Tribal travails

Dr. Satish Kumar

Although some tribals have large land holdings, the going gets tough for them as they are in debt-trap. Govt should take steps to save them.

It's a peculiar situation. Radhikabai is not the owner of this land. She just happens to be the custodian of this 15 acres by virtue of being Jeevanlal's wife. A Halba tribal who is among the only three farmers in this village to own over ten acres of land, Jeevanlal has gone out for work, despite such a large land holding, this year. Why? He is in the midst of a serious crisis. Three years of drought left him under the burden of debt. Last year there was pretty good rainfall. But, Jeevanlal could not afford to depend only on his agricultural yield. Much of his income from the farm would go in repaying the debt. And, that's why he had moved out, leaving the responsibility of cultivation to Radhikabai. The woman has since been managing the show. This is the story of a tribal family in the state of Maharashtra, the home state of the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar.

There is another tragic story of a tribal farmer of Jharkhand. Manjhi Solon, marginal farmer having seven children and old parents. But there is no irrigation facility to produce anything. His village is not far away from the Agriculture University of Ranchi. Unfortunately the syllabus, which is taught in the university, has nothing to do with plight of tribals.

In fact, the slew of the new economic policies have blurred the sustainability of agriculture. The major impact of marketisation accompanied by modernization on the tribal communities is through the process of land alienation, displacement and deprivation of the control and use of natural resources.

To the tribals, the environment is their livelihood. It is the natural resources that are to be protected because they are part of an ecosystem with the human community at its centre. As a result there cannot be any enmity between them and the nature. Their priority is to prevent the overuse of natural resources. To ensure it, through centuries, they have developed a culture and tradition of their sustainable use that protects them by keeping a balance between human needs and ecological imperatives.

There is no doubt that agriculture and the use of forest resources are the basis of the tribal economy. Oroans, Mundas, Santhal are mostly agrarian communities and their worldview, festival rituals and to an extent social phenomena are governed by crop production. They have learned by experience to make the best possible use of the available land and other resources to optimise their yield to meet their needs. Adivasis classify land according to suitability of crop grown and amount of production; and this is directly related to moisture holding capacity of soil. Tanr or uplands fit for minor millets and oil seeds or coarse pady. Tanr or uplands is sometimes again classified into dihani or bari (adjacent to village). Then comes don land or terraced lowland. This type can retain more moisture and is subdivided accordingly.

This is the inbuilt mechanism of sustainable development, which tribal people have been practicing for years. They have not got the degree of sustainable development from any institution. Even well known agricultural scientist, Mr. Swaminathan has said time and again that people can learn a number of lessons from these practices of Adivasis. Unfortunately agricultural practices of tribal people in India are on rough edges. They have been robbed of their techniques and forced to practice the so-called modern agricultural practices that buckle them in perennial debt and a vicious circle of suicides. There have been a number of cases of suicides of tribal farmers in Maharashtra . Recently a dozen tribal farmers committed suicides in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

Now the reasons need to be identified as to why tribal farmers and their agriculture practices have been discarded. Thorough investigations it reveals many core issues. First, Indian Government failed to implement the Nehru's Panchsheel Policy towards tribal. One of the five components of this policy was to protect the tribal rights on land and forest, which has never been done. In fact, in the name of development and national demands their lands have taken over by the respective state governments. First the British government declared under the forest act of 1864 that any land covered with tress, brushwood or jungle as government forest. So, Adivasis homelands were therefore declared, by law, to belong to the government and Adivasis became illegal occupants or encroachers. Adivasis have relied on the forests for up to 80 percent of their food. In 1980 Forest Conservation Act has placed all forests under the Central Government. This makes the lives of tribal more difficult.

Tribals, to a large extent, depend upon forests for several basic needs like fuel, fodder, small timber for houses and agricultural components. Their agricultural practices are highly environment friendly. Rapid deforestation is depriving these communities of the means of livelihood and also cash income. It is a fact that 66 per cent of the total forest cover lies in the tribal areas.

