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Risk coping and starvation in rural China
Risk coping and starvation in rural China - Applied Economics
Risk coping and starvation in rural China - Applied Economics
Chinese think India backward
- Thread starter RPK
- Start date
chinapakistan
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below_freezing
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50 cent troll, brain washed comrade
Pakistani Newspaper
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
People
2.2 million young Chinese die from indoor air pollution every year - People's Daily Online
AFP: Indoor air kills 2.2 million young Chinese: report
National Post
Indoor air pollution kills 2.2 million Chinese youth each year: study | Posted | National Post
Yahoo
Indoor air kills 2.2 million young Chinese: report - Yahoo! News
so either UNICEF is fake, or this is fake. why are you using people's daily, isn't that fake propaganda lol?
total deaths in china is 9.1 million per year lol. india's children alone is already 1/5th of china's TOTAL.
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Oh, you dont really wanna talk starvation.
LOST LIVELIHOODS
Starvation persists in Orissa
Several cases of starvation deaths have been reported in Orissa, especially in areas with high tribal populations. Added to this, government inaction in response to the crisis deepens people's woes. Arpan Tulsyan reports.
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19 July 2008 - Last November, Santara Naik, a resident of Dhirapatna village of Dhenkanal district in Orissa, died of starvation. Today, his wife Sajani lives in their half-broken, neat but empty dwelling, with their two daughters and a grandson. There's no need to ask her questions about the reasons behind Naik's death. Her appearance conveys more than words could ever do - she herself is nothing more than a bundle of bones.
Sajani traces his death to Orissa government's 1998 ban on using bamboo from forests. The ban came because of the increased commercial importance of non-timber forest produce, kendu leaf, sal seed, and bamboo, all of which were nationalised in Orissa, thereby entailing only the state to collect and market these products. (Sal was nationalised in 1983 and kendu leaf in 1973.)
Naik had made his living till then by collecting bamboo from forests, weaving baskets and selling them at the village market. However, after the ban, he couldn't collect bamboo and didn't have the financial resources to buy it from the market. He had no other skills and could not find an alternative source of livelihood. As he had no experience in agricultural work, and as he belonged to a Scheduled Caste, villagers did not call him for agricultural labour. In the last years of his life, Naik, an artisan, was reduced to soliciting food from villagers.
Santara Naik
Now, almost nine months after his death, his 50-year-old wife and his daughters, aged 28 and 15, haven't found any employment either. Villagers do not enlist their services for the same reasons they avoided Naik. Compounding the problem is their low body weight and high malnutrition levels, which make it impossible for them to do any labour-intensive work.
By no account is Naik's story a unique one in Orissa, where hunger and starvation persist scandalously. Because of a number of problems, ranging from livelihood crisis and indebtedness to distress migration, prolonged malnutrition and non-implementation of government schemes, starvation amongst the state's population is not at all uncommon. Even the consumption of inedible items such as mango kernels, poisonous roots and tubers and similar so-called 'distress food' items - often passed off as 'traditional tribal food' - indicate the existence of high levels of hunger and starvation in the state.
There are no concrete figures for the number of starvation cases in Orissa, as the government itself has so far not acknowledged that there is a problem. It was only because of sustained pressure from the media, the judiciary, the National Human Rights Commission and citizen's groups that the Orissa government released what is considered as an underestimated figure of instances of starvation deaths in the state. Koshala Development Forum, an organisation that undertakes research on under-development in Orissa's tribal-dominated Koshala region, cites in its working paper no.1, 2004, a written statement by revenue minister Biswabhusan Harichandan about starvation deaths presented in the State Assembly, published in Utkal Sambad, an Oriya daily. From 2000 to 2003, 441 starvation deaths were reported in the state, the minister said. Of these, 268 deaths were from the southern region, which has a high tribal population.
Defining starvation
The Orissa government thus far seems to have relied on a narrow definition of starvation to refute reports of starvation deaths. And it's true that not many people die exclusively because of starvation. Starvation weakens the body and the person eventually succumbs to a disease, due to his or her severely compromised immunity. Take the case of Nakula Naik, a 45-year-old from Mangalpur village in Dhenkanal district, who died of starvation in February this year. A Dom by caste, he too was a bamboo weaver like Santara Naik, and faced problems in procuring bamboo. In addition, he developed asthma and therefore could not do manual labour. Gradually, the family had to live on mendicancy and face acute starvation. Although the sarpanch helped him get admission in a hospital, he was released before his full recovery as he did not have the money to continue treatment. The family lived by consuming 'distress-food' items such as wild leaves and tubers. After his death, his wife and his one-year-old child continue to be threatened by starvation. A half-broken dwelling and a few vessels are their only worldly possessions.
Though in normal circumstances, a disease like asthma may not be fatal, a person who is starving is unable to combat it. However, disease, and not starvation, is given as the official reason for death. Moreover, public officials tend to believe that starvation means absolutely no intake of food. Therefore, if the post-mortem reveals a few grains in the stomach of the deceased, starvation reports are rubbished.
A number of problems, ranging from livelihood crisis and indebtedness to distress migration, prolonged malnutrition and non-implementation of government schemes, have resulted in people starving.
