potentially put most Americans on the same page about what American leadership should be on climate change.

Innovating science process and communication in this way may overcome mis-education and denial and force Americans to recognize how their present use of fossil fuels will probably effect their kids and grandchildren in the future. Quantifying climate change in this way may force Americans and the rest of the world's major emitters to recognize their ethical duty to future generations.

There is also a strong argument that there is no problem with how the science community has quantified climate change - the problem is that climate science is input to government decision making completely pre-occupied with economic management. We need governance innovation too.

"If nations or individuals have ethical obligations, they are likely to have duties, responsibilities, and obligations that require them to go beyond consideration of self-interest alone in making decisions. And so, if climate change raises ethical considerations, governments may not base policy decisions on self-interest alone."


By Bill Henderson


Source: http://www.countercurrents.org/henderson060310.htm


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Remove Sharad Pawar- Agriculture Minister, And Food Inflation Will Ease

I have got tired of answering questions about food inflation. So when a TV journo called me yesterday inviting me to a show on food inflation, I apologised. "What new can I say on food price spiral," I told him.

"No, Sir", he replied "We know you were alone when the entire class of economists were trying to pass the blame on supply-demand constraint. They were proved wrong. Whatever you said about food prices, and the failure of the government to control it, has come out to be true. Please come on our show and tell us what will happen this year."

Anyway, to cut the long story short, I accepted the invite.

To my pleasant surprise, when the TV channel played the introductory package wherein we heard Sushma Swaraj speaking in Parliament, the young anchor told me that more than six months prior to her I had said almost the same on this TV show. The anchor in fact reeled out some of the prescriptions that I had doled out for curbing the price rise.

I was amazed. I never expected a TV anchor to be so keenly following a story. It only tells us that not all TV hosts are dumb. Not only this girl, I find most of the anchors quite sharp and bright. Of course, I am not comparing them with the likes of Karan Thapar, Rajdeep Sardesai, Pankaj Pachauri and Hindol Sengupta, but I must say that over time most TV channels have begun to look for real good anchors.

Nevertheless, returning back to food inflation, I was asked to respond to the UPA government's latest claim that food prices will ease by April. Although food inflation has risen to 17.87 per cent for the week ending Feb 20, chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu has been quoted as saying that the food price have come down, and the high inflation is because of the base effect. Analysts say that the April harvest would be crucial, and the pressure on inflation will ease after the new crop flows into the markets.

I don't think food inflation will ebb after April. In the days to come we will first see the Budget decision to hike duties on fuel impacting prices, an indication of which is coming from Anand, Gujarat, where the milk cooperatives are warning of a rise in milk prices. In the past few days, the price of 500 gm pack of curd in Mother Dairy has already gone up by Rs 2, and that of cheese by Rs 4.

Once this price rise stabilises, the food prices will be on a continuous spiral pending the hike in urea prices by 10 per cent, which will come into effect from April 1.

Fertiliser manufacturers have promised not to raise the price of other fertilisers besides urea in Kharif 2010, but after the monsoon season is over, it will be free for all. That is where the fertiliser manufacturers are waiting to make a killing. This will have a cascading effect on food prices. In short, we must learn to live with higher food prices.

Once again, I was asked as to what needs to done. I am spelling out the corrective steps that needs to be undertaken immediately:

1. Any strong government, if it wasn't faced with the compulsions of coalition politics, would have removed the Food & Agriculture Minister by now. The Congress cannot wait any longer. It must get rid of Sharad Pawar, and you will see the prices coming down.

2. We have no reason to complain if we believe in market economy. This is what the markets do when left on its own. The markets need a danda. And that is what the government is reluctant to do because it will go against the norms of a free economy. The government needs to regulate the markets, even if it means going against the flawed thinking that markets correct itself.

3. Hand over the sugar swindle (or call it mismanagement) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). There is no reason why the sugar stocks continued to climb in the stockmarket at a time when the industry claimed it was running in losses. It was all designed.

4. Go for a nationwide crackdown against hoarders, not only the wholesale trade but also the retailers. Simultaneously, put a full stop on future trading in agricultural commodities.

5. Curb the big retail. They are also responsible for the price hike.

By Devinder Sharma

Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/sharma060310.htm

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Poor nations should consider overall health picture

Families in some poor nations are trapped in cycles of illness and poverty as authorities fail to tackle chronic health problems or meet goals on child health and tuberculosis, scientists said on Tuesday 2nd March 2010.

British and American researchers found countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe with the highest rates of HIV and chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease are also failing to meet goals on reducing child death rates and the spread of tuberculosis.

Lesotho, for example, has seen a 25 percent rise in infant death rates over the past few decades and has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world, they wrote.

In 2000, world leaders from 189 countries signed up to the Millennium Development Goals to reduce child mortality by two-thirds and to halt and reverse the spread of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV by 2015.

But the researchers said tackling both chronic problems like heart disease and infectious diseases like tuberculosis at the same time could be far more effective than pursuing a narrow focus against a few diseases named in globally-agreed targets.

Reducing HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS -- by 1 percent, or chronic diseases by 10 percent could help boost progress towards child health and tuberculosis targets by the equivalent of more than a decade of economic development, they said.

"It is important to look at the entire health experience of individuals and families and not focus on just one or a few diseases," said Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who worked on the study with colleagues from the universities of Oxford and California San Francisco.

"Success in global health means tackling the daily, interconnected risks people living in poor countries face, whether those risks are chronic or infectious."

Tackling joint epidemics of chronic and infectious diseases could especially help countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers said, where progress towards goals had been slowest.

They also said Eastern Europe was far behind on tuberculosis goals, a failure they said was "partly because of an explosive and uncontained chronic disease epidemic in the 1990s."

The study found it was not simply lack of money or infrastructure that hampered health progress, but that long-term diseases like HIV, heart disease and diabetes could trap households in "vicious cycles of illness and poverty".

"Traditional reasons for slow progress, such as economic development or health spending, are only a small part of the story about why poorer countries are falling behind," David Suckler of Oxford University wrote in the study in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine journal.