The second major problem related with tribal agriculture is water. Tribal villages depend upon small stream, rivulets, ponds and lakes for water. After independence the government has launched a massive programme to construct dams for the storage of water. Most of these dams are meant to supply water to cities and towns for domestic and industrial use. It is great contradiction of development that water harvesting lies in the catchments areas of tribal villages but do not provide irrigation facilities to them and it flows down to cities. Lands of the tribal get submerged and tribal farmers being forced to become landless labourers.

Tribals constitute 8.4% of India's total population. Tribal habitats are biodiversity-rich, but tribal farmers are resource-poor. Conceptually, tradition and science are two intersecting spheres that overlap on principles. The intersection is conceived to represent reality. Tribal cultivation exhibits some traditional practices with an underlying scientific basis. At the same time, there are traditions of scientific concern needing appropriate modification.

Rapid globalization and forces of marketisation have brought many problems for the tribal people. The World Bank published a special manual titled 'Tribal and Economic Development - Human Ecological Considerations'. It says, approximately 200 million tribal people, roughly 4% of the global population, and who among were the poorest of the poor, were adversely affected by some development projects.

There should be a paradigm shift in the policies towards tribals. Mere Constitutional safeguards are not sufficient. Fifth and Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution have failed to protect the interests of tribal people. Obviously development must go hand in hand with traditional practices of Adivasis.

Eye for development

Sangita Jha/ New Delhi

The challenge thrown up by the Maoists is clearly daunting and armed response is being seen as not the only answer.

There is clear admission of the fact among the officials that heart of India, geographically speaking, is in the clutches of naxals. So much so that the state governments or even the Central agencies find difficult to reach out the means of development and advancements to tribals living in deep forest in Central India. The challenge thrown up by the naxals is clearly daunting and armed response is being seen as not the only answer.
Ever since Union minister Jairam Ramesh took charge of the Union rural development ministry, there has been a change in the approach as far as dealing wity the naxals or left wing extremism (LWE), as spoken officially, is concerned. In the last one year, it's being seen, that the government's approach is to deal with naxals with full force but at the same time reaching out the benefits of various Centrally sponsored schemes to the tribals in a clear strategy that they are do not fall prey to the left wing extremism ideology.
This year's Budget proposed by the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee endorses the strategy on which Ramesh is working on in partnership with central paramilitary forces and state governments.
Mukherjee has proposed setting up of a National Rural Livelihoods Foundation (NRLF) on the lines of the Public Health Foundation on public-private partnership mode specifically for 173 districts, which are affected by the naxal violence.
While the Centre would pitch in with an initial allocation of Rs 500 crore for the first two years, another Rs 500 crores would come from the corporates and state governments. Ramesh has already a number of trusts sponsored by big corporate houses who want to be part of the exercise, indicating that funds would not be a problem. The state governments too have reasons to pitch in with their share for the objective of setting up of NRLF.
The idea of the NRLF is to assist civil society in their endevour to bring the gains of development and progress to the tribals entrenched in the naxal affected areas. This is for the reason, as acknowledged by Ramesh, that even the government officials do not dare to go into such areas, while the civil society like Ram Krishna Mission are allowed to work without any interference by the proponents of left wing extremism. So with an initial corpus of Rs 1,000 crore, there would be Rs 100 crores accruing as interests, which would be utilized to assist the civil society in carrying out their work.