NREGA battling corruption
Why their kids are dying
To develop a concrete definition of starvation, activists from Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the Indian branch of the global People's Health Movement, formed a 'Hunger Watch Group' and came up with a measurable guideline. Their Guidelines for Investigating Suspected Starvation Deaths 2003, says, "In adults, a BMI [Body Mass Index] of 16 and less should be used as a cut-off point to demarcate starvation from under-nutrition. Based on a requirement of 0.7 kcal per kg per hour, a 50 kg person needs about 850 kcal per day to maintain oneself at Basal Metabolic Rate, without any physical activity. Thus any food intake that is sustainedly lower than 850 kcal per day would be incompatible with life in due course and is an indication of starvation."
Chaman Lal, Special Rappoteur of the National Human Rights Commission, is quoted as saying in activist Harsh Mander's book Towards a Food Rights Code, "A person does not have to die to prove that he is starving. This insistence on death as a proof to starvation must be given up. Continuance of a distress situation is enough proof that a person is starving." The Hunger Watch Group also affirmed that starvation is a public heath issue, as mortality occurs even in case of diseases that are not ordinarily life-threatening. As Hunger Watch's guidelines state, individual malnutrition deaths are often extreme examples of severe malnutrition prevalent in a community. Therefore, it calls for a community diagnosis.
A public heath issue
Apart from livelihood issues and resultant poverty, one major reason why starving people succumb to disease in Orissa is the lack of access to modern-day healthcare. Starvation deaths, which are reported from the Similipal national park in Orissa almost every year, confirm this. A report by ActionAid Orissa, dated June 2006, notes that there had been 18 reports of children's deaths in the first five months of that year. In 2005, 23 people had died, 13 of who were children. The report also noted that inaccessible and unaffordable healthcare facilities were a major cause of child starvation deaths. In Simplipal, the nearest hospital is located 23 km from the gram panchayat headquarters, and even further for remote villages. The ambulance provided by the district health unit charges Rs 5 per km to transport patients to the government-run Jasipur Hospital, which is the closest. Most people are not able to afford the fare, and therefore, the sick have to walk or be taken on a cycle.
The report quotes Purnami, a resident of Gudugudia village in Simlipal district, as saying, "I took my son Mantu to hospital once by ambulance but cannot pay the amount a second time although my son is still suffering." Purnami lost her husband due to malaria soon after marriage, and is now struggling to save her five-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter, who are severely sick and malnourished. Kumati Dehury, also from Gudugadia, has a six-year-old child who's suffering from malnutrition and often gets fever. She cries as she describes how difficult it's for them to get any attention from doctors who treat them with little dignity at the hospital. The report notes that as agriculture is underdeveloped in the village, most residents make a living by picking minor forest produce and selling timber and firewood.
Though basic healthcare is subsidised or free on paper, corruption is said to prevail at government hospitals. In addition, indirect expenses such as transport and food costs, and loss of wages, result in healthcare becoming unaffordable to the poor. The significant amounts that they are forced to spend on healthcare often lead them into a heavy debt trap. "Simlipal's villages, which are inhabited by tribal communities, are thus forced to resort to quacks. Locked inside their leafy green jail, they are dying of disease and apathy," says the ActionAid investigation report.
Failure of government schemes
On February 16, 2008, Pratap Barala, a reporter with local newspaper Pragatibadi, wrote about the plight of a blind, 70-year-old man in Dhenkanal. Development Initiative, a human rights organisation in Orissa, investigated this case. Bimbadhar Pradhan, the old man, lives with a widowed daughter-in-law, a teenage granddaughter and a polio-affected grandson. No one in his family is able to earn except his granddaughter. Despite her daily toil, her earnings are not enough to support the family of four. Their Antyodaya card lies unused as they have no money to buy grains even at the highly subsidised rates.
Dhoba Dehury
In the same village lives Dhoba Dehury, a Sabara tribal, who saw his sons and wife die of disease caused by malnutrition. Despite frantic attempts, he could not gather enough money to save his family. He earned a little through casual, daily wage labour, barely enough even to survive, but is today old and destitute, and completely dependent on his brother-in-law, who himself is living on the edge. Weakened and malnourished, Dehury has lost his strength to walk. Without even a homestead land, he sleeps in the brother-in-law's cattleshed and has only straw to cover himself, even in winters. The only help Dehury has received from the government is a Below Poverty Line ration card. However, he cannot draw any ration as he has no cash to pay for it. Despite the scheme's universalisation, he is not yet covered under the old-age pension plan.
Development Initiative's fact-finding team had two important conclusions to make: Dehury is starving and if timely help is not provided by the district administration, he is going to be a victim of starvation. The team's report, dated March 2008, was submitted to the National Commission of Scheduled Castes.
People living in villages of Simlipal national park travel 13 km to Gudugudia gram panchayat headquarters to get their rice, kerosene oil and sugar, under the Public Distribution System schemes, either every month or once in two months. Though many have Antodaya cards, they receive only 25 kilos of rice as against the entitlement of 35 kilos. This happens almost all the time, according to the ActionAid report.