"Future progress will crucially depend on finding a way to break the cycle of illness and poverty caused by HIV and chronic illnesses." (Editing by Janet Lawrence)


Source: http://alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6210M1.htm


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Kolkata Group demands food entitlements for all

The Eighth Kolkata Group Workshop, chaired by Amartya Sen, has argued for creating durable legal entitlements that guarantee the right to food for all in the country. Sen stressed the need for firm recognition of the right to food, and comprehensive legislation to guarantee everyone the right. The Eighth Kolkata Group Workshop was held in Kolkata between February 15 and 16, 2010, and saw the participation of over 50 people from various walks of life -- policymakers, opinion leaders, social scientists, scholars, activists and development experts -- to discuss dimensions of injustice relating to elementary education, food security, health, women’s work, and non-discrimination.

‘A Right to Food Act covering justiciable food entitlements should be non-discriminatory and universal. Entitlements guaranteed by the Act should include foodgrain from the Public Distribution System (PDS), school meals, nutrition services for children below the age of six years, social security provision, and allied programmes,’ a statement released by the group said.

The Kolkata Group meets once a year to explore the many inter-connections between inequality, deprivation, human development and democracy. Its special focus has been on examining ways of advancing people’s health and education. Organisations supporting the Kolkata Group include Unicef-India and the Harvard-based Global Equity Initiative, besides Sen’s Pratichi Trust.

This year’s workshop, the eighth in the annual series, was on ‘Eliminating Injustice’. It was structured broadly around the themes explored in Professor Sen’s most recent theoretical work, The Idea of Justice (Allen Lane, Penguin Books, 2009) and, like earlier workshops, drew on insights gained from surveys, other kinds of research, and practical experience.

On the basis of extensive discussions on the exceptionally high levels of under-nutrition in India, particularly among women and children, the Kolkata Group argued for firm recognition of the right to food in general and comprehensive legislation to guarantee the entitlement of food for all. Recent experience (including Supreme Court orders on the right to food as well as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) shows the value of putting economic and social rights in a legal framework. Legislation should recognise that food and nutritional security depends not just on food but on a set of related interventions that promote women’s health and nutrition, safe drinking water, proper sanitation and healthcare. Design and implementation should include effective public participation, grievance redressal provisions and independent monitoring.

The two-day workshop, structured into five sessions, began with a discussion on the different dimensions of injustice and addressed the challenge of eliminating injustice in the areas of elementary education, food and health, women, work and care, and tribals, dalits and minorities.

Among those who attended were Shabana Azmi, Asim Chakraborty, Seema Chishti, Abhijit Chowdhury, Nandita Das, Asim Dasgupta, Saibal Gupta, Syeda Hameed, Surinder Jodhka, Rohini Nilekani, Biraj Patnaik, N Ram, Mala Ramadorai, Kumar Rana, Abhijit Sen, Shanta Sinha, Sharmila Tagore, Sukhadeo Thorat and Sitaram Yechury.

Source:http://infochangeindia.org/201002188166/Agriculture/News/Kolkata-Group-demands-food-entitlements-for-all.html

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

International Medical Corps appeals for HELP to Haiti

On January 12, a 7.0 earthquake struck 10 miles south of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Team is in Port-au-Prince assisting survivors of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti Tuesday. The team is providing medical care outside the general hospital near the Presidential Palace where hundreds of people have congregated for help.

• Estimated 2.5 to 3 million people are expected be affected.
• Earthquake triggered mudslides, collapsed buildings, and knocked out power and communications lines.
• Injuries and loss of life are predicted to be substantial.
• People reportedly trapped under rubble and much of Port-au-Prince is destroyed.

Other members of the Emergency Response Team are conducting a rapid needs assessment and visiting hospitals around the city to explore their condition.

In addition to emergency medical care, survivors of the earthquake are likely to be in immediate need of food and water, as well as non-food items like blankets, tents, stoves, and water purification equipment. Public health is a major concern as well. International Medical Corps will also focus on providing emergency shelter and other essential items in its relief effort.We need your help to work as quickly as possible while lives can still be saved.

$200 ships $2,500 worth of life saving medicines and medical supplies to help our Emergency Response Team provide critically needed care.

$100 buys water filtration systems that would provide clean, safe drinking water to at least 3 families.

$25 helps fully immunize one child under the age of 5 and protect him or her from illness.

$10 provides hygiene kits to 2 people to help protect them from sanitation-related illnesses, and provide a basic level of comfort and dignity.

The response draws on 25 years of experience in emergency settings, including last September's earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, and the massive 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.

Already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti struggles with widespread poverty with 70 percent of its population living on less than two dollars a day.

Silver Inning Foundation request you to please DONATE/HELP people of Haiti.

Donate and HELP at: https://www.imcworldwide.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=878


Doctors and Nurses can click here to Volunteer:
http://www.cytiva.com/cejobs/cojobsIMC.asp#imcorp1003


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Neem, garlic and green chillies: Recipe for a bumper crop

“The atmosphere’s heat trapping burden (has come) not just through emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel… but also from another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide. More than four-fifths of these emissions are from agriculture, from the use of chemical fertilisers.”

-- State of the World Population 2009. Facing a Changing World: Women Population and Climate

Today, organic farming is not just the ‘in thing’, it’s also paying. Ask Veera Narayana who has farmed both the ‘chemical way’ and the ‘organic way’. Till 2004, Narayana (41) and his two brothers did what every farmer was doing on their nine acres of irrigated land in Korivipalli village -- feeding the crops tonnes of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP). “We spent around Rs 10,000 on an acre of watermelon,” he says. And it worked initially -- returns were nearly double the input.

Narayana’s village in Singanamala mandal (mandals are administrative blocks) of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh belongs to the rain-shadow Rayalaseema region that is arid, treeless and made up of poor red soil. It boasts an annual average rainfall of just 553 mm.

Even as farmers began to rely more and more on chemical farm additives, the frequency of drought increased from every alternate year to an annual crisis. In eight out of the 10 years from 1997-98 to 2007-08, all 63 mandals were declared drought-affected (government of Andhra Pradesh’s Handbook of Statistics 2007-08, Anantapur district).

