It's time for a turnaround

Sankar Ray / Kolkata

The country has suffered a lot by neglecting the environment-friendly rural economy. Time has come to reverse the trend

He unprecedented increase in the prices of essential commodities - specially staple food and vegetables as also domestic fuel - in India has bombarded the myth that we shall prosper and standard of living of common people only in we go along with reform. Needless to say, by reform we mean the reform model introduced by the International Monetary fund through the Structural Reform Program and its derivatives over time during the last two decades.
It is time to look critically at the neo-liberal compulsion in the name of development. We ought to have embarked on the correctional path years back when farmer suicides - almost wholly due to the mirage of cash crops ( farmers' absurd optimism around cash crop cultivation ) - and returned to growing paddy, wheat, bajra maize etc. Had this been done, we could face up to the global spate in prices of essential commodities better. Things would have been under better control if proper attention had been given to agro-based industries. Average weekly tea auction prices are upward, reflecting buoyant demand of domestic tea. India consumes internally over 70 per cent of teas produced India unlike Sri Lanka and Kenya which depend of overseas markets. So it's not that internal demand for agro-based essential commodities is affected due to the global crisis. It's exactly the opposite.
Then where does the shoe pinch? The continued neglect of rural economy and reckless land acquisition has inflicted a suicidal injury to the domestic
market. In West Bengal over two million hectares of farm land were taken over since independence for urbanization and industrialization. Industry alone had a slice of 93,995 hectares.. Orissa state government acquired about 40,000 hectares for industry between 1951 and 1995 and plans to acquire 40,000 hectares more. Goa transferred 3.5 percent of its landmass between 1965 and 1995 for urbanization and industrialization. About 60 million hectares of farm/rural land were taken over during the post-independence years.
But land-losers were not rehabilitated. It is very sad to note that the colonial practice goes unaltered. One- fifth of 60 million persons displaced or otherwise deprived of livelihoods between 1947 and 2000 were rehabilitated partially -if not in a namesake way. . "Even when a project resettles people, skewed land laws ensure that its benefits do not reach many of those affected", observed Walter Fernandes who did commendable studies on land transfer and rehabilitation. .
A study of development-induced displacement in Assam between 1947 and 2000 , going by official data under schemes like water resources, industries, defence, refugee rehabilitation, environment protection and transport grabbed 391,772.9 acres and displaced 343,262 persons. Unofficial sources reveal that over 1,40000 acres were used , displacing more than 1,90000 persons.
Pity is that apologists if neo-liberal reform continue to assert that reform is overdue and the existing economic framework would be unsustainable. According to new research conducted by the World watch Institute 70.2 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide have been sold or leased to foreign private and public investors since 2000. The bulk of these acquisitions - "land grabs" - between 2008 and 2010, peaking in 2009 created havoc. There is debate on the term 'land grab' but large-scale purchase of agricultural land by foreign investors is a menace Situation is worse in Africa. East Africa, which accounts for the greatest investment, witnessed over 300 deals covering 16.8 million hectares. "Increased investment in Africa's agricultural land reflects a decade-long trend of strengthening economic relationships between Africa and the rest of the world, with foreign direct investment to the continent growing 259 percent between 2000 and 2010", according to WWI.
Investor countries are spread fairly - rather evenly - around the globe. Of the 82 listed investor countries, states WWI, Brazil, India, and China account for 16.5 million hectares, or around 24 percent of the total hectares sold or leased worldwide. When the East Asian nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea are included, this group of industrializing countries has been involved in 274 land deals covering 30.5 million hectares."
"In several cases namely, South Africa, China, Brazil, and India, there is an overlap between investor and target countries," according to a WWI-commissioned research scholar, C Scherer. "Yet most of the data paint one of two pictures: First, there is a new 'South-South' regionalism, in which emerging economies invest in nearby, culturally affiliated countries. The other trend is one of wealthy (or increasingly wealthy) countries, many with little arable land, buying up land in low-income nations especially those that have been particularly vulnerable to the financial and food crises of recent years," he went on.
According to Klaus Deininger, who conducted the study with firsthand data from 14 countries, where the most amount of land is available , "A consistent finding across regions is that better-defined land rights helped in many instances to improve efficiency and equity. Having rights protected is a necessary condition for making the best use of productive assets,"
Enough is enough. We - the people of developing countries like India - have suffered a lot for neglecting the environment-friendly rural economy. It has to be reversed.

Food prices shooting through the roof

S Remadevi /Kochi

While inflation is reaching dizzying heights primarily on account of farm products, the farmer still gets what he used to get earlier for his produce. Middlemen mostly pocketing the increase in prices at retail levels.