The report says that the villagers own small plots of land, which provide a major share of the food that they consume. However, due to mono-cropping, the produce lasts only for 4-5 months. For the rest of the year, they depend on minor forest products, which are difficult to access. Their other source of livelihood should ideally have been employment under government programmes, but these are only occasionally available. According to the ActionAid report, in 2006, not a single day of employment had been generated under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) till June of that year.
When death doesn't mean an end to trouble
Santara Naik of Dhenkanal died in November 2007 of starvation despite having a BPL card and a job card under NREGS. He couldn't purchase grains because he didn't have an income, and he was never given employment. Naik even reported to the sarpanch and the ward member that he was starving. They gave him Rs 50 to travel to meet the district collector, who in turn sent him to the Block Development Officer (BDO). The BDO was indifferent and offered no immediate help. The sarpanch gave him 10 kilos of rice twice, but after that got over, his family had to live on wild food items. When Naik became too ill to move, government officials didn't take note of the situation, despite repeated complaints from his wife. The family was occasionally given some rice obtained as part of the mid-day meal programme at the village school, but this wasn't regular.
To date, Naik's family has not been given an Antodaya card. On their BPL card, they get only 10 kilos of rice against a quota of 25 kilos and they purchase it with the Rs 200 they are given under the old age pension scheme. However, the grains last only for 10 days a month and they have to depend on mendicancy for the rest of the month. The money given as family benefit is over now and again, the family sleeps hungry for many a days. The daughter, Jhunu Naik, says," How long can we continue to beg and eat, we too will die of starvation someday." Even after Naik's death, neither his wife nor his daughters are being given work under NREGS.
The villagers of Dhirapatna have sought an investigation into Santara Naik's death. They have written applications to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and to Dhenkanal district collector Jamil Ahmed Khan. Lawyers from Development Initiative also appealed to the National Commission for the Scheduled Castes, and presented to them their investigation reports, including the one concerning Dehury.
When the commission sought an explanation from the district authorities, the collector's report accused the NGO of "fake reporting and total misrepresentation of facts". It alleged that Naik's death was due to "old age and prolonged illness". The collector's report put Santara Naik's age at 70 though his voter identity card says he is 61. His family reports no disease prior to death.
Similarly, Nakula Naik's family was provided an Antodaya card after his death, but is getting only 10 kilos of rice on it. His wife continues to live in their broken house, where an old saree serves as the ceiling. The collector gave the family Rs 300 as funeral expenses while the sarpanch gave Rs 100. The ration dealer gave them 10 kilos of rice, two litres of kerosene and 2.5 kilos of pulses. Officials claim that they had given the family Rs 5,000 for medical treatment but the family denies this.
As far as Dehury is concerned, the collector's office claims that he is not starving as he has an Antodaya card and a house sanctioned in his name under the Indira Awas Yojana. However, Dehury's card is used by his brother-in-law as Dehury himself doesn't have money to buy even at the subsidised rate of Rs.105 for 35 kilos of rice. Even the house purportedly given to him isn't actually his as he cannot pay the Rs.8000 that has to be given to the sarpanch to get the house registered in his name. Pradhan, and several others in Orissa, suffer the same fate. ⊕
Arpan Tulsyan
July 2008
Arpan Tulsyan is a social researcher with Centre for Equity Studies. The author thanks Biren Nayak of ActionAid Orissa, as well as Development Initiative for sharing reports of their investigations.
Air pollution causes five million deaths each year in India: minister | ZAP! Electric Vehicles
AGRA, India (AFP) - As many as five million deaths are caused by air pollution every year in India, the country's junior Environment and Forest Minister Namo Narayan Meena said.
AGRA, India (AFP) - As many as five million deaths are caused by air pollution every year in India, the country's junior Environment and Forest Minister Namo Narayan Meena said.
chinapakistan
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How to save India from Starvation ?
The right to food is the right of every person. Every individual must have regular access to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food for an active and healthy life. At present, this is a major developmental challenge in India.
We cannot feel proud of our achievements in different areas until this basic need of each individual is met.It is an irony of fate that in spite of good grain supplies, in respect of wheat and rice, and domestic production far exceeding the demand over the last more than two decades, India has been witnessing the unmanageably bulging stocks and shortages alternately. It is due to the irrational export and import policy being followed by the policy makers.
This is what exactly the recently released report, State of Food Insecurity in Rural India states. Released jointly by the UN world food programme and M.S. Swaminathan research foundation, the report states that India tops the global hunger chart with 230 million undernourished people who comprise more than a quarter of the worlds undernourished population. It is not merely about food availability, but access to food.
Undernourished People
The new report states that an emerging superpower, India paradoxically tops the global hunger chart with more than 27% of the worlds undernourished population. Indicating that food insecurity is a reality in India the report reveals that while every third adult (aged 15 to 49 years) has a low BMI at less than 18.5, as many as 43% children aged below five are underweight.
Although food prices have begun to fall around the world, according to the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO), in developing countries like India they are not falling so rapidly or at all. There is an apparent contradiction in India's description as self-sufficient starved sate, but it cannot be faulted. Deflationary macroeconomic policies, decreasing access to institutional credit, which is becoming prohibitively expensive, and reduction in public investment are the problems facing India.