The idea is clearly novel and enterprising. What is more intersesting is the stress on the part of the Centre to support the civil society and NGOs to take up work on watershade management, water supply, capacity building, education among other activities in the 173 districts which span from Chhatisgarh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odhisa and Jharkhand. These areas are geographically speaking heart of India but also the place where the paramilitary forces are engaged in a battle of nerves each days, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides.
Ramesh should also be credited for taking a host of other measures too to ensure that the war against naxals is won effectively and convincingly on a sustainable basis. In another initiative, Ministry of rural development has unveiled a programme whereby corporate houses are being roped in to buy and market the tribal handicrafts and their products apart from taking part in their skill building activities. This initiative has got impressive response from the corporates, which in the end is intended to put the money into the pockets of tribals by ensuing that they are not exploited by the middlemen, who often account for most of the money which should have rather gone to the poor. Corporates have shown interest in bamboo products and herbs, which the tribals know better than others.
The Centre has already rolled out a pilot project called Saranda Action Plan in the trijunction of Jharkhand, Odhisa and Chhatisgarh to win the hearts of tribals and put them into the mainstream life. After the CRPF claimed to have cleared the Saranda forest areas of the naxals, the Centre has stepped in by reaching out to the tribals with benefits like houses under Indira Awas Yojna (IAY), transistors, cycles, surface drinking water supply. In addition to other measures, the Saranda Action Plan also seeks to give employments to the tribals under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) along with roping in other institutions for skill building exercise. The Centre is looking forward to replicate the Saranda Action Plan in other naxal affected areas in phased manner. The idea is clear, that the government would step in with a host of schemes in the naxal affected areas once they area cleared out by the paramilitary forces. Interestingly, the Saranda Action Plan is being implemented under close monitoring by the Centre, while at the ground level the district administration with protection by the paramilitary forces are rolling out the benefits to the tribals.
In another move to rope in the elected representatives in implementing Integrated Action Plan (IAP), which is meant for the naxal affected 78 districts in the country, the Planning Commission is mulling a proposal to rope in the Gram Panchayats. The move has come in the backdrop of West Bengal having reportedly shown better result in tackling naxals with the involevement of political leadership. Deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Jairam Ramesh and Union minister for Panchayati Raj V. Kishore Chandra Deo have deliberated on the ways to make Gram Panchayats part of the exercise, which as of now is being administered by the triumvirate od District Magistrate (DM), Suprintendent of Police (SP) and District Forest Officer (DFO). Mr Deo had been advocating larger role of the Panchayats and Gram Sabhas in the tribal districts to ensure that land is not leased out to corporates for mining activities by flouting the existing laws.
Last but not the least, the Centre is also seeking the young graduates to take up fellowship programmes in the tribal areas under a Pradhan Mantri Rural Fellowship Programme, which has been recently launched. This is in addition to Rs 50 crore grant to IRMA for taking up programmes in the rural areas, which are otherwise shunned by themanagement graduates.
It's clear that the intent is there on the part of the government to defeat the naxals not only by force but also to cut off the supply line of manpower by winning the hearts of tribals by showing them better side of the world.