Inflation, or the phenomenon of rising prices of goods and services, is one of the worst predicaments that policy makers have to grapple with. India, clearly, is no exception. With inflation hitting the roof, the Government is ostensibly at a loss of words, and more importantly, actions, to curb the spiraling price rise situation. Inflation has shot up on several occasions previously as well; but what's worrying everybody this time round is that the current rise in inflation is driven mainly by high food prices, besides items such as edible oils and steel. In a poor country like India, where half or more of family spending is on food, rising food prices spell the worst trouble for the marginal and poor people. Given the low purchasing power of India's poor, even a small increase in food prices translates into a sharp fall in real incomes, thereby hitting the poor the most. Economists broadly concur that inflation actually serves as a tax on the poor, since food accounts for a relatively high proportion of their expenses.
The government, on its part, has termed inflation as an international phenomenon to explain its obvious inability to stem the rise in prices quickly. True, global oil prices are ruling at nearly $115 a barrel and rising food costs are taking a toll on the global economy. But a bit of introspection would unravel the real major cause for India's inflation - an abject neglect of the agricultural sector and the tardy pace at which farm output has been growing in the recent years.
Even as the Indian economy has been expanding at an average of over 8% over the last five year, the growth has been mainly confined to manufacturing and services sectors. Agriculture, on the other hand, has grown by barely 2.5% over the last five years and the trend is even lower if the past decade and a half is considered. Consequently, per capita output of cereals (wheat and rice) at present is down to levels that prevailed in the 1970s. The problem acquires a serious dimension since farming provides livelihood to around 60% of India's 1.1 billion people, even though farm produce comprises only 18% of the country's current gross domestic product (GDP). The Food Corporation of India's stocks have plummeted over the last few years because of low production and exports. The problem has been compounded by the fact that whenever India has decided to go in for import of wheat in the recent months, global prices of wheat has shot up.
There is a serious resentment over the fact that the price of wheat that the government imports is often twice as high as the minimum price the government pay its own farmers for domestically grown wheat. The crisis in agriculture has been manifest in the growing incidence of farmers taking their own lives. At least 10,000 farmers have committed suicide each year over the last decade because of their inability of repay loans taken at usurious rates of interest from local moneylenders. Fragmentation of land holdings and a fall in public investments in rural areas, especially in irrigation facilities, are also to blame.
The biggest paradox, therefore, is that while inflation is reaching dizzying heights primarily on account of farm products, the farmer still gets what he used to get earlier for his produce, while middlemen mostly pocketing the increase in prices at retail levels. But the farmer is forced to shell out more for whatever he buys from the market, resulting in a double whammy of sorts.
So then, it all melts down to the question of why the Government has been sitting on the ticking inflation time-bomb, even as most experts saw it coming way in advance. Part of the reason, according to New Delhi-based Economic Research Foundation, for this delayed response is that headline inflation figures offered by point-to-point annual increases in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) capture trends on the ground with a substantial lag. Matters took a serious turn when WPI-based inflation figures for the week ending 15 March 2008, released at the end of last month, showed that the annual rate of inflation had shot up to 6.68 per cent, which was higher than it had been for the previous 13 months. Also, inflation, which subsequently crossed 7 per cent, was not restricted to a few commodities but was widely spread across most commodity categories. According to the WPI data, inflation stood at 9.28 per cent in the case of dairy products, 19.03 per cent in the case of edible oils, 20.12 per cent in the case of oilseeds, over 9 per cent in the case of mineral oils and 26.86 per cent in the case of iron and steel.
Going by figures released by the government's own Department of Consumer Affairs, in the last one year, in the retail market of Delhi, the price of groundnut oil has risen from Rs. 98 to Rs. 121 a kg, mustard oil from Rs. 55 to Rs. 79, vanaspati from Rs. 56 to Rs. 79, rice from Rs.15 to Rs.18, wheat from Rs. 12 to Rs.13, atta from Rs. 13 to Rs.14, gram from Rs. 32 to Rs. 38 and tur from Rs. 35 to Rs. 42. In fact, figures collated by Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs establish that in the case of a few commodities there is huge difference between inflation as measured by retail prices (collected from and averaged across 18 reporting centres nationwide) and the wholesale price index. In the case of rice, inflation over the year ending March 15 stood at 7.88 per cent as measured by the WPI, whereas it worked out to a huge 20.86 per cent in terms of average retail prices. In the case of vanaspati too the inflation rate stood at 8 and 22 per cent respectively.
Amid the spectre of spiraling international food and commodity prices, countries such as Zimbabwe and Argentina are already on the brink, with reports of riots being quelled over rising food prices. India, the world's second most populous nation, is clearly in the vortex of a price rise situation, which could spiral out of control.
The Government, which is slated to face general elections next year, has said it is taking all possible steps to curb inflation, including increasing the procurement of food grains. But with a serious agrarian crisis at hand, it remains to be seen how effective the battle against inflation proves to be. And for it to yield any result in the long term, the Government will have to probably turn to the person most neglected in India's race to emerge an economic superpower - the humble farmer.