This grim scenario is characterized by a stark reality: there is availability of food, but little or no access to it. Looking at the market scenario, the contradiction is likely to intensify. During 2008-09, food-grain havest is estimated to be a record 228 million tones. But mere physical availability of food does not translate into accessibility. A households access to adequate food depends on its purchasing power, including the implicit value of its own produce, if any, which further depends on sustainable on-farm or off-farm livelihoods. But even if a livelihood ensures access to food, it does not promise nutrition security.
Public Distribution System
According to the report, the Targeted public Distribution system (TPDS) has made matters worse for sates that were performing quite well under universal PDS, leading to the exclusion of the eligible poor or so-called above poverty line households and decline in off-take of food-grain from PDS. Using the Indian council of medical research recommended norm, the requirement per person per month will be 11 kg. but the present TPDS restricts the allotment of food-grain to 10 kg per family.
In such a scenario, the system of universal PDS has to be revived and linked to the capacity to pay rather than economic cost in the rural areas to reverse the nutritional figures. Mean-while, the implementation of various welfare schemes should be decentralized through local bodies like panchayats.
Given the economic and physical constraints in transpiration and storage of food-grains across the country, basic food grains should be supplied even to the so-called above the poverty line (APL) families. This will also prove remunerative for PDS dealers as they will lift more quantities of food. The NREGS should be extended to cover every adult, as opposed to some households, and for as many days as required.
FAQ Estimates
The FAQ 92008) estimates of undernourished population of India coincide with the report of the National Commission of Enterprises in the unorganized sector (2007) on the estimated number of extremely poor (70 million) and poor (167 million) of the total population. If in this number the marginally poor with a daily average expenditure of Rs. 15 (who fall between the official poverty line and 1.25 PL) and vulnerable with a daily expenditure of Rs. 20 are added, this proportion rises from 22% of the total population to 77 %. These are the people who have very little capacity to absorb shocks like the rising prices of food and an increase in unemployment due to recession. They can quickly fall a victim to malnutrition even when enough food may be available in the stocks.
The experience of the world prices of food-grains between 1975 and 2008 brings out their cyclical behaviors. The price index of food-grains in real dollar with the base of 1998-2000 (100) fell from 250 in 1975 t 100 in 1993-94 and again rose to 175 in 2008 (FAQ, 2008). This has a more serous effect on the domestic prices in developing countries depending on their relationship to the dollar in terms of the exchange rate. The poor/ developing countries cannot afford to build their food security largely on the external supplier. This is particularly the case for countries like India and china, the two largest countries of the world in terms of population.
In order to feed such a large population (120 crore) by 2015, India must produce 230-240 million tones of food-grains. Since rich countries are food deficit, the possibility of food being used as weapon by the former to exploit the latter cannot be ruled out.
Global prices increased by around three-and-a-half times in the 18 months between January 2007 and June 2008, and most developing countries were affected by thi even though they did not go up to the same extent. China handled the matter best, with rice prices broadly stable over the entire period despite the high global volatility. National food self sufficiency allowed China to insulate its population from the effects of high world prices in this basic food item.
In contrast, India which is also a large economy with domestic rice production several times the total volume of world trade, has experienced quite significant increases in price of rice. Furthermore, these have not decreased commensurately with the global price, to the point that retail rice prices were 60% higher in January 2009 than their level two years earlier. In an economy in which more than 90 % of workers incomes are not indexed, such a substantial increase obviously has a big impact upon food access. Given the large proportion around half-of those who are calorie deficient among the Indian population, this is obviously a matter of great concern.
Surplus Export of food-grains
The country, on several occasions, exported surplus food grains at very low prices, incurring huge losses. Just after such exports, there have been crying shortages and food-grains imported at exorbitant prices. For instance, in 2001, of around 58 million tones. What it lacked was proper storage leading to an unacceptable level of spoilage and wastage. Some lots deteriorated so much that they were not fit for even anima consumption. As a consequence, quite a few of the consignments were rejected by the importing countries.
From the year 2001 to September 2005, the country exported 35 million tones of food-grains, of which 23 million tones was rice and 12 million tones wheat, even in nine months of the years 2005 up to September, India exported over five-million tones of rice and 0.72 million tones of wheat. A very large portion of these exports was made at below the below the poverty line (BPL) Prices. After just about two months, the food-grains managers of the country started crying shortage.
Now the policy has come full circle. With estimated more than six million tones of wheat that would be in stock on April 1, when new rabi food grains start pouring into the domestic market, it is expected that by the end of marketing season fo wheat the country will have food grain stocks between 32 to 34 million tones. It is said that the Government of India has engaged private consultants on how to manage these stocks. These consultants have recommended exports with export subsidy. It is a foregone conclusion that such consultants would recommend exporter-friendly export policy.
Storage and Management
The system of grain handling in India is such that storage, spoilage, thefts, leakages and exports at loss are costing the nation a fortune and on the other hand large sections of the financially-disadvantaged population cannot have access to two square meals a day to fill their bellies.
The country needs to invest substantially, yet rationally on safe storage and scientific management of food stocks. It makes no sense to keep spending on production, if storage and management is handled indifferently as is being done today. Not to speak of storage in the open that is resorted to at the time of post-harvest marketing season in the surplus producing areas, even plinth storage is not proper storage for food grains.