Tangled up in debt trap

Sopan Correspondent/ New Delhi

Despite many schemes, handloom weavers continue to be a neglected lot

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been shouting from the rooftops about schemes the UPA has introduced to help weavers in UP. But it seems nothing has trickled down to the weavers of Varanasi. Ali Husain Ansari, a weaver, says he has not benefited from the government's financial package for weavers announced in December 2011.
The UPA government accuses the state government for their plight. While most of the money of the schemes are pocketed by cooperatives, it seldom reaches the target group. ”All the money of the schemes has gone to cooperative societies. It has become difficult to for us to even pay back loans," Ali said.
There are about 50 lakh weavers in the country. Although their produce are sold at high prices, they seldom gets the benefit. Most of them live in penury and poverty.
Weavers of Tamil Nadu too have lurched from one crisis to another, surviving on the strength of their resilience. The cooperative movement, started in the 1950s to help weavers tide over frequent crisis situations, and Cooptex, the apex marketing society, set up to promote handlooms, have been undermined systematically over the years. Politicisation of the cooperative set-up, with successive governments dissolving the elected boards and filling the societies with their own partymen, has weakened the movement. Cooptex, far from being a promotional agency, has been transformed into a mere marketing agency.
Tamil Nadu, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the country's handloom textiles production and 50 per cent of exports, has over six lakh handloom units and 1,400 cooperative societies. Handloom weaving with products ranging from duster cloth to silk saris, is a common occupation throughout the State, except in the Nilgiris district.
Over 50 per cent of the weavers are in the cooperative fold and the majority of them produce dhotis and saris for the Janata cloth scheme. The offtake under the scheme, which distributes saris and dhotis to the poor, was substantial. Among the traditional centres associated with this scheme are Srivilliputhur and Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar district; Andipatti in Madurai district; Ammayarkuppam and Arani in Thiruvallur district; and Kezhkodungalur in Tiruvannamalai district.
Handloom weavers have been representing their problems to the government but their pleas have elicited nothing more than temporary measures. And as the situation began to deteriorate early this year, they organised dharnas and agitations at the local level. When everything failed, and their families faced starvation, the weavers of Srivilliputhur set up community gruel centres on July 22. Soon more gruel centres came up in traditional weaving centres. Under the programme, which started from within and in which the entire community is participating, a group of youngsters goes around the village collecting foodgrains, pulses and vegetables, prepares gruel in a common kitchen, and supplies it to the weavers' families once a day. Workers' organisations, such as the LIC Workers Union, have been helping with necessary food materials.
If the handloom industry has thus far survived competition from the powerlooms, the liberalised policy regime, market instability and government apathy, it is largely because of its own resilience. Now with demand disappearing for traditional handloom products owing to changing consumer preferences, poor marketing facilities, dearth of knowledge, skills and technical expertise to adapt to changing demand and lack of infrastructure to upgrade the looms, the handloom sector is a shambles. If the industry, the second largest employer in Tamil Nadu after agriculture, is to survive and the lakhs of weavers' families are to be saved from their desperate situation, it needs to be re-oriented with sound government support.
The commerce and industry ministry had announced a Rs.2,350 crore package for weavers to bail weavers out of distress. But the weavers say government packages to bail them out have passed them by.
Husain said hundreds of Mughal textile weavers in Varanasi and in the villages around it have switched to pulling rickshaws to fend for themselves. He and thousands of his fellow weavers in Varanasi depend on "resham" threads from "Korea" and yellow "tussar" from China. "Their prices fluctuate between Rs.1,680 and Rs.4,500 (per bale). A loan of Rs.25,000 to 50,000 is not enough," he said.
The muga weavers of Assam are fighting against farm pesticides that are killing muga silk worms in their habitats in Upper Assam. Muga, one of the costliest and rarest varieties of silk, is known as "the golden fibre of Assam".
"The volume of fibre extracted from silkworms has decreased over the years with muga worms dying of chemcials that farmers in Upper Assam spray in their fields," said weaver and crafts actvist Kusum Lashkar, who manages the NGO Shanti Sadhana Ashram in Guwahati.
The effect of the pesticides spreads far and wide and destroys silk farms. "The constrained production has led to an increase in prices of muga silk by almost 50 percent," Lashkar claimed. The muga weavers of Assam have been facing a demand-supply gap over the last few years, the weaver said.
Such tales of neglect, poverty and poor impelmentation of government projects at the grassroots fought for attention with a colourful spread of handloom products at "Kargha Yagya" at the sprawling Gandhi Smriti Feb 23. The textile showcase was in memory of Kasturba Gandhi, the woman who spun the charkha alongside her husband Mahatma Gandhi.