Agro-processing sector needs govt's push

MV Sasidharan/ New Delhi

Centre should step in and leverage investments to boost food production

Sixty year since independence, India continues to be an agriculture-based economy, where around 45 per cent of its people are engaged in agricultural and allied activities. Agriculture, along with other related fields like forestry and logging, provides employment to an estimate 60 per cent of India's population and accounts for nearly 20 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product and close to ten per cent of the country's total exports.
Benefiting from its varied agro-climatic conditions and rich natural resource base, India is one of the world's largest producers as well as consumers of food products. It is among the biggest producers of rice, wheat, sugar, cotton, fruits and vegetables in the world. It is also the largest producer of a range of commodities, such as coconut, mango, banana, milk and dairy products, cashew nuts, pulses, ginger, turmeric and black pepper. With access to a large natural resource base of 161 million hectares of arable land, 15 million hectares of fresh water reservoirs, the largest livestock population in the globe and diverse agro-climatic conditions, India is a favourable destination for growth in the food industry.
Despite this, population pressure and rising disposable incomes are steadily putting a strain on the food management front, prompting the urgent need to leverage the available production capability for economic gains and being self sufficient to meet the domestic consumption. The vagaries in climatic patterns, as was evident in the deficient and uneven south-west monsoon last year and its disastrous effect on the summer crop, is another reason why a clear roadmap for the agro industries and the agro processing sector needs to be charted out. Even as the government pins its hopes on a good rabi crop and a good monsoon next year to contain food price inflation, the huge wastage of fruits and vegetables worth Rs 30,000 crore annually due to a highly fragmented supply chain and cold chain infrastructure, stares it in the face.
Going forward, the agro industries and food processing sectors are going to play an increasingly important role in the Indian economy. Food is the biggest consumption category in India with 31 per cent of the consumer's wallet expenditure and by the year 2015, the Indian food industry is expected to reach $258 billion from the current level of $181 billion, according to estimates firmed up by the FICCI- E&Y report of 2009.

Industry wishlist:
To stimulate the growth of the food processing sector and minimise waste, industry body FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) had recently suggested immediate policy interventions by way of a 16-point package of measures to streamline and augment the entire agri supply chain, clogged as it is with several intermediaries including farm processors, distributors, and retailers. Apart from initiating steps to make it easier for corporates to enter into contract farming, agri-product distribution, post-harvest management, warehousing and development of cold chains, FICCI has made a pitch for sustained development in agriculture and large investments in technology and infrastructure development.
The following are the FICCI recommendations to stimulate the growth of the food processing sector through policy interventions for beefing up supply and cold chain infrastructure:
n So far there is not enough private investment in the development of agri-focused infrastructure such as creation of pre-cooling facilities at farm gates, warehousing and storage infrastructure facilities including cold storage, wholesale/terminal agriculture markets, because of inherent viability gaps. The government needs to ensure funding of viability gap, for existing food processing units or other entities having cold storage facilities for food products, up to 5 crore for five years. Such tax incentives should be viewed as investments, which will have enormous positive multiplier effects on the agriculture and food processing sectors and the national economy in general.
n The incentives provided for establishing cold chain infrastructure under section 80-IB (11) and (11A) have not proved attractive enough. FICCI has, therefore, suggested that the establishment of cold chain and other modernised technology for upgradation of storage handling and transportation etc. should be granted infrastructure status and the tax benefit thereto provided under section 80 - IA of the Income Tax Act.
n Priority sector lending norms for the banks should be appropriately changed to include investments made by corporates in agri infrastructure concerning supply chain and cold chain in the direct finance category of priority lending.
n Private sector investment in agri infrastructure impacting supply chain and cold chain infrastructure should be eligible for 150 per cent weighted deduction as is the case of investment in R&D.
n Research and development in the area of agri business supply chains should also be eligible for 150 per cent weighted deduction to promote innovation and cost effective solutions.
n Grant fiscal incentives by way of 100 per cent depreciation on all investments in physical assets like infrastructure development by the private sector in agriculture and the entire agri-value chain. They should be given 100per cent tax holiday in respect of the profits of the undertaking for a period of at least 10 years and further giving the assessee an option to claim this tax holiday for any 10 consecutive years out of 15.
n Banks and other financial institutions should offer term loans for all supply chain and cold chain projects at lower interest rate of 6per cent. NABARD under a new window of direct financing should provide direct loans at this rate of interest to the private sector for warehousing, integrated supply / cold chain and allied infrastructure development activities in the rural areas, under RIDF funds.
n Incentivise Green cold chain projects which have eco-friendly design, energy efficient thermal insulation & plant and machinery, water recycling, renewable energy systems etc.

Promoting AEZs
Another major policy boost that could potentially invigorate the agro processing sector is the Agri Export Zones. With a view to promoting agriculture in the country and to fetch remunerative returns to the farmers, the concept of the Agri Export Zones (AEZs) was initially mooted. Corporate sector players with proven credentials are encouraged to sponsor new zone or to takeover already notified AEZs or part of such zones for boosting agri-exports. The government's agri-trade promotion body, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), has been nominated as the Nodal Agency to coordinate the efforts on the part of Central Government negotiations. Potential crops that can be tapped where India has a geographical and resource advantages are tea, coffee, spices and cotton.
For investors at large, the demand-supply imbalance in food articles provides an opportunity to invest in companies operating in the agriculture value chain. According to a study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the world population is expected to reach to 9.1 billion by 2050 as compared to about 6.8 billion currently. This would also lead to demand for food almost doubling led by higher consumption and rising incomes in developing countries, especially India and China. The UN estimates also suggest that about 25 per cent of the food production will be lost by 2050 due to the impact of climate change, land degradation, water scarcity and so on.
On one hand, while demand is growing, arable land is also shrinking. Land, which is already scarce, will become scarcer even as the world will need to double food production in order to meet the increasing demand for food. Estimates indicate that the availability of arable land is reducing by 10 million hectare annually as more and more land is being used for the residential and industrial purposes. Globally, too, water consumption is doubling every 20 years, which is twice the growth in population. According to the estimates of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), availability of the arable land will decline to 0.6 acres per person by 2030 from 1.1 acres in 1960. All this only indicates that food prices remaining firm, if not move up, in the long run.
It is only recently that the supply side issues have been highlighted as a major reason for the surge in food prices. Ways to improve agriculture production and crop yields are seen as the key answers to this problem. However, agri experts believe that the problem may not be solved overnight and will require substantial investment and sustainable policies. In any case, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Companies operating in the food value-chain could be major beneficiaries of the evolving scenario along with the advantage of higher agriculture output prices. This includes players directly engaged in the agriculture business, food processing industry or ones that provide agri-inputs.
With food remaining the most pressing of the basic necessities that form the 'roti, kapada aur makaan' trio, it is for the Government to step in and stem the rot and leverage private sector investments to boost food production to feed the millions going hungry day in and day out.