Farmers borrowed from private moneylenders at monthly interest rates ranging between 2 and 5% to buy fertiliser and pesticides, and to drill deep borewells to water their fields. With crops failing year after year, the region began reporting farmer suicides as early as the 1970s.

In July 2000, Narayana applied DAP to his watermelon creepers that were just opening into three leaves. Days passed and still there was no rain; the plants wilted. A desperate Narayana would carry water in a 16 kg tin container from an open well and ration a mug for each plant, hoping against hope that the rains would come and save his plants. But there was no rain for three weeks. July ran into August and still the sun bore down relentlessly. That year, Narayana and his brothers incurred heavy losses.

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) -- the United Nations body responsible for stemming the spread of deserts -- says that about 6 million hectares of productive land around the world have been lost every year since 1990, as land becomes degraded and less fertile. An estimated 135 million people are presently at risk of being driven from their lands because of continuing desertification that can reduce productivity in some regions by as much as half. The UN estimates that, over time, more than 1 billion people and one-third of the earth’s surface will be threatened by mostly creeping desertification. The Convention now has 191 signatories; India is one of them.

“Something had to give, or we have to give in somewhere… this cannot go on,” said a worried Narayana. In 2004, the 13-NGO network Anantha Paryavarana Parirakshana Samithi (APPS) staged a street play in his village on the ill-effects of chemical fertiliser and pesticides, and that home-made alternatives could be the answer in low rain areas. The APPS calls it non-pesticide management (NPM). The farmers enjoyed the play but went home laughing at its message. “If the most toxic of chemical pesticides, Monoprotophos (a phosphate-based insecticide), was not able to kill the stubborn red-haired caterpillar, the worst enemy of the groundnut farmer in this region, how could a home-made concoction of neem (Azadirachta indica), garlic and green chillies kill it?!”

But Narayana decided to give it a try. His brothers admonished him: “Has your brain taken leave of your head? Do it if you insist, on your portion of the land.”

“If it does not work then it won’t be the first time I’ll lose my crop,” Narayana replied. “But it will be less investment down the drain.” He started organic farming on one acre, following the instructions of APPS organic farming co-coordinator Hanumantha Reddy word for word.

Read in detail: http://infochangeindia.org/200911248050/Agriculture/Features/Neem-garlic-and-green-chillies-Recipe-for-a-bumper-crop.html

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Bt Brinjal Can Awaken A Sleeping Poison

What, you may ask, is common between potatoes, tomatoes, brinjal, chilli, datura, tobacco and the deadly nightshade (belladonna)? They all belong to a plant family called Solanaceae. The Solanaceae family contains a number of important agricultural plants as well as many psychoactive and toxic plants. Solanaceae species are rich in complex chemicals called alkaloids and contain some of the most poisonous plants known to mankind. They produce alkaloids in their roots, leaves and flowers. These alkaloids can be hallucinogens, stimulants or outright toxic. For example, when potatoes are exposed to light, a chemical called solanin is produced which appears as a green tinge. Green potatoes can be toxic, damage an unborn fetus and cause abortions. Other plants of this family known for their toxic qualities are belladonna, datura and tobacco.

Farmers have been working for thousands of years to domesticate wild plants like those of the Solanaceae family, to make them safe for eating. Much of this exercise involved breeding out the toxins contained in the wild plants. Scientists too have used careful, selective breeding to “clean up” crop varieties which had good qualities but contained toxins. Now brinjal, a member of this family, has been genetically engineered (GE) to produce a toxin to protect itself against a particular pest. This seems to be a process working to reverse several thousand years of efforts to detoxify natural plants to make them fit for human consumption!

Genetic engineering in plants has not been mastered enough to rule out the creation of dangerous new products in the cells when genes are muddled during the insertion of new, usually foreign genes. Several cases are known when new proteins and toxins were produced in plants which were genetically engineered. For example, when genetically modified (GM) peas were being developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia to protect peas from the pest pea weevil, it was found that newly-formed proteins in the GM peas repeatedly caused immunity problems and lung inflammation when fed to mice. The experiments had to be abandoned. In another case, when mice were fed the genetically engineered Flavr Savr tomato, seven out of 40 experimental animals died within 14 days and the others suffered stomach lesions.

Genetic engineering in plants of the Solanaceae family could be dangerous since disturbing their genetic material through the process of inserting new gene constructs containing a battery of genes — including the toxin producing Bt gene — may trigger off metabolic processes that have been lying dormant. There are apprehensions that not only could new toxins develop but that old toxins that were removed by selective breeding may reappear. Disturbing the cell metabolism (by genetic engineering) of species that are naturally genetically hardwired to produce toxins, is likely to call up old plant toxins in these species.

Testing for food safety is key in genetically engineered plants; it becomes more so with the Solanaceae family. At present biotechnology companies rely on the concept of “substantial equivalence” to demonstrate the safety of genetically engineered foods. In this method, the overall chemical composition of the genetically engineered food is compared to an equivalent conventional food. If there is no significant difference between the two, the GE plant is considered to be safe.

The Mahyco seed company has also tested its Bt brinjal in the same way. However, substantial equivalence is a highly contested paradigm, favored by the biotech industry but rejected by most countries. This is because there is no mechanism in such an approach to detect unexpected or unintended changes like new toxic compounds in the cell.

Apart from the critical safety issues, there are other questions that arise with the impending release of India’s first genetically engineered food crop. There is no system in place for labeling these foods. Indeed, how can one in the Indian situation label a vegetable that will be sold from farmers’ fields, laden into trucks and taken to wholesale mandis. How will the vegetables on the vendor’s cart or the corner shop be labeled as GM? The Government of India recognises the need to label GE food, and its position in the meetings of the Codex Alimentarius has been consistently in favor of mandatory labeling.

Accordingly, the ministry of health has drafted rules under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act to include labeling of GE food and food ingredients. But there is as yet no mechanism in place to label GE food, nor have any awareness programs been conducted to explain the nature of GE foods and the need for labeling them. For most consumers, especially rural consumers, GE foods are a black box and unless they are made aware of the nature of GE foods, labelling would be meaningless. Despite these big gaps in preparedness, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has approved Mahyco’s Bt brinjal for commercial production.