India needs to create silo-storage capacity of at least 20 million tones wherein aeration, temperature and humidity are controlled at optimum levels. Although such silos can keep the grains in good condition for five years, yet three years recycling of the grains should be planned so that the stocks are renewed continuously and the grains remain healthy and fit for human consumption. These silos should be built mainly in the surplus producing areas form where the consignments can be dispatched to the consuming areas/states as per need. At least three silos should be built at one place to cater to the requirement of the three-year cycle.
There is tremendous scope of reduction in undifferentiated across-the-board input and consumer subsidies. Even if these subsidies are halved, the savings will be enough to create the required capacity of scientific storage in less than five years.
Problem of populist politics
Competitive populist politics has spoiled the agriculture credit culture of the country through undifferentiated loan waivers. Unfortunately, the BJP is further promising a complete waiver of farm loans if the party forms a Government. This callous approach amounts to playing with the taxpayers money.It will be much more productive, economically justified and socially as well as politically acceptable if the amounts involved in such waivers are used for building modern storage capacity for food grains and related infrastructure in the country. Yet, such economic trade offs and socially justifiable investment of scarce capital resources can be considered only by the mature statesmen, not by the myopic politicians.
Ultimately a combination of measures leading to an increase in agricultural productivity, production of safe foods, reduction in poverty and vulnerability and existence of the distribution of food-grains at affordable prices and its efficiently working through the involvement of the poor and vulnerable that can help ensure food security in this vast country. Food has to be produced largely within the country as global price volatility and blackmail do not favor the poor and their food security. After all, a hungry nation cannot become a superpower. No purpose is served if people remain hungry in a food sufficient country.
The right to food is the right of every person. Every individual must have regular access to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable food for an active and healthy life. At present, this is a major developmental challenge in India.
We cannot feel proud of our achievements in different areas until this basic need of each individual is met.It is an irony of fate that in spite of good grain supplies, in respect of wheat and rice, and domestic production far exceeding the demand over the last more than two decades, India has been witnessing the unmanageably bulging stocks and shortages alternately. It is due to the irrational export and import policy being followed by the policy makers.
This is what exactly the recently released report, State of Food Insecurity in Rural India states. Released jointly by the UN world food programme and M.S. Swaminathan research foundation, the report states that India tops the global hunger chart with 230 million undernourished people who comprise more than a quarter of the worlds undernourished population. It is not merely about food availability, but access to food.
Undernourished People
The new report states that an emerging superpower, India paradoxically tops the global hunger chart with more than 27% of the worlds undernourished population. Indicating that food insecurity is a reality in India the report reveals that while every third adult (aged 15 to 49 years) has a low BMI at less than 18.5, as many as 43% children aged below five are underweight.
Although food prices have begun to fall around the world, according to the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO), in developing countries like India they are not falling so rapidly or at all. There is an apparent contradiction in India's description as self-sufficient starved sate, but it cannot be faulted. Deflationary macroeconomic policies, decreasing access to institutional credit, which is becoming prohibitively expensive, and reduction in public investment are the problems facing India.
This grim scenario is characterized by a stark reality: there is availability of food, but little or no access to it. Looking at the market scenario, the contradiction is likely to intensify. During 2008-09, food-grain havest is estimated to be a record 228 million tones. But mere physical availability of food does not translate into accessibility. A households access to adequate food depends on its purchasing power, including the implicit value of its own produce, if any, which further depends on sustainable on-farm or off-farm livelihoods. But even if a livelihood ensures access to food, it does not promise nutrition security.
Public Distribution System
According to the report, the Targeted public Distribution system (TPDS) has made matters worse for sates that were performing quite well under universal PDS, leading to the exclusion of the eligible poor or so-called above poverty line households and decline in off-take of food-grain from PDS. Using the Indian council of medical research recommended norm, the requirement per person per month will be 11 kg. but the present TPDS restricts the allotment of food-grain to 10 kg per family.
In such a scenario, the system of universal PDS has to be revived and linked to the capacity to pay rather than economic cost in the rural areas to reverse the nutritional figures. Mean-while, the implementation of various welfare schemes should be decentralized through local bodies like panchayats.
Given the economic and physical constraints in transpiration and storage of food-grains across the country, basic food grains should be supplied even to the so-called above the poverty line (APL) families. This will also prove remunerative for PDS dealers as they will lift more quantities of food. The NREGS should be extended to cover every adult, as opposed to some households, and for as many days as required.
FAQ Estimates
The FAQ 92008) estimates of undernourished population of India coincide with the report of the National Commission of Enterprises in the unorganized sector (2007) on the estimated number of extremely poor (70 million) and poor (167 million) of the total population. If in this number the marginally poor with a daily average expenditure of Rs. 15 (who fall between the official poverty line and 1.25 PL) and vulnerable with a daily expenditure of Rs. 20 are added, this proportion rises from 22% of the total population to 77 %. These are the people who have very little capacity to absorb shocks like the rising prices of food and an increase in unemployment due to recession. They can quickly fall a victim to malnutrition even when enough food may be available in the stocks.