Milky way to progress

Sant Bahadur/New Delhi

Annual average increase in milk production over the last 10 years has been 3.5
million tonnes per year, there is a need to reach an average of 6 million tonnes

Dairy sector in India has acquired substantial growth momentum from 9th Plan onwards, producing 121.8 million tonne milk during 2010-11. Per capita availability of milk reached 269 grams per day in 2010-11. This has not only placed the country on top of milk producing countries in the world, but also demonstrated sustained growth in the availability of milk and milk products for the burgeoning population.
Demand for milk is increasing rapidly in the country. This is primarily due to increasing population and growing incomes accruing from the multitude of central schemes launched for livelihood and employment generation. If we go by the emerging trend, the demand for milk is likely to be about 155 million tonnes by the end of 12th Five year Plan (2016-17) and in the range of 200-210 million tonnes in 2021-22. Annual average increase in the production of milk over the last 10 years has been around 3.5 million tonnes per annum whereas there is a need to reach an average of 6 million tonnes per year over the next 12 years to meet the ever increasing demand.
Dairying has become an important secondary source of income for millions of rural families and has assumed a very important role in providing employment and income generating opportunities. Milk production and marketing system in India is unique. Most of the milk is produced by small, marginal farmers and landless labourers. About 7 crore rural households are engaged in milk production, the majority being small and marginal farmers and landless. About 1.45 crore farmers have been brought under the ambit of 1.45 lakh village level dairy corporative societies. As dairy cooperatives ensure inclusiveness for small holders, especially women, it is desirable that they retain the present 50% share of the marketable surplus handled by the organised sector.
The Government has launched an ambitious programme for increasing the productivity of milch animals and thereby increasing the availability of milk in the country. The National Dairy Plan is a Central Sector Scheme. The outlay of the first phase of the project, for 2012-17, is estimated to be about Rs 2,242 crore. Out of total project outlay, Rs. 1584 crore will come from International Development Agency (IDA) as credit, Rs. 176 crore as Central Government's share, Rs. 282 crore as share of implementing agencies and Rs. 200 crore from NDDB and its subsidiaries for providing technical and implementation support to the project.
Rs. 715 crore of the National Dairy Plan funds will be spent on breed improvement and Rs. 425 crore on animal nutrition. Rs. 488 crore will go for strengthening of village based milk procurement system and Rs. 132 crore for project management and learning.
This scheme is aimed at meeting the projected demand of 150 million tonne in next five years by productivity enhancement, strengthening and expanding village level infrastructure for milk procurement and provide producers with greater access to markets.The objective of the NDP is to help increase productivity of milch animals and thereby milk production to meet the rapidly growing demand for milk in the country and provide rural milk producers with greater access to organised milk-processing sector through a scientifically planned multi-state initiative.
It is a six-year plan to be largely financed through the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank, and implemented by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) through End Implementing Agencies (EIAs) located in states. Funding will be through a line of credit from IDA which along with share of Government will flow from the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries to NDDB and in turn to eligible EIAs.
EIAs comprise State Government, State Livestock Boards, State Cooperative Dairy Federations, District Cooperative Milk Producers Unions, subsidiaries of statutory bodies, ICAR institutes, and veterinary/dairy institutes and universities and any other entity decided by the National Steering Committee to be set up under the National Dairy Plan. The EIAs will be eligible for funding under various components based on eligibility criteria which will comprise geographical, technical, and financial and governance parameters. Pattern of funding under the scheme will be 100% grant-in-aid for nutrition and breeding activities.
The NDP-I is to be implemented in States where the respective Governments commit to undertake the necessary regulatory, policy support to prepare an environment for successful implementation of the scheme. The focus of the scheme will be on the areas with higher potential in 14 major milk producing states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. These states contribute to 90% of milk production in the country. However, in terms of benefits the coverage of the scheme will be countrywide.
Village-based procurement system will be expanded by strengthening existing co-operatives and facilitating the setting up of producer companies or new-generation co-operatives. About 13 lakh milk producers in 23,800 additional villages are expected to be covered. Alongside, capacity building, training and education programmes will get due prominence to promote technologies and improved practices at the village level.
In terms of overall benefits, the NDP will put in place a scientific and systematic process which is expected to take the country on the path to improving the breed of milk producing animals in a consistent and continuous manner. It will make prudent use of country's resources, lead to reduction in methane emissions, improve the quality of milk being marketed, help strengthen regulatory and policy measures to provide an enabling environment for future growth of dairy sector and contribute to improving the livelihoods of small milk producers who form the backbone of India's milk production system.