Does this mean that the consumer’s right to informed choice about their food is about to be trashed? This right is enshrined in India’s Consumer Protection Act and the GEAC approval will violate the provisions of this Act. Further, labeling is not just about pasting a colored sticker on a brinjal, it involves a rigorous process of segregation and identity preservation (IP) to keep Bt and non-Bt food segregated. IP is a complex and expensive process requiring separation of a GM food from non-GM food, starting from farmers’ fields, all the way to vegetable shops. Without going through this process, labeling cannot be done. Or has the GEAC planned that all brinjals cultivated in this country henceforth will be genetically engineered?

And what about fixing liability for damage? There is no liability law in India. In the event of contamination of organic brinjal with Bt brinjal, what will be the process of recall? Who will be liable to the producers of organic brinjal? There are no provisions for monitoring the long-term impact of GE foods on the health of consumers. In case adverse health impacts are reported from eating Bt brinjal, who would be liable to pay compensation? How would the liability be fixed and what would be the quantum? In the absence of any kind of preparedness or safeguards, what would be the liability of the government for approving such food crops? And in the event of damage caused by Bt brinjal, will Mahyco be put in the dock?

By Suman Sahai

10 Novemberl, 2009
Genecampaign.org

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Rural India still deprived

October 24 is observed as the World Development Information Day across the globe with the objective of drawing people's attention towards development problems.

But, most of the people, particularly in Varanasi are unaware about it and its importance. The main aim of World Development Information Day is to inform and motivate young people vital development issues that directly affect the life of people particularly in rural areas.

Agriculture, which is concentrated in rural India, is the mainstay of the Indian economy. According to government report, agriculture and allied sectors contribute nearly 22 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP of India), while about 65-70 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.

But, it is unfortunate to know that farmers have to struggle hard for basic amenities like health care, agricultural services, seed/fertiliser procurement facility and veterinary services. It is also a startling fact that the girls living in 1010 villages in the district have to travel over five kilometres to get secondary education because there is no such facility in these villages. Similarly the girl students of upper primary of 399 villages have to cover this distance to attend the schools.

According to the statistics of the district records, the district has 1289 villages in eight development blocks including Baragaon, Cholapur, Chiraigaon, Araziline, Kashi Vidyapeeth, Pindra, Harahua and Sevapuri. The policy draft of the ministry of rural development clearly mentions that the rural development implies both the economic betterment of people and greater social transformation. In order to provide the rural people with better prospects for economic development, increased participation of people in the rural development programmes, decentralisation of planning, better enforcement of land reforms and greater access to credit are envisaged. To achieve this target there are many schemes like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, Rural Housing, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, and National Social Assistance Programme.

But, reality is that the rural folk are still a deprived section of the society. The records show that the agricultural mandis are over five km from 1180 villages while the native of 676 villages have to cover long distance to reach veterinary hospitals for the treatment of their livestock.

Similarly the natives of 578 villages have to cover a distance of over five km for health care facility in primary or community health centres. The cooperative agriculture and rural development banks are over 5km from 1239 villages while the farmers of 1204 villages have to travel such distance to reach selling/purchasing cooperative committees.

A number of villagers have also to travel far for amenities like cold storage, post office and public telephone in this age of information technology.


Source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Rural-India-still-deprived/articleshow/5157868.cms



Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

White Paper 2009: Global action by the UK government to help make a fair, safe and sustainable world

We live in an increasingly interdependent world. We have made great strides over the past decade in tackling global poverty and suffering.

But despite this progress, the developing world is facing its most profound challenge in a generation. The worst global downturn in 60 years threatens to put 90 million into poverty. Climate change and conflict threaten the lives of the poor.

The UK’s new White Paper on International Development, Building our Common Future , argues that rather than turn away when things get tough we need to redouble our efforts. Development is not only morally right, but it is in our shared interest.

So using new approaches, new partnerships, and working through the international system, we will help the poorest countries confront global challenges and build a fairer, safer and more sustainable world for all people.


Our common challenge

Never before have people from so many countries been connected in so many ways. We depend on one another. Our futures are tied together.


Big challenges

Our world faces the most profound challenges in a generation.

* 1.4 billion people live in poverty and the global downturn means many are at risk of staying poor.
* Too many people are trapped in poverty and endangered by war and instability.
* Climate change, mostly caused by developed countries like the UK, threatens the lives of poor people and ourselves.


Shared problems

Problems faced by poor countries affect all of us, including the UK:

* Prosperity. Britain's fastest growing export markets are in poor countries. The economic downturn, weak financial regulation and unfair trade affect us all.
* Security. Poor government and social exclusion can be a source of conflict, and threaten peace and security around the world.
* Climate. Climate change will force many people to leave their homes. The UK summer floods in 2007 cost the country around £3 billion


Read detail White Paper here: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/About-DFID/Quick-guide-to-DFID/How-we-do-it/Building-our-common-future/

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Danone's yogurt strategy for Bangladesh

When French dairy food firm Danone ventured outside the troubled business climate of Europe and the US, it was not expecting to start a business that deliberately avoids paying dividends to shareholders.

But a meeting between Danone's Franck Riboud and the founder of Grameen Bank, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, led to the opening of a small factory in Bangladesh that does just that.

Danone made a profit of more than $1bn in 2008 and expects that to rise by 10% this year, despite a downturn in sales in Europe.

The company has set its sights on South Asia. But to succeed there, it has to learn how to sell to low-income customers, many of whom live in the countryside.

In Bangladesh, Danone has teamed up with local experts to build a yogurt factory with a difference - what Professor Yunus calls a social business.


Targeting malnutrition

The factory, which produces nutritional yogurt for poor people, is a joint venture between Grameen and Danone.

Danone's Emmanuel Marchant explains that the enterprise has to make enough money to be sustainable, but it also has a social goal.

"With a social business you ask 'what are the priorities in terms of social needs?'," he says.

He admits that Danone's priorities would usually concentrate on maximising profits and that any social impact would be of secondary importance. But the factory constructed in Bogra, 200km north of the capital Dhaka, is different.