The experience of the world prices of food-grains between 1975 and 2008 brings out their cyclical behaviors. The price index of food-grains in real dollar with the base of 1998-2000 (100) fell from 250 in 1975 t 100 in 1993-94 and again rose to 175 in 2008 (FAQ, 2008). This has a more serous effect on the domestic prices in developing countries depending on their relationship to the dollar in terms of the exchange rate. The poor/ developing countries cannot afford to build their food security largely on the external supplier. This is particularly the case for countries like India and china, the two largest countries of the world in terms of population.
In order to feed such a large population (120 crore) by 2015, India must produce 230-240 million tones of food-grains. Since rich countries are food deficit, the possibility of food being used as weapon by the former to exploit the latter cannot be ruled out.
Global prices increased by around three-and-a-half times in the 18 months between January 2007 and June 2008, and most developing countries were affected by thi even though they did not go up to the same extent. China handled the matter best, with rice prices broadly stable over the entire period despite the high global volatility. National food self sufficiency allowed China to insulate its population from the effects of high world prices in this basic food item.
In contrast, India which is also a large economy with domestic rice production several times the total volume of world trade, has experienced quite significant increases in price of rice. Furthermore, these have not decreased commensurately with the global price, to the point that retail rice prices were 60% higher in January 2009 than their level two years earlier. In an economy in which more than 90 % of workers incomes are not indexed, such a substantial increase obviously has a big impact upon food access. Given the large proportion around half-of those who are calorie deficient among the Indian population, this is obviously a matter of great concern.
Surplus Export of food-grains
The country, on several occasions, exported surplus food grains at very low prices, incurring huge losses. Just after such exports, there have been crying shortages and food-grains imported at exorbitant prices. For instance, in 2001, of around 58 million tones. What it lacked was proper storage leading to an unacceptable level of spoilage and wastage. Some lots deteriorated so much that they were not fit for even anima consumption. As a consequence, quite a few of the consignments were rejected by the importing countries.
From the year 2001 to September 2005, the country exported 35 million tones of food-grains, of which 23 million tones was rice and 12 million tones wheat, even in nine months of the years 2005 up to September, India exported over five-million tones of rice and 0.72 million tones of wheat. A very large portion of these exports was made at below the below the poverty line (BPL) Prices. After just about two months, the food-grains managers of the country started crying shortage.
Now the policy has come full circle. With estimated more than six million tones of wheat that would be in stock on April 1, when new rabi food grains start pouring into the domestic market, it is expected that by the end of marketing season fo wheat the country will have food grain stocks between 32 to 34 million tones. It is said that the Government of India has engaged private consultants on how to manage these stocks. These consultants have recommended exports with export subsidy. It is a foregone conclusion that such consultants would recommend exporter-friendly export policy.
Storage and Management
The system of grain handling in India is such that storage, spoilage, thefts, leakages and exports at loss are costing the nation a fortune and on the other hand large sections of the financially-disadvantaged population cannot have access to two square meals a day to fill their bellies.
The country needs to invest substantially, yet rationally on safe storage and scientific management of food stocks. It makes no sense to keep spending on production, if storage and management is handled indifferently as is being done today. Not to speak of storage in the open that is resorted to at the time of post-harvest marketing season in the surplus producing areas, even plinth storage is not proper storage for food grains.
India needs to create silo-storage capacity of at least 20 million tones wherein aeration, temperature and humidity are controlled at optimum levels. Although such silos can keep the grains in good condition for five years, yet three years recycling of the grains should be planned so that the stocks are renewed continuously and the grains remain healthy and fit for human consumption. These silos should be built mainly in the surplus producing areas form where the consignments can be dispatched to the consuming areas/states as per need. At least three silos should be built at one place to cater to the requirement of the three-year cycle.
There is tremendous scope of reduction in undifferentiated across-the-board input and consumer subsidies. Even if these subsidies are halved, the savings will be enough to create the required capacity of scientific storage in less than five years.
Problem of populist politics
Competitive populist politics has spoiled the agriculture credit culture of the country through undifferentiated loan waivers. Unfortunately, the BJP is further promising a complete waiver of farm loans if the party forms a Government. This callous approach amounts to playing with the taxpayers money.It will be much more productive, economically justified and socially as well as politically acceptable if the amounts involved in such waivers are used for building modern storage capacity for food grains and related infrastructure in the country. Yet, such economic trade offs and socially justifiable investment of scarce capital resources can be considered only by the mature statesmen, not by the myopic politicians.
Ultimately a combination of measures leading to an increase in agricultural productivity, production of safe foods, reduction in poverty and vulnerability and existence of the distribution of food-grains at affordable prices and its efficiently working through the involvement of the poor and vulnerable that can help ensure food security in this vast country. Food has to be produced largely within the country as global price volatility and blackmail do not favor the poor and their food security. After all, a hungry nation cannot become a superpower. No purpose is served if people remain hungry in a food sufficient country.
below_freezing
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nah, we are not afraid of our problems being exposed. we face our problems and solve them unlike some large country to the south.
we would only like to correct fake information with statistics from UN organizations.
we would only like to correct fake information with statistics from UN organizations.
chinapakistan
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Oh, indian poverty line is acturally a starvation line, that mean you have 400million starvation people~~~
India's Poverty Line is Actually a Starvation Line
There is something terribly wrong with growth economics. After all, 18 years after India ushered in economic liberalisation, the promise of high growth to reduce poverty and hunger, has not worked. In fact, it has gone the other way around: the more the economic growth, the higher is the resulting poverty.