An unknown community of sheep wool weavers in Jharkhand - the Behriyar-Gareriya nomads from the Gaya district in Bihar - has almost given up its traditional craft of blanket weaving for lack of funds.
"We weave blankets from sheep wool collected from our herds of sheep. But the state government (the state handloom and handicraft corporation Jharcraft) has turned its face away from us and we cannot compete with the blankets being sold in the markets. Our blankets cost Rs.300 each in the market while each blanket costs Rs.350 to weave. We are forced to sell our products in villages because of limited access to urban markets," Iqbal said.
The community of 75 wool weavers' families lives in two villages - Mahwawdavan and Barawad in Madhupur block. Bhagat, whose family owns a herd of 500 sheep, says "the near-death of the blanket weaving tradition has killed the barter system of economy that helped the villagers sustain".
Ajay Singh, a weaver from Bhagalapur in Bihar, known as India's silk city, said "the government should work directly with communities of weavers in villages for holistic welfare of the communities".
He demanded a "residential school for the childern of weavers where they would learn their native tongue, the national language and an international language to compete in the global market".
Mohammed Mominul Islam and Riaz-ul-Haq, silk weavers and textile designers from Malda in northern West Bengal, complain of poor accessibility to markets and design interventions.
"This is our first visit to Delhi. We realised after coming here that saris are not in demand in northern India; girls prefer silk 'salwar-kameez'. We have to improvise on our range to make textile-lengths for 'salwar-kameez'," Ansari said. Malda produces 80 percent of Bengal's silk in three clusters - Sujapur, Jalalpur and Kaliachowk.
"People have forgotten the Gandhian lesson - production by mass for mass. Buyers would rather go to malls for designer labels. They should have access to more markets, resources and raw material," said Manimala, director of the Gandhi Smriti and Gandhi Darshan at Rajghat in the capital.
Citing statistics, Manimala said, "The country has nearly 25 lakh (2.5 million) handlooms employing 50 lakh (5 million) people and about 60 percent of them subist below the poverty line".
Kerala has around 50000 handlooms both in the private sector and in over 750 cooperative societies provide employment to about 1.25 lakh weavers. Kerala State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (HANTEX), the apex organization of the cooperatives and Kerala State Handloom Development Corporation Ltd (HANVEEV) providing services (especially marketing) to individual weavers, are the principal development agencies assisting the Department of Handlooms and Textiles.
The handloom industry faces a serious crisis, owing to (i) competition from cheap powerloom cloth from other states (ii) scarcity of quality yarn (iii) price escalation of yarn, dyes, chemicals and other raw materials (iv) the shrinking market for handlooms in Kerala (v) non-demand based production and inadequacy of new designs and (vi) inefficiencies in the system, particularly in the cooperative sector.
The Deen Dayal Hathkargha Prothsahan Yojana (DDHPY) introduced by the Government of India is a comprehensive scheme for the development of the handloom industry. The assistance provided by the Government of India is sometimes insufficient considering the wages and quality of living in Kerala and hence it may be supplemented by State schemes. Welfare schemes of the Government of India will also be popularized and implemented in the above manner.
The traditional industries in Kerala particularly coir, handlooms, khadi, bamboo-based, handicrafts, artisanal and village (cottage) industries etc. are plagued by problems of high cost production, low quality, absence of diversified product range, inappropriate technology and incapacity for professional marketing and export. Increased mechanization, large scale of production and global competition in quality and price pose the threat of massive redundancies in these high employment sectors of Kerala, which may result in poverty and social problems.
To attract private sector investment badly needed in these sectors, a special scheme of investment subsidy with adequate incentives will be implemented, so that our reliance on cooperatives heavily dependents financially on the government for investment (often to the extent of 95% or more) will be reversed. Agencies created primarily as apex organizations and for marketing of traditional industry products like coir, handloom, khadi, cottage industry products, handicrafts etc. will be given programme funding rather than the non- conditional grants and share participation given in the past in order to avoid wastage of scarce Government resources on high overheads and to ensure delivery of their services (particularly marketing) in the most cost effective manner, using private sector finance and initiative at the retail level.
The development and production of value added, diversified and innovative products from traditional industries is proposed to be done by a cluster based approach which will ensure the critical mass for forward integration. Marketing, both domestic and global, is to be promoted by developing brand equity for Kerala’s traditional industry products. Research and development to create new processes and appropriate machinery will be funded on a project-to-project basis with the provision for success fees linked to effective commercialization and commissioning.