Figures show that about 50% of children suffer from malnutrition in Bangladesh.

In an effort to alleviate the situation, Grameen's Professor Yunus says his first suggestion was baby food.

"We eventually zeroed in on yogurt and agreed that it had to be a very small plant," he says.

He maintains that local children, often poor and malnourished, benefit from the products the factory produces.

The project is further integrated into the rural community through its links with the farmers which serve the factory.

The yogurt company always tries to pay them a little more than they would receive from other customers and a farmer can earn about $60 a week - a considerable sum in rural Bangladesh.

Milk is brought in every day from local villages by a small three-wheeled delivery vehicle and is mixed with locally-grown sugar and other ingredients.

It is then poured into a tank, where it is tested to ensure it does not contain any harmful bacteria.

Nutrients are added to the yogurt, which is designed to keep fresh for up to a week outside a refrigerator, because few people can afford to chill their food.

Some of the yogurt is distributed to shops, but the unique point about this enterprise is a network of women who take bags of the yogurt around local villages.

When visiting villages for the first time, these women are often accompanied by a representative from Danone, who explains the nutritional benefits of the yogurt.

The yogurt brand is called Shoktidoi, which means energy in Bengali. One cup of yogurt provides 30% of the recommended daily intake of nutrition for children.

To drum up extra interest, the yogurt's logo, a lion, also makes an appearance - albeit in costume.


Future vision

The scheme is not designed to make a profit, but it does have clear benefits for Danone.

It is a good way for the company to learn how to market food in South Asia - a valuable lesson as it considers whether to enter the huge and lucrative market of neighbouring India.

Emmanuel Marchant of Danone is confident the company will keep funding the project, because of the support it has from its investors.

"Building a plant which is 100 times smaller than our others is a less risky way of entering a new territory and shareholders understand our vision," he says.

Prof Yunus believes other companies should start about thinking about how to run a business in a different way.

"The world has only one pair of glasses - profit-maximising glasses. You don't see the poor and malnourished people," he says.

"When you put on the social business glasses, things change," he asserts, "You don't see the money-making aspect, but how you can help people."

He is understandably excited about the project and is currently talking to other companies around the world to start up similar joint ventures in Bangladesh.


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8100183.stm

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

PROGRAM DIRECTOR needed by International NGO in India

Background

ChildFund International (formerly CCF), is a dynamic global force for children, working in 31 countries, assisting more than 10.5 million children and families regardless of race, creed or gender. ChildFund International is a member of ChildFund Alliance, a global network of child development organizations.

ChildFund has been working in India since 1951 and currently assists about 600,000 children and families in 15 states through 75 partner organizations. ChildFund India’s annual budget is about $15 million and these funds are utilized for programs on health, sanitation, nutrition, education and livelihood for the communities where ChildFund India serves.


KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Provide Strategic Leadership:

• Provide strategic and analytical thinking, vision and commitment plus strong leadership, as part of CCF India’s Senior Management Team, to support and influence the development of CCF India’s programming and practices
• Lead the growth and development of a decentralized program approach in some of the country’s most marginalized areas.

Program Management:

Lead the development, delivery and management of quality programs in line with CCF’s Area of Excellence: “Placing children’s experience of deprivation, exclusion and vulnerability at the center of our policy and practice” through the following:

• Lead program planning and design, implementation and compliance, and ongoing Monitoring and Evaluation towards achieving the core outcomes we seek for children
• Ensure ongoing staff and partner capacity building to deliver quality programming

Strengthen and develop quality grants portfolio:

• Oversee grant management and compliance
• Actively network and collaborate with a range of stakeholders to identify relevant grant opportunities
• Develop winning project proposals with the program team to further strengthen core programs

Networking and Collaborating:

• Strengthen and build upon partnerships and networks with a range of stakeholders at the community, districts and national levels to raise CCF India’s profile and place CCF-India as a recognized leader for children.
• Proactively engage and collaborate to synergize broader development efforts, building relevant partnerships and enhancing opportunities.

People Management:

• Lead the country program team, directly managing a team of program staff, supporting their development whilst promoting the organizational values and internalizing a shared vision for children
• Act, as a member of the Senior Management Team, toward integrated management approach across all departments

• Foster positive working relationships and collaborative linkages at multiple levels from Area Offices to the National Office to Asia Regional Office, International Office and other National Offices


MUST HAVE:

• A minimum of 8 - 10 years of professional experience with at least 5 years in a lead role in a reputed development organization.
• Experience in program planning and design, implementation and compliance, and Monitoring and Evaluation.
• Skills in donor management, finance and team management within an evolving organisation.
• Understanding of the ‘principles of partnership’ with multiple stakeholders i.e. NGO sector, government sector, private partners.
• Excellent communication skills and capability to represent the organisation in professional forums.



PREFERABLE:

1) Experience in child participation/protection programs
2) Strong financial acumen.

LOCATION: Bangalore (for initial 3 - 6 months) / Final location is Delhi



Interested candidates can send in their CVs and 3 references at application.pd.ccf@gmail.com or Contact us at: +91 22 6660 3558/6660 3559.

Only short listed candidates would be contacted.

Last date for receiving applications is 30th July, 2009.






Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Indian Union Budget 2009-10 Does Not Have A Pro Poor Orientation

The Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has presented the full budget for the year 2009-10 on 6th July 2009. Although, an interim budget was presented in February-2009 itself, the Government preferred to re-present a full budget after the General Elections 2009. The present budget has to be seen in the background of two major developments in recent times. Most prominently, this Union Budget 2009-10 is to be viewed as the first policy outline of the ruling coalition to tackle the ongoing world economic crisis (termed in several quarters as the greatest global economic recession in the history of mankind) to which, contrary to the tall claims of the ruling party, India is hardly immune. This Union Budget 2009-10 is also to be considered as the first policy formulation of the ruling coalition after getting the decisive political mandate of the people in the General Elections 2009 for its performance in keeping the economic meltdown away from critical sectors like banking and for providing substantial relief to the masses in distress through its programmes like NREGS; Again, for substantial reasons, these are achievements for which not the present ruling coalition but its previous partners (notably the Left Parties) are to be credited.