A report by an expert group headed by Suresh Tendulkar, formerly chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, now estimates poverty at 37.2 per cent, an increase of roughly 10 per cent over the earlier estimates of 27.5 per cent in 2004-05. This means, an additional 110 million people have slipped below the poverty line in just four years.
The number of poor is multiplying at a time when the number of billionaires has also increased. Economic growth however does not reflect the widening economic disparities. For instance, the economic wealth of mere 30-odd rich families in India is equivalent to one third of the country's growth. The more the wealth accumulating in the hands of these 30 families, the more will be country's economic growth. A handful of rich therefore hide the ugly face of growing poverty
If these 30 families were to migrate to America and Europe, India's GDP, which stands at 7.9 per cent at present, will slump to 6 per cent. And if you were to discount the economic growth resulting from the 6th pay commission, which is 1.9 per cent of the GDP, India's actual economic growth will slump to 4 per cent.
Anyway, the complicated arithmetic hides more than what it reveals. Poverty estimates were earlier based on nutritional criteria, which means based on the monthly income required to purchase 2,100 calories in the urban areas and 2,400 calories in the rural areas. Over the years, this measure came in for sharp criticism, and finally the Planning Commission suggested a new estimation methodology based on a new basket of goods that is required to survive - includes food, fuel, light, clothing and footwear.
Accordingly, the Tendulkar committee has worked out that 41.8 per cent of the population or approximately 450 million people survive on a monthly per capita consumption expenditure of Rs 447. In other words, if you break it down to a daily expenditure, it comes to bare Rs 14.50 paise. I wonder how can the rural population earning more than Rs 14 and less than say even Rs 25 a day be expected to be over the poverty line. It is quite obvious therefore that the entire effort is still to hide the poverty under a veil of complicating figures.
India's poverty line is actually a euphemism for a starvation line. The poverty line that is laid out actually becomes the upper limit the government must pledge to feed. People living below this line constitute the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category, for which the government has to provide a legal guarantee to provide food. It therefore spells out the government subsidy that is required to distribute food among the poor. More the poverty line more is the food subsidy.
If the government accepts Tendulkar committee report, the food subsidy bill will swell to Rs 47,917.62-crore, a steep rise over the earlier subsidy of Rs 28,890.56-crore required to feed the BPL population with 25 kg of grains. This is primarily the reason why the government wants to keep the number of poor low. In other words, the poverty line reflects the number of people living in acute hunger. It should therefore be called as a starvation line.
I remember a few years back, a group of charitable organisations in England presented a list of demands to the government for helping the poor. Unlike India, where BPL category only receives food rations, and that too severely short the minimum nutritional requirement for a human body, the first demand of the UK charities was to provide the poor in England with washing machines.
India's poverty estimates therefore are the most stringent in the world. I don't know the economic justification of hiding the true figures, but politically it makes terrible sense. Each government therefore is happy to gloss over the starvation figures in the guise of poverty estimates. I wonder when India will include a basket of essential good like footwear, cycles, sewing machines, solar lamps, water purifiers etc for the poor. This is simple economics, and not political compulsion as the media will like us to believe.
Going back to the poverty line arithmetic, the 2007 Arjun Sengupta committee report (officially the report of the National Commission on Enterprise in Unorganised Sector), which had estimated that 77 per cent of the population or 836 million people, were unable to spend more than Rs 20 a day, is probably a correct reflection of the extent of prevailing poverty.
In addition to monthly income, poverty estimates must incorporate the human development index as prepared by the United Nations Development Programme. India should therefore have two ways to classify the poor. The Starvation line, needing direct cash transfers in addition to the basic requirement of food supplies. And a Poverty line, needing not only food (but in lesser quantities) but also other economic necessities like sewing machines, water-purifiers, pressure cookers, etc.
India's Poverty Line is Actually a Starvation Line
There is something terribly wrong with growth economics. After all, 18 years after India ushered in economic liberalisation, the promise of high growth to reduce poverty and hunger, has not worked. In fact, it has gone the other way around: the more the economic growth, the higher is the resulting poverty.
A report by an expert group headed by Suresh Tendulkar, formerly chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, now estimates poverty at 37.2 per cent, an increase of roughly 10 per cent over the earlier estimates of 27.5 per cent in 2004-05. This means, an additional 110 million people have slipped below the poverty line in just four years.
The number of poor is multiplying at a time when the number of billionaires has also increased. Economic growth however does not reflect the widening economic disparities. For instance, the economic wealth of mere 30-odd rich families in India is equivalent to one third of the country's growth. The more the wealth accumulating in the hands of these 30 families, the more will be country's economic growth. A handful of rich therefore hide the ugly face of growing poverty
If these 30 families were to migrate to America and Europe, India's GDP, which stands at 7.9 per cent at present, will slump to 6 per cent. And if you were to discount the economic growth resulting from the 6th pay commission, which is 1.9 per cent of the GDP, India's actual economic growth will slump to 4 per cent.