Cultivating a new idea

Ranjan K Panda/Sambalpur

Climate change has started taking a toll on agriculture. It's high time that the
government initiated climate change adaptation efforts to help farmers

Orissa's vulnerability to climate change is a major concern, so much so that the Government of the state is all preparing to be the first state of India to formulate a Climate Change Action Plan that will spend at least seventeen thousand crores in five years. Agriculture is failing for more new reasons than ever and people are clueless as to what to do. Regular coping mechanisms do not work in effective ways anymore. Padampur sub division in Orissa's Bargarh district is one of the worst affected by climate change. Drought here has become a regular phenomenon forcing people to migrate out for most of the year. The region's vulnerability has become so grave that the Government has included it under one of the only three regions under its just promulgated "Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme". In this gloomy scenario however, there are a few bright spots. Kharamal village in the Paikmal block is one such spot where the people have succeeded in fighting against the vagaries of climate changed induced drought and water scarcity through successful integration of ecological interventions such as water harvesting, forest conservation and eco-agriculture.
Kharamal is a forested village at the foothills of Gandhamardan hills in Paikmal block of Bargarh district in Orissa. The village houses 410 people of whom majority are tribals. Drought is nothing new for the villagers since the area is now facing it in regular succession. The impacts are however coming in new and newer forms with increased heat and distorted monsoon caused by climate change. So, the traditional coping mechanisms of the villagers are failing in fighting drought now a days. Migrating out in search of job at Brick kilns of Andhra Pradesh and other such hazardous and low paying occupations had been the most popular coping mechanism for the villagers till recent years. Things have however started to change ever since a local NGO intervened and organized the villagers to understand drought better and recall their traditional coping mechanisms which were earlier successfully helping them in fighting drought and in which the people have lost faith in the recent years. In just five to six years, with large scale awareness and concerted community action, the village is emerging as a green spot in a brown belt. Things have started to look positive and people have resumed hope in their traditional wisdoms in water conservation and management. Meeting Kurmila Bhoi would show how.
From Migrating Out to Settling In
In September 2009, when senior correspondent of NDTV 24x7, one of India's leading TV news channels, visited Kurmila in her village, she got overwhelmed. She realized the real potential of her transformation from a migrant labour to a land owner. By village standards she possessed a good amount of land and qualified to be called a rich woman. In fact her 8 acre land yielded her family well a decade and half ago. "Things changed in the last about 15 years when weather became more erratic and forests denuded fast. We started to migrate to brick kilns and suffer", rues Kurmila. Out of her eight acres, only two acres were low land which yielded more compared to the six acres of upland. Still her family managed with what they got from the rain fed crops and forest produces. Drought became a regular feature in the last 15 to 20 years and forest degradation added to their woes. Erratic rainfall made agriculture almost difficult as she suffered heavy crop loss almost each year. The land also got severely eroded, sand cast and infertile. "Even with that much of land; we were living in penury and subsisted with high interest loans by pledging domestic utensils and valuables. Agriculture failed as cultivability of the land eroded with high intensity runoff causing sand cast, creating gullies. Further, no sooner rain stopped, our lands were facing soil water (moisture) scarcity", informed Kurmila. This resulted in creating difficult conditions to cultivate the land. "We found a succor in migrating out. We went to Ayodhya and many places in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to work as brick kiln labourers where we were exploited", recalls a pained Kurmila.
Things changed in 2004-05 when MASS, a local NGO, helped her think about her survival strategy afresh. "We found sense in the points raised by people from this organization and organized village meetings to understand drought situation; its history and impacts; and finally too plan out strategies to fight this", says Dhanu Bhoi, Kurmila's husband. That year, with help of MASS, she constructed a 'chahala' ( a small water harvesting structure) to save her crop in one acre. "After many years, that was the first year when we were not required to borrow loans or advances from elsewhere; we got direct employment in land treatment and chahala works in our village. We stayed back and a new era began", informs she. "MASS gave me a direct cash assistance of two thousand and seven hundred rupees. In fact that year MASS started several other activities in the village that will restore our traditional water bodies and local ecology. I received training on eco-agriculture, preparation of organic manure and pesticides on my own in a cost effective manner", says she. To stop migrating and starting agriculture afresh in the village several other measures like formation of a 'seed bank' was taken up with support of MASS and Kurmila received one bag of paddy seed as loan from this bank to be able to start her agriculture. The chahala that stored rain water for her started showing good results very soon and Kurmila used it for vegetable cultivation. She earned a good profit and bought two goats. "Our strategy here has been to promote eco-agriculture in an aggressive way with help of the water harvested so that an overall ecological renaissance will take place" informs Adikanda Biswal, Programme Officer with MASS.
She has stopped migrating. She has got money and she has brought back all her land into agriculture again. Not only that, she has constructed a new house and lives a dignified life. From a migrant labour to a dignified settler, Kurmila is now reaping the benefit of water harvesting. Many other families of Kharamal, this tribal dominated nondescript village, have also fought drought successfully and have proved that reviving traditional system of water harvesting with new inputs in technical skill building and organic agriculture could be real beneficial. Kharamal has not looked back ever since then and the movement is spreading to other villages. Civil society groups of Orissa have alleged that the Govt. of Orissa's Draft Climate Change Action Plan has not taken into account people's concerns, knowledge and experiences. Rather it has only listened to the World Bank and Corporate Houses who are looking forward to climate change mitigation as a business/profit avenue. Time the government learns from climate change adaptation efforts of people like Kurmila and incorporate those in the Plan.