The Budget 2009-10 also holds a lot of significance for its relevance in assessing the intentions of the present government in keeping its own promises it has made during the general elections held recently. Unfortunately, the mainstream sections of the media, academics and even the civil society have hailed the Union Budget by saying that the increase in expenditure would enable the system to fight global recession. A recent policy brief prepared by Bhubaneswar based Network for Social Accountability (NSA) shows that the present budget not consistent with its claim on pro-people orientation. The present budget, more often than not, is actually catering to the aspirations of the business class and the rich than the common masses. The main highlights of the response on the Union Budget prepared by the Network for Social Accountability (which can be availed on its website in the policy brief section), are as under.

In 2009-10 BE, there is 24 % increase in defence allocation compared to a mere 6 % increase in rural employment, 23.3 % decline in Agriculture and Allied Activities and 14 % decline on major subsidies. 14 % of total budget goes towards defence expenditure compared to 8 % in central assistance to State and UT Plans. Tax-GDP ratio declined from 12 % in 2008-09 to 11 % in 2009-10. State share in central taxes as % of GDP declined from 3 % to 2.8 % over last two years.

An estimated Rs. 4,18,095 crore revenue is foregone in the central tax system in 2008-09 which is more than 3 times the total subsidies given by the government. Over last five years of UPA rule, the total tax revenue foregone is more than the whole budget for 2009-10. Tax revenue foregone is twice the total amount allocated towards central plans over last five years of UPA rule.

Allocations for Agriculture and Allied Activities as percentage of total budget allocation declined from 15.5 percent of total government expenditure in 2008-09 RE to 10.5 percent in 2009-10 BE. Further, it has been estimated that around 91 percent allocations for Agriculture and Allied Activities go towards other purposes than direct promotion of agriculture in the country.

Public expenditure on education has actually declined from around 3.23 percent of GDP in 2000-2001 to 2.88 percent during the UPA rule. As a proportion of total government expenditure, it has declined from around 11.1 % in 2000-2001 to around 9.98 % during first UPA rule.

The share of Private schools in total schools providing elementary education during UPA rule is on increase. It has increased from 13 percent in 2004 to 19 percent in 2008. Share of elementary education in total allocations for education as a whole had increased from a mere 41 percent in 2000-01 to 71 percent in 2007-08. Then it declined drastically to 59 percent in 2008-09 RE and 48 percent in 2009-10 BE.

It is apprehended in many quarters that the recent shift in government focus towards higher education is basically for the purpose of creating a suitable atmosphere for making higher education more salable as the government has been planning to allow FDI in higher education in a massive scale. Irony is, in order to privatize higher education in India and to make the sector lucrative for foreign investors; the government is using education cess as an instrument for financing the basic ground works for such privatization.

If we calculate the amount the central government has actually allocated for elementary education in India after accounting for the amount it has collected through elementary education cess and external assistance, then in the budget 2009-10, the allocations in elementary education has declined by around 14 percent from Rs. 9991 crore in 2007-08 to Rs. 8590 crore in 2009-10.

In an interesting analysis of the per capita expenditure on health services, the response of NSA suggests that on an average an Indian spends around Rs. 5.80 per day out of pocket for availing health services in 2009-10.

In contrast to the official claim that the prices are under control, it has been estimated that the gap between WPI all commodities and WPI –Drugs and Medicines widened further, indicating a proportionately higher prices for medicine prices compared to other prices during the UPA rule.

In the present budget the government has allocated less money towards women specific purposes with only 19.47 % of the total departmental budget. Analysis of the gender budget statements for last four years reveal that the share of allocations towards gender budgeting in these departments has declined in plan head from around 32 % in 2008-09 RE to 31.3 % in 2009-10 BE. However, in the non plan head, the allocation is abysmally low at only 2.5 % of the total non plan allocation of these departments.

The total allocation for SCs and STs as mentioned in Statement 21 of the Expenditure Budget Vol-1 of the Union Budget, declined from around 3.4 % in 2007-08 RE to around 3.1 % in 2009-10 BE. In case of non plan expenditure, it is just 0.3 % in 2009-10.

The amount denied to SCST as proportion of the ideal amount only under plan head is as high as 56 % in 2009-10 BE which has increased over last couple of years.

As proportion of total central transfers to states (excluding the amount of state share in taxes) the amount that bypass the state governance system account for around 36 % in 2009-10 compared to around 17.5 % in 2005-06.

Like the manifesto of the ruling party, the present budget also shows adoption of a middle path. “Balance—or the middle path--has always been the hall-mark of the policies of the Indian National Congress”. When more than 90 percent of our rural population live below Rs. 38 per day, and spend less than Rs. 12 a day on food items, compared to a fortune of around Rs. 7.5 lakh crore (around 12 percent of the annual GDP of the country) held by only four richest Indians, what constitutes a middle path is a serious issue for debate. The Manifesto of the Congress Party gives credit to this choosing of the middle path for keeping India away from the global meltdown in the wake of economic crisis. It takes pride in choosing a middle path between the public sector and the private sector by bringing in the concept of private-public partnership and acting as a facilitator of large scale grab of land and other economic resources for setting up SEZs and other forms of loot of common property of the masses. In a situation of polarization of interests of the haves and the have-nots, exploiters and the exploited, industrialists and the displaced masses, what does choosing middle path means? Have the achievements claimed to be the hallmark of success of the present party in power during last general elections been a result of this middle path? Is the government planning to fulfill its promises made in its manifesto through its middle path theory only? These are the questions that the time to come will only be able to answer.

By Siba Sankar Mohanty,is a Director with Network for Social Accountability (NSA) Bhubaneswar.


Source: http://www.countercurrents.org/mohanty160709.htm


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

KENYA: After 50 years, land they can call their own

After a 50-year wait, thousands of Kenyans in Central Province have received the most coveted asset in the country – a piece of land.

The move is not only good news for those allocated the land but for the country as a whole as the move will boost food security when the recipients start farming wheat, beans, maize and livestock on the 6,070ha.