Spurious medicine scare: Are they faking it?

KM Gopakumar/New Delhi

Although spurious medicines are in circulation, the threat is not as serious as it is made out by big multi-national pharma companies

Initiatives to address the issue of spurious medicine/counterfeit medicine at national and international level is a classic case of propaganda based law and policy making without concrete evidence. It is a fact that the problem of medicine with compromised quality, safety and efficacy (QSE) can endanger the life of patients. No one is denying the circulation of medicines with compromised QSE. However, the dispute is with regard to the scare mongering and the absence of evidence to show the prevalence of the problem. There is an attempt to see it in binary medicines with QSE and medicines with compromised QSE. This approach would lead to hushing up the real issues i.e. availability of affordable medicines with QSE and may help to further the commercial interest by enhancing intellectual property (IP) enforcement standards especially those related to the trademark and patents. Naturally, pharmaceutical multi-national corporations (MNCs), the first beneficiary, are the vociferous campaigner as well as supporter of the campaign to "combat counterfeit " medicines. This aggressive campaign if translated into law and policy may hamper availability of affordable medicines with QSE.

It is important to have a nuanced approach to the issue. The circulation of medicines with compromised QSE is not a black and white story. Manufacturing and distribution of medicine is one of the most regulated industries primarily due to the public health implications including the safety of the patients. All activities starting from manufacture to distribution are regulated through licensing. Licensing requirements are imposed on all actors starting form manufacturer, wholesale dealer and retail chemists. Further, guidelines in the form of good manufacturing, distribution and quality checking practices are in place to regulate procurement of raw material, transportation and storage of finished formulations. Anyone indulging in any activities viz. manufacturing or distribution of medicines without licence is treated as an offence under many national laws, including Drugs and Cosmetic Act.

As a result, there can be two scenarios: First, production and distribution of medicines with compromised QSE by license holders. Second, production and distribution of medicines with compromised QSE. The second situation is already a criminal offence. The first scenario is more complicated and need nuanced approach because QSR of medicine can be compromised in many ways.

QSE can get compromised manufacturing, distribution and storage stage. For instance, QSE of a medicine produced with all quality standards as per the good manufacturing practises may get compromised due to poor transporting and storage facilities. Similarly, QSE may get compromised due to poor quality of raw materials used or due to technical problems in the manufacturing process. QSE can also get compromised without following the good manufacturing practices or poor quality packaging materials. At times QSE is affected due to poor label information, including false information on dosage. For instance, a label information states the dosage of tablet as 50 mg but the actual does is either below or above than 50 mg. Even QSE may be affected even at the hand of patient's hand in the absence of proper storage instructions. The worst case of medicines with compromised QSE is the production and distribution of medicines without any active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) or inadequate API. This should be dealt with stringently without any margin of appreciation. Hence, medicine manufacturer alone cannot be held liable. Each situation demands special particular law and policy intervention and proper incentive and disincentive need to be built in the regulatory system. Therefore, it is not proper to dump all such medicines as counterfeit or spurious products.

Most of the regulatory system requires the manufacturer to provide such information on the label to enable trace and track the origin of medicine. Now, many new technologies are available for track and trace mechanism. However, most of the new technologies are patented and therefore costly to use. Therefore, it is important to use cost effective technologies to ensure affordability.

In policy circles, terms like substandard, spurious, falsely labelled, falsified and counterfeit are used to refer medicines with compromised QSE. One can also find terms like fake medicine, fraudulent medicine. Technically speaking all these terminologies are different and cannot be used interchangeably.

The hidden agenda

The MNC campaign does not follow the above mentioned nuanced approach and just conveys the message that "combating counterfeit medicines" because counterfeit drugs kill. (Spurious medicines in the Indian context). Some of the brochures convey the following messages: Counterfeits have harmful effects on patients' health and can kill; Counterfeits frustrate efforts to deal with high burdens of disease; Counterfeits undermine health care systems; Increased international collaboration is essential to defeat counterfeiting; Combating counterfeiters requires acting at the same time on legislation, regulations, enforcement, technology and communication strategies.

The trap is lies in the word 'counterfeit', which is legally associated with the criminal infringement of trademark. There are two types of infringement of trademarks viz. civil and criminal. A criminal trademark infringement occurs when someone uses a trademark (literal copying of trademark) without the permission of the trademark owner. For instance, someone uses the brand name "Crocin" to sell paracetomol without the permission of the owner of the trademark i.e Glaxo SmithKline Beecham. This is treated as criminal infringement of trademark. However, if someone uses the brand name 'Procin" instead of "Crocin" then it may amount to a civil infringement of trademark but not a criminal offence. The only remedy in that case for Glaxo is to file civil suit and obtain an order against the use of the word "Procin". By projecting counterfeit medicine as a threat to public health, which is essentially an intellectual property issue, MNCs want to use Drug Regulatory Authorities to enforce intellectual property enforcement. In order to achieve this objective MNCs are conflating the QSE issues of medicines with the IP enforcement and advocating for a set of law and policy changes, which would strengthen the IP enforcement.