Quenching thirst with poison

Sangita Jha/ New Delhi

Chemical contamination of water is casuing serious health problems for people

Pamphlets on the walls from Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh to Balrampur on the Nepal border have one common selling point: Get assured treatment of cancer. In Punjab, people seek from their representatives advanced medical institution to treat cancer. Punjab has begun reporting cases of uranium contamination. A large number of cancer patients in their advanced stages come to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi in the hope of getting cured from cancer. The story is not about cases of cancer but an alarming rise in the extent of the geographical areas struggling with serious chemical contamination. The malaise is much strongly rooted in the rural India.
Union minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh is candid enough to admit that in the last six decades the states have only used the Central funds for rural drinking water for installing handpumps. While people throng their representatives to win handpumps in their areas, they hardly paid any attention to the kind of water they were drinking.
The chemical contamination of the ground water is one of the foremost challenge that the Centre and the states are faced with. The Centre has zeroed in on Arsenic, Fluoride, Iron and salinity for the time being and is making attempts to turn the tide against an end number of diseases, which are taking a heavy toll of human lives.
In one of the first response, the Centre has earmarked Rs 525 crores in the financial year 2012-12 for improvement of water quality. Also, in a bid that the focus is not lost, the Centre has identified 60 districts spread over in five major states struggling with serious water contamination to begin with.
The Centre's move was being formulated even while reports from Bihar claimed that more than 200 children have so far died this year due to cases of Acute Encephalitis (AE). Some months ago the eastern UP, particularly the Gorakhpur region, and Bihar reported alarming cases of deaths of children due to Japanese Encephalitis (JE). Even while the state governments have been vaccinating as many children as possible against JE and AE, with the Centre providing the vaccines, not much attention was being paid to the cause of the ailments, which have been identified as poor sanitation and contaminated ground water.
The Centre has chosen 20 districts in eastern UP and 15 in Bihar as part of the focused approach on improving the water quality. Among the 60 districts, 10 are in West Bengal, 10 in Assam and 5 in Tamil Nadu. "This is the first time that we are going to deal with the causes of the JE and AE," said Ramesh.
The districts in UP which have been included are Azamgarh, Behraich, Balia, Balrampur, Basti, Deoria, Gonda, Goraokhpur, Hardoi, Kanpur (Dehat), Kusinagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, Maharajganj, Mau, Rae Bareli, Saharanpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Shravasti, Sidharth Nagar and Sitapur.
These are the places where every year hundreds of children die of JE and AE, while walls in these cities are all pasted with pamphlets promising cure from cancer. In Bihar the districts which have been included are Araria, Darbhanga, Gaya, Gopalganj, Jehanabad, Nawada, West and East Champaran, Patna, Samastipur, Saran, Siwan and Vaishali.
One similarity among the UP and Bihar districts is that most of them have people dependent on ground water.
While the chemical ground water contamination is not just confined to these five states, the situation is estimated to be quite worse there.
As per an official estimate of the Ministry of rural development and drinking water, arsenic contamination has severly affected 1330 habitations in West Bengal, 1200 in Assam and 940 in Bihar. Further, the fluoride contamination has affected 7500 habitations in Rajsthan, 2500 in Karnatka, 2700 in Bihar, 2300 in UP and 822 in West Bengal.
The iron contamination, which is, however, not as harmful as others, has affected 14,000 habitations in Assam, 12,000 in Odhisa, 11,000 in Bihar and 5400 in Tripura. Further, salinity, which is rapidly on the rise, has taken under its grip 19,000 habitations in Rajsthan, 2027 in UP, 660 in Karnatka, 1,000 in Odhisa.
Out of the total 17 lakh rural habitations in the country, the states have together reported 3500 habitations in the grip of arsenic contamination, 17000 with fluoride contamination, 54000 with iron contamination and 23,000 facing cases of salinity.
Though Punjab has reported cases of uranium contamination in ground water, the state government has not yet sent any proposal to the Centre on the ways to deal with the situation. "When the state government sends a proposal, the Centre will promptly respond to the demands," stated Ramesh.
Eventually the governments will have to bring the piped water to each of the households to save lives. In fact the Centrally sponsored Saranda Action Plan, which is intended to bring development benefits to the tribals who have recently been freed from the clutches of the naxals, the Centre along with the state government is making it mandatory to reach out piped potable water to each households.
Realising the gravity of the problem, the Centre has agreed in principle to avail a grant of 500 million US dollars from the World Bank for the expansion of the rural drinking water. However, the scale of the challenge may suggest that the government may have to
invest in many multiples of the World Bank to effectively deal with the fast expanding chemical contamination of the ground water.
Diagnosing the malaise, Ramesh said that since there were no separate budgetary head for improvement of water quality, the states spent all these decades mostly on installing handpumps or creating sources of dinking water. Therefore, five per cent of the total annual budget of the rural drinking water (Rs 10,300 crore for 2012-13) would be only for improvement of water quality and its share would keep rising in the coming years, said Ramesh.
A beginning appears to have been made in fight against the fast expansion of chemical contamination of the ground water but clearly the challenge is much bigger.