The 2,900 families have started tilling their land as the government formalizes the settlement, which was part of more than 28,327ha of land initially used for cattle farming, as well as a private game sanctuary owned by an investor.

The government paid the investor US$16.5 million for the land, between Mt Kenya and Aberdare National parks near Central Province's boundary with Rift Valley Province.

Most of the recipients had, since independence in 1963, been living on government land within Mt Kenya forest and Aberdare Ranges until 1989 when the authorities evicted them for encroaching on water catchment areas.

Since they had nowhere else to go, they camped on road reserves adjacent to the forests where they lived in deplorable conditions.


Demarcation

They are among thousands of Kenyans who failed to secure land when demarcation took place in the late 1950s before independence. This was because they had sold off their land, had worked away from home when demarcation took place, or were so poor that they did not have any land when demarcation began.

After they were evicted from the forests in 1989, most settled in areas adjacent to the two major water towers (Mt Kenya and Aberdare National Parks) in areas such as Chehe, Hombe, Kagochi and Ragati near Mt Kenya and Zaina, Kabage and Gakanga in Aberdare Ranges.

Japhter Kiplimo Rugut, the Central Province commissioner, who has been overseeing the resettlement, said the settlement scheme involved farmers living on designated sites and farming elsewhere.

Under this model, being tested for the first time but set to be rolled out in other areas where there are squatters, the allocated land entailed 0.2ha for each farmer to set up a homestead and another 1.6ha on which to farm.

“People will be living in one area and farming elsewhere in this new planned settlement scheme," Rugut told IRIN. "The government will be carrying out a similar exercise in Kibwezi area of lower Eastern Province and in parts of Coast Province where there are landless people waiting to be given land."


Food security

Rugut said the move was expected to boost the region's food security as the government had, for years, been feeding the families.

"We have been giving relief supplies to the more than 2,900 families who have been given land," he said. "They did not have anywhere to farm and solely relied on the government supplies, which will be a thing of the past once they settle in their farms."

The government has set aside more than $1.2 million to set up various amenities in the area, including water, electricity, health and education facilities.

James Mwangi, 75, one of the recipients, said he hoped to enjoy the fruits of his land despite his advanced age.

"I have been landless throughout my life and I can only thank God and the government for eventually giving me a piece of land; we have suffered for decades," Mwangi said.

Another recipient, Mary Wambui, was optimistic that despite the failing rains, she would harvest her own crop after years of depending on relief supplies.

"The last time I harvested my crops was in 1989 before we were evicted from Mt Kenya forest; for the last 20 years, we have been surviving on government and Red Cross supplies and occasionally [some] from well-wishers,” she said.


Source: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85149


Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

A lost generation in Jammu's refugee camps

A small pale face with hollow eyes greets me at the entrance to Purkhoo camp in Jammu. The child looks unkempt, with a sallow complexion and a gaze that is forlorn and distant. The glow that one associates with childhood is missing. As my eyes travel around I see a group of young children, some just sitting and staring vacantly, others queuing up in a rush in front of a toilet with their mothers, waiting for their turn. Further on there is a squalid hutment with a dirty drainage tank in the middle with some toddlers playing around it, and beyond that, an open latrine with millions of flies swarming in circles. You feel your heart is sinking into a quicksand and the more you fight, the deeper you go in.

Since 1990 more than 4 lakh men, women and children targeted by terrorist violence have fled their homes in Kashmir. Nearly 1.8 lakh of this internally displaced population stays in 11 camps in and around Jammu city. Away from their natural habitat, the children of these migrants have been living in alien conditions with their parents and dying of diseases like summer diarrhoea, viral fevers, diabetes, snakebites and heat stroke. A large number of children have also been rendered orphans and live with the trauma of their parents’ violent deaths. They suffer from guilt feelings because they survived while their loved ones perished. Many of them had become withdrawn and even violent. To the families who have lost their homes and all their possessions, and who are living in camps with their children for the last 19 years, the government gives an allowance of Rs 2400 and a ration of nine kilos of rice and one kilo of sugar for each member per month.

Over 19 long years the situation of these people has remained the same. The dole is the same though the children have grown into young adults and a new crop of children is being introduced to this kind of life. Frustration, low self-esteem and lack of jobs in the absence of little or no qualification is driving this generation of young adults towards despair and depression, creating psychological problems for them and impairing their mental health. Problems of drug abuse and sexual violence in the camps are not unheard of.

“There is depression and anger in the young generation that makes them resort to anti-social activities. In addition to this, the paltry amount is not enough for these migrants’ families to provide their children good education and good health,” says Prof K N Pandita, a long time human rights activist and general secretary of the Jammu based Friends of Kashmir International. Dr Apurva Kotru from the Jammu Medical Institute agrees. “The life in camp is a breeding ground for all negative activities for the holed up children, impairing their personalities. They are facing severe emotional and behavioural problems in the form of depression, anxiety, aggression, and sleeplessness.” He adds that “the diet pattern of the community has undergone a sea change. These young children look emaciated and many have retarded growth problems and complain of lethargy.” The Kashmiri community is mainly non-vegetarian and is fond of a protein based diet that comprises meat, fish, vegetable stews, yoghurt and rice. Owing to the paltry allowance they receive from the government, they are unable to provide nourishing diets for their children. Unless some drastic remedial measures are implemented on a war footing, we run the risk of losing a part of this generation. “Underfed children will not only perform poorly in studies, but there is also the high probability of incidence of disease and early death,” says Dr Girija Kak who is associated with the state hospital in Jammu and who has personally been treating children from the camps.

Raghav, a 14-year-old school dropout was playing cards at home by himself while his mother was cooking lunch for the family in the same room. Asked why he did not go to school along with his friends, he said, “I don’t like it there. It is hot and I feel very sleepy. They make us sit on the floor and I get tired.” His mother Bina Kaul said that he often complains of headaches and nausea and has a poor appetite. A visit to the doctor revealed that he suffered from anxiety and attention deficit disorder, coupled with vitamin deficiency. Raghav lost his father during the relocation to the camps from the valley; he died of a heat stroke. Eleven-year-old Jharna has arthritis; it started with her fingers getting locked, and she now has difficulty writing and walking. Vikas, who is 15, suffers from juvenile diabetes.