The hidden agenda behind 'combat counterfeit' campaign at the international level is the enhancement of IP enforcement standards. After the conclusion of the TRIPS Agreement, which obligated all WTO Member States with a few different transitions periods to least developed countries (LDCs) to accept common minimum standard for IP protection and enforcement standards. Immediately, after the conclusion of the TRIPS Agreement MNCs and developed countries together pushing for TRIPS Plus IP protection and enforcement standards through various forums, including Free Trade Agreements ( FTA). The objective of the TRIPS Plus is to close the policy space available on intellectual properties due to the flexibilities in the TRIPS Agreement. Unlike the earlier initiatives, the new ones, especially IP protection and enforcement, are pushed through unilateral, bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral level. At the multilateral level, various multilateral organisations were used to set up multi-stakeholder platforms on IP enforcement viz. WCO (SECURE), WHO (IMPACT), INTERPOL (IP Crime Unit) etc. WHO's IP enforcement platform known as International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeit Task Force (IMPACT) deserves the special mention. This was launched in 2006. G8 Declaration of 2007 states that "Trade in pirated and counterfeit goods threatens health, safety and security of consumers worldwide, particularly in poorer countries. In this regard we welcome work on the WHO initiative to implement the International Medicinal Products Anti-Counterfeit Task Force (IMPACT)." Thus G8 declaration makes it clear that IMPACT is an initiative to enforce IP. The multi-stake holder platform was launched even without the approval WHO governing bodies. Now, the WHO Member States are engaged in a discussion to address the QSE concerns related to medicines and the disengagement of WHO form IMPACT as well as the dropping of the word counterfeit to refer toe QSE of medicine. The upcoming World Health Assembly is to approve Member State mechanism to examine the QSE and access issues of medicine. Raising concerns on WHO's involvement on counterfeit medicines 52 civil society organisations (CSOs) wrote to WHO in November on these issues.

Another important issue related to counterfeit/spurious medicine initiative is the lack of evidence. According to Prof. Kevin Outtersson and Ryan Smith, not only that the evidence for counterfeit drugs is anecdotal rather than empirical but that the only comprehensive collection point for global data on counterfeiting is the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI)-a trade organisation created by the security directors of 14 global drug companies that does not make data available to the public". Thus, there is no independently verifiable data available globally to determine the degree of prevalence of counterfeit/spurious problem. According to humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, substandard medicines represent far larger risk to public health than spurious medicine. Further, WHO data does not make any difference between substandard, spurious or counterfeit. Therefore, policy makers are not informed the real nature of each problem. As a result, it blocks a nuanced law and policy reforms. MNCs make use of this situation to push their agenda.

Another important problem is that counterfeit/spurious medicine camping mainly focus on stringent and law and its enforcement along with complementary use of technologies to track and trace. There are many technologies existing, including radio frequency technologies to track the final user. Many of these technologies protected under and therefore use of these technologies is not easy and impacts the price of medicines. Similarly many solutions advocated by the MNCs campaigners would result in the high cost of medicine and squeeze generic industry. Therefore the measures on QSE need to be evidence based and should not increase the cost of medicines.

It is not strange that the campaign is not looking at the high price of and unethical promotion of medicines, which are identified as one of the important reasons for the circulation of medicines by fly by night operators.

In India too, the picture is not different from the global context. The campaign on spurious drugs started with a few reports in 2003 citing a WHO study, which WHO later denies even the existence of such a study. According to the alleged WHO study, 35% of global counterfeit medicine produced in India and nearly 20% of medicines available in the domestic market is spurious. In response to the press reports, the Health Ministry appointed a committee under the Chairmanship of then Director General RA Mashelkar to examine the quantity of spurious medicines and strengthening of drug regulation. The Committee recommended capital punishment for those who produce spurious medicines. However, the Government reduced the capital punishment to life imprisonment and amended Drugs and Cosmetic Act accordingly.