Bihar: High growth fails to reduce poverty

Sopan Correspondent/New Delhi

Nitish govt is riding on growth wave but a reality check shows not much change in the ground situation

The word "Bihar" has always been conjured an image of poverty, backwardness, violence and failed governance. All along media has been portraying the miseries of people for last two decades. With the change of government in 2005, hopes had risen that things would change in the state and lot of people would improve in the next five to seven years. But have things fallen in line since then, it seems the time has come to evaluate the state of affairs in Bihar.
No doubt in the last seven years, the new government has shown some character and the sense of insecurity in the minds of people is now a fact of bygone era. The state has been growing with a double-digit rate for last four years. In the four successive years since 2008-09 state's GSDP registered 14.58 percent, 10.42 percent, 14.77 percent and 13.13 percent respectively. But even after registering one of the highest growths in the country for four consecutive years, have things actually changed on the ground and improved the lot of people at large? The answer appears to be in a big no, as data release by planning commission show that half of the state still live below poverty line (BPL).
Keeping in view the alarming figures on poverty in Bihar, one of the members of planning commission Abhijit Sen had recently said, "It is a matter of serious concern that there is no decline in poverty in Bihar despite a high growth rate and development."
Dr Sen, also a well-known economist, said that while Bihar had been maintaining good growth rates, it had failed to reduce the rate of poverty. "Bihar has impressed many with its high growth rate. That is good. But at the same time, the state has not seen a decline in the rate of poverty. It is still at the bottom of the pile and has a lot of catching up to do," he said.
During the 11th plan period (2007-12), Bihar has added 50 lakh people to the number of its poor, by far the largest number of any Indian state in this period. A look at Planning Commission numbers for 2009-10 and 2004-05 shows that poverty has declined at a negligible rate in Bihar, so much so that the absolute number of people living in poverty has actually increased. In 2009-10, 55.3 percent of Bihar was under the poverty line as compared to 53.5% in 2004-5.
To add to this the population of the state has also shown a decadal growth more than the national average, which also added more people under BPL in absolute number. Bihar had a decadal growth population by 28.6 percent in the 2011 census, where as the national average stood at 17.6 percent.
Therefore, now no one would be constraint to claim that in Bihar riche became richer and poor became poorer and this can be further endorsed by an empirical analysis of an event, which this author had seen during his visit to a West Champaran district village named Kesariya to attend a family function.
An elaborate puja (rituals) was performed by one of the relative families of the author. It was a 12-hour exercise and after the completion of all the rituals, there was a dinner scheduled to be served to all present in and around the area.
However, since morning, children of poor families of the village were seen flocking around the house of the author's relative in the hope of getting something to eat. But since their presence was disturbing and obstructing the function to go on smoothly, one member of the family drove all the children surrounding the house away by threatening to beat them with a stick. Sensing the risk of being beaten up the children fled away. But the same exercise got repeated again and again throughout the day, as children used to come back to wait to get something to eat. Most of the children were necked or half necked portraying the true picture poverty in the state.
It to utmost surprise to this author that in the evening, when the rich family was to feed the poor children in the hope of earning God's blessings, the same children were sitting in the row to get food. They were eating the normal "mid-day-meal" stuff as if they have not eaten for sometime. The scene was so appalling and pathetic that one was forced to ask if the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) is working in the state or not, where the state government has claimed that it has spent on the scheme Rs. 818.20 crore.
However, in the past one decade there is no doubt that the weakest sections of the society has made rapid gains in their material wellbeing, acquiring assets such as cell phones, televisions, two-wheelers and bank accounts. But almost half the population of scheduled castes in the state continue to live by the light of the humble kerosene lamp, much more than the national number of 31 per cent.
The latest data of census 2011 has also shown that asset poverty has declined substantially. In fact the decline in the number of dalits having assets is comparable to the numbers nationally.
In 2001, 42.6 per cent of SC were without any of the 13 assets specified in the houselisting survey of the Census. In 2011, this had come down to 22.6 per cent. Nationally, the percentage of households without any assets came down to 17.8 per cent from 34.5 per cent.
This means nearly 80 per cent of Dalits had one of the specified assets, which includes a bank account, radio, television, bicycle, car, telephone, mobile, computer and internet connectivity. While half the Dalit population has a bank account, 40 per cent have TV sets and another 51 per cent have telephone connectivity. In 2001, just 25 per cent had bank accounts, and 21 per cent had a television, while a phone connection was available with just 3.5 per cent.
The decline in asset poverty of Dalits has been striking in the erstwhile Bimaru states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. While 67.5 per cent of SC in Bihar had no assets in 2001, this has halved to 38.9 per cent now. In UP, where 26 per cent had no assets a decade earlier, the figure has come down to 15 per cent.
In Kerala, where the figure was 47 per cent a decade before, it is now 11 per cent. In Bengal, where 38 per cent had no assets earlier, it is 28.3 per cent. Ownership of motorised vehicles has increased from 5.3 per cent to 11.9 per cent.
However, a majority of SC still have no electricity. In Uttar Pradesh, 74 per cent of SC households depended on kerosene for light. In West Bengal, it is 56.4 per cent, in Odisha, 63 per cent. In Jharkhand, 60 per cent. Nationally, the dependence on kerosene as the sole source of light was only 31 per cent.