Anyway, the complicated arithmetic hides more than what it reveals. Poverty estimates were earlier based on nutritional criteria, which means based on the monthly income required to purchase 2,100 calories in the urban areas and 2,400 calories in the rural areas. Over the years, this measure came in for sharp criticism, and finally the Planning Commission suggested a new estimation methodology based on a new basket of goods that is required to survive - includes food, fuel, light, clothing and footwear.
Accordingly, the Tendulkar committee has worked out that 41.8 per cent of the population or approximately 450 million people survive on a monthly per capita consumption expenditure of Rs 447. In other words, if you break it down to a daily expenditure, it comes to bare Rs 14.50 paise. I wonder how can the rural population earning more than Rs 14 and less than say even Rs 25 a day be expected to be over the poverty line. It is quite obvious therefore that the entire effort is still to hide the poverty under a veil of complicating figures.
India's poverty line is actually a euphemism for a starvation line. The poverty line that is laid out actually becomes the upper limit the government must pledge to feed. People living below this line constitute the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category, for which the government has to provide a legal guarantee to provide food. It therefore spells out the government subsidy that is required to distribute food among the poor. More the poverty line more is the food subsidy.
If the government accepts Tendulkar committee report, the food subsidy bill will swell to Rs 47,917.62-crore, a steep rise over the earlier subsidy of Rs 28,890.56-crore required to feed the BPL population with 25 kg of grains. This is primarily the reason why the government wants to keep the number of poor low. In other words, the poverty line reflects the number of people living in acute hunger. It should therefore be called as a starvation line.
I remember a few years back, a group of charitable organisations in England presented a list of demands to the government for helping the poor. Unlike India, where BPL category only receives food rations, and that too severely short the minimum nutritional requirement for a human body, the first demand of the UK charities was to provide the poor in England with washing machines.
India's poverty estimates therefore are the most stringent in the world. I don't know the economic justification of hiding the true figures, but politically it makes terrible sense. Each government therefore is happy to gloss over the starvation figures in the guise of poverty estimates. I wonder when India will include a basket of essential good like footwear, cycles, sewing machines, solar lamps, water purifiers etc for the poor. This is simple economics, and not political compulsion as the media will like us to believe.
Going back to the poverty line arithmetic, the 2007 Arjun Sengupta committee report (officially the report of the National Commission on Enterprise in Unorganised Sector), which had estimated that 77 per cent of the population or 836 million people, were unable to spend more than Rs 20 a day, is probably a correct reflection of the extent of prevailing poverty.
In addition to monthly income, poverty estimates must incorporate the human development index as prepared by the United Nations Development Programme. India should therefore have two ways to classify the poor. The Starvation line, needing direct cash transfers in addition to the basic requirement of food supplies. And a Poverty line, needing not only food (but in lesser quantities) but also other economic necessities like sewing machines, water-purifiers, pressure cookers, etc.
HAWK73
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@chinapakistan & HA HA HA,
Excellent!!!
I like it. Because this is the reality of Indians that they keep denie even getting proof & evidence too.
---------- Post added at 01:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------
Long Live Pak-China Friendship.
Excellent!!!
I like it. Because this is the reality of Indians that they keep denie even getting proof & evidence too.
---------- Post added at 01:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------
Long Live Pak-China Friendship.
chinapakistan
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@chinapakistan & HA HA HA,
Excellent!!!
I like it. Because this is the reality of Indians that they keep denie even getting proof & evidence too.
My pleasure, my bro.
Only fact can make those big mouth indian members shut up.
Long live our brotherhood.
India, "Super Power" in child abuses, no contest.
Two out of every three children in India are physically abused, according to a landmark government study.
And you wonder why people in the world think you are backward ?
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Abuse of Indian children 'common'
Two out of every three children in India are physically abused, according to a landmark government study.
And you wonder why people in the world think you are backward ?
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Abuse of Indian children 'common'
HAWK73
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My pleasure, my bro.
Only fact can make those big mouth indian members shut up.
Long live our brotherhood.
You are the man!
There are already some Indians along with some Pakistani brothers those may force to the modirat to ban me.
Why . . . . . . . . ?
Because me too try my best to show the reality to only those poor Indians those trying and blaming Pakistan & China as usual always.
If I`m going to be ban then, never STOP your GREAT work & keep it up boys. Thanks.
ChinaChina
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very well said my friend, i beenn living in vietnam in de paste and although us two countries had a war in de 70s we dun beared any grudges with each others , and dis cannt be said abt india. i used to think indians r smart and friendly people dats s until i visited redcliff and various india medias, my god i really dun believed my eyes de amount of chinese bashing in dem medias it was almost like kind of frenzy attacked on china it became so bad itt was became an embaressment for de goi and de priminster had to take some sort of actions to stop it becomes out of controll. india medias keep bashing china dailey and yet we chinese medias either kept quiet abt it or just ignored dem completely and yet when we siad something abt india once in a while i can assure u it will be reported in all medias of india and wht more i can guareenteer it will generate an other round of chinese bashing lol .dis draw me to a conclusion dat india never admit their wrongs but only others faults.