“Every time the issue of the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits has been raised, the Union and state governments are quick to point out the 'assistance' provided to the 'migrants'”, says Ashok Raina, father of two schoolgoing children in the Mishriwallan camp. The camp dwellers have to put up with humidity, with cold rooms in winter and hot rooms in summer, as four or more persons are crammed into one room. Families sit, eat and sleep in a single room. The children have not been able to grow up naturally and normally with their friends in an open environment with space to play in. “Cramped up in one single room/ hutment, with one parent smoking, inadequate ventilation, fumes from kerosene stoves adds to the problems of indoor air pollution that the children are subject to,” says Dr Kak.

CRY (Children Rights and You), a non-government organisation, conducted a survey in 2007 of one of the largest displaced Kashmiri Hindu migrant camps in Purkhoo, which is about 13 km southwest of Jammu city. The study was confined to children below the age of 18 years belonging to displaced migrant families. The report found ‘very poor stability in the supply of drinking water in displaced migrants’ camps, which runs for one hour daily and is grossly insufficient to meet daily requirements. Add to this the regular power cuts that range from nine to 12 hours every day and make life intolerable in summer and during the rainy season.

Group latrines constructed and maintained by Sulabh International are faulty; in Purkhoo camp there are 10 such latrines, which are improperly constructed causing leakages which flow into the open drainage system causing unhygienic conditions that impact adversely on the health of the inhabitants. Almost half the camp households do not have a bath or shower in their dwelling; as a result, skin disorders like eczema, bacterial diarrhoeas, water borne hepatitis etc are common. ‘The incidence of body lice was revealed by 36.52% of the children and almost 42.86% and 57.14% suffered from skin infections and relapsing fever respectively’ says the CRY report.

Rita Kaul, a general physician who is attached to the Mishriwallan camp, says that one of the major health problems reported among children is diarrhoea in summer due to the poor quality of drinking water and soaring temperatures. The mental trauma and disturbance caused by displacement has seen an increase in diabetes among elders of the Kashmiri Hindu community. ‘What is ironical is that the children of the displaced community were no exceptions to this and 49.13% of the children were suffering from diabetes due to tensions, idleness and less mobility and 48.15 % from anaemia. Prevalence of malnutrition, exposure to sub-nutritional diet and experience of epidemic of nutritional related diseases were reported by 45.81%, 42.86% and 11.33% of the children respectively’, CRY reports.

Basic medical facilities are supposed to be available within the camps, provided by one trained medical doctor. But most of the time this help is not available. Additional and regular health checks for the children are not conducted and there are no immunisation records. The CRY report found that all the children were vaccinated against diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio, but none of them was vaccinated against hepatitis, mumps, etc. Though more than three-fourths of the children were desirous of getting those vaccinations, the reasons cited for not providing them was that they were too expensive or not available.

Life in the camps takes a particularly heavy toll of children. There are schools but they are poorly equipped. “There are enough teachers, but overcrowded classes, not enough chairs and tables, no proper supplies like blackboards, chalks, laboratories, no support structure like drinking water, lavatories, recreation centres, libraries etc. Parents prefer teaching them at home and make them appear for their boards privately,” says Chaman Lal, who looks after the management of the Muthi camp.

Inder Kishen, now 29, is an example of the tragedy of the younger residents. He left Vichar Nag, a small township on the outskirts of Srinagar soon after fundamentalist terror hit the valley in 1990. His education came to an abrupt end and he has been unable to get a job. His bitterness is evident. “We have been ruined,” he says referring to the many young people like him who had to abandon their education and struggle for a livelihood to support their families. The state government has not provided jobs for them. “In 1996, the state government made 40,000 to 50,000 new appointments in state services but not even 100 jobs went to the displaced Kashmiri Hindus,” says Prof K N Pandita.

According to a report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), 10 primary schools and three high schools have been built for migrant children. “Who is to tell them that 10 primary schools and three high schools cannot meet the needs of 250,000 people?” retorts Madan Ogra, a senior citizens who has been staying in the Purkhoo camp since 1991.

Dr K L Chowdhury, an activist and a doctor by profession, says that no international help of any kind is available in the camps. Some organisations have been in the news for delivering assistance to J&K, but Dr Chowdhury categorically states that “there have been reports of promises by various groups for providing nutritional, educational, health support as well as vocational training, career counselling sessions and job placement support, but in reality nobody has come to the camps of Muthi, Purkhoo or Mishriwallan in Jammu.” He says that there is a strong need for NGOs and counsellors to visit the camps.

The Borderless World Foundation (BWF), a non-government organisation based in Pune, Maharasthra, has decided to intervene positively in a programme called Basera-e-Tabassum (Abode of Smiles). Two of its members, Tanvir Rifatmir and Adhik, volunteered to help the children orphaned during militancy in the border areas of Kashmir. Adhik, who visited the camps in Jammu, was aghast at the situation there and said that while “there are many organisations working for Kashmir, in my so many years of experience I have not seen even one organisation working in the camps.”

Dr Falendra Kumar Sudan who is associated with the University of Jammu and was also involved in the study carried out by CRY, says that “the condition of the children in the camps is appalling.” He says he volunteered to help, but faced resistance. “The inmates were resistant to all our efforts to reach out as they had lost all hope and trust and were cynical in their approach.” When the inmates were asked about this, Ashok Raina from Muthi camp said, “It’s not that we are trying to misrepresent anything; it's just that we need privacy around a personal issue now; we want to create a secure boundary for ourselves and our children in order to feel safe and not get exploited.”

Probably the parents have realised the futility of seeking help from the state and individual organisations and have taken it upon themselves to be small time providers for their children, using whatever meagre resources they have, so that when their children grow up they have at least some good memories of an otherwise deprived childhood.


By Anju Munshi,an activist from Kashmir,India


Source:http://infochangeindia.org/200906227794/Children/Features/A-lost-generation-in-Jammu-s-refugee-camps.html



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