Civil society rip-off

Sangita Jha/ New Delhi

Central government grants to civil society organizations found being used for building private residences

At a time when the government is banking more on non-governmental organizations to connect with people in remore areas, it's natural to ask if the objective is really being served. A number of representatives of the NGOs, claiming to be engaged in genuine works, often lament that their non-deserving siblings pocket the money. The nexus involving politicians, bureaucrats and NGOs is all known and is considered the root of the malaise.
The general refrain within the NGO circle, that there are too many black sheeps apong them, was confirmed in a recent random survey carried out by the Union ministry of tribal affairs. The conclusion arrived at after a number of field survey and examination of the official papers revealed that there is a serious malfunction in the delivery of the services for which the NGOs are paid by the government.
This is clearly a rude shock to the government, which is nowadays more inclined to nabk on the NGOs to fill the vacuum caused by the absence of the government machineries to areas not accessed by the state. The vacuum is more acute in the tribal areas. Sometimes the vacuum is also blamed for the rise in naxal violence.
Recent reports emanating from the Ministry of tribal affairs claimed that the officials having unearthed the malpractice wherein the NGOs have been getting funds from the government for over a decade but in return did nothing for which the grants were meant for. What was more startling was that the government funds, which should have improved the lots of the poor tribals, were rather helping the men and women running the NGOs in adding private residential assets.
The story is neither new nor strange. This has been happening with most of the Centrally sponsored schemes, including Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). While the NGO heads were found building private residences out of the ministry grants, Union minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh has lamented the fact on numerous occasions that the Sarpanch and Mukhiya have been on buying spree of Scorpio (a sports utility vehicle) out of the NREGS funds.
In the case of the tribal ministry survey, it was found that bureaucrats changed rules to favour certain NGOs, who continued to receive funds from the Centre for almost a decade. The survey was apparently commissioned following several complaints from members of Parliament, and representations from grassroot NGOs. They lamented that though they were engaged in genuine works the Central funds were going into the hands of unscrupulous hands.
The reports claimed to have found evidences of people pocketing government funds but did not spend for the stated purposes. The officials stumbled upon a doctor couple running an NGO in Thoubal in Manipur, who had been getting the Central funds for about a decade for running a mobile dispensary for the purpose of distributing free medicines to tribals in the far flung areas but they actually were doing nothing and the van did not even exist. Everything was on paper. Of course the officials saw a van with a flat tyre and a beehive inside it. The tribals were definetly not getting free medicines. While there was no trace of log book for the visits to the tribals in the far flung areas, which were never taken up, the doctors did try to fool the officials by claiming that their computer was not functioning for want of power. However, an hour later the doctor couple was getting a logbook manually filled up in a tearing hurry only to be caught red-handed by the officials. Further enquiries revealed that the doctor couple had used the government grants to build their two-storied residential complex.
The flurry of inspection revealed several NGOs akin to one of the Manipur's doctor couple fleecing the government lakh of rupees every year. Interestingly, this was the first of its kind survey on the part of the ministry to find out what was happening with the funds released for the stated purpose of improving the lots of the tribals.
The government has not yet instituted an audit mechanism to keep a check on such practices.
However, there were genuine NGOs too, as revealed by the survey, who were engaged in projects in which tribal students were given free education, boarding and uniforms in schools. Therefore, the generalization must be avoided.
As far as the practice is concerned, the tribal ministry gives grants-in-aid to NGOs for welfare of scheduled tribes, including coaching and allied works. The NGOs get grants for schemes like starting residential and non-residential schools, hostels, 10-bedded hospitals, mobile dispensaries and computer-training centres. The Ministry of tribal affairs has an annual budget of Rs 10 crore dedicated only for helping out such NGOs.
The postmortem of the survey has also blown the lid on the modus operandi of the black sheeps among the NGOs, who connive with the state government officials so that new organizations are kept out from applying for the grants. This enables them to continue to receive funds and since there is no audit mechanism their deeds mostly go undetected. But the grant size which varies from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 5 crore is so big, that the Centre must sooner than later institute an audit mechanism, which would in fact be on the line of the Ministry of rural development's initiative to hand over the audit of the MNREGS to the CAG.
However, the tribal ministry now waking up after the schocker revealed by the random survey has decided to conduct an audit in the states affected by Naxal violence, including Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Interestingly, the Centre has also unveiled National Rural Livelihood Fund, with an initial corpus of Rs 1,000 crore, to assist the NGOs to reach out the developmental programmes to the tribal areas. However, the Centre would be keenly awaiting the audit results of the NGOs in the tribals areas to take full-proof measures to ensure that the objectives of the National Rural Livelihhods Funds (NRLF) is not defeated.
The NRLF was established after the government realized that there are many blocks in the grip of the naxals where the government agencies can not enter and the only way out to help the poor tribals is by taking the help of the NGOs.
Clearly, the need is to institute mechanism to sift the black sheep among the NGOs out of the system so that those who are genuinely carrying out their works are not denied funds, while at the same time the pace of reaching out the benefits to the neglected lots is also expedited.