Of late, a new partnership has been formed in India which is known as Partnership for Safe Medicine. This new partnership is listed as the India chapter of for Partnership for Safe Medicine USA, a partnership sponsored by pharmaceutical MNCs. Partnership for Safe Medicine USA lists Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures Association of America (Ph RMA) and Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI) as its partners. Further, two board of directors are from industry, one belongs to Pharmaceutical Security Institute, one is the global policy head of Merck & Co and one is from PhRMA.

The way forward

There is a need for a cautious approach and both the government and civil society organisations should not be carried away by the MNC propaganda. Law and policy makers should go beyond headlines and really look at the nature of QSE compromise and make appropriate classification of medicines instead of branding them as spurious or counterfeit. First, the policy response should focus a public health approach to address the genuine public health concerns emerging out of medicines with compromised QSE. Second, the thrust of the policy response should ensure availability of affordable medicines with QSE. Third, strengthen the monitoring capacity of drug regulatory authorities at the central and state level including their coordination action. Four, use the low cost information technology tools to increase the track and trace capabilities’ of regulatory agencies including their capability to recall medicines of compromised QSE. Fifth, increase the consumer awareness through appropriate communication and education strategy. Private actors should not be allowed to carry out such consumer education due to the potential conflict of interest.

(The author is Member, National Working Group on Patent Laws.)

Kalam bets on Koodankulam safety

S Remadevi/Koodankulam

Former President's visit has changed the tone of the discourse but protesters still sticking to their guns

10 suggestions by Abdul Kalam

1. A four lane highway should be constructed connecting Koodankulam and the area covering 30 km around it like Madurai, Tirunalveli, Kanyakumari.

2. World class hospital with 500 beds capacity, and mobile health services for locals shall be provided.

3. 10,000 jobs shall be given for the people living close to the area.

4. Bank loans at 25 % subsidised rate must be given to youth.

5. Basic amenties like green house, multi-storeyed apertments and playgronds shall be given.

6. Motor boats, cold storages and small lodging zone must be built for fishermen.

7. 10 lakh litres of drinking water should be provided by desaltination of sea water.

8. Five schools with hostel facility shall be established covering CBSE, State government syllabus.

9. All villages must be connected with Broad band internet connectivity.

10. Disater management center and protection forces must be established.

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam has achieved what the central government's assurances failed to do. The former president's claim that the controversial Koodankulam plant was safe and there is nothing to worry seems to have cut the ice with the villagers who were protesting against nuclear installation.

Soon after Abdul Kalam's certificate, the Congress and the centre government intensified its attack on the civil society organization spearheading the agitation.

Kalam had recently visited the nuclear power project site and endorsed the foolproof safety measures put in place. After the visit, he told mediapersons that people should have faith in the government and there was no cause of worry. His endorsement had changed the tune of the discourse and a large section of the people was carried away by the benefits of the plant.

Kalam suggested the development of surrounding villages and creating 10,000 jobs.

Tamil Nadu government has been moving cautiously as it does not want to be seen as working against the public sentiment. Chief minister Jayalalitha had attacked the centre for not coming clean on its commitment on allaying security concerns of the people, though the state government is in favour of the plant. DMK chief M Karunanidhi, who has warned against going ahead with the project without addressing people's fears, said, "Kalam is a former president and thinks before he talks. The Centre should take his views into account and the panel constituted by the Centre should also consider his statements".

Kalam said, "Don't have even nano-sized doubt about the nuclear-plant".

Kalam's suggestions to the Centre included development of the region where the plant is located, including construction of a four-lane highway connecting Kudankulam and the villages situated in a 30km radius with Madurai, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari; a world-class hospital with over 500 beds; mobile medical facilities to locals; creation of 10,000 jobs for villagers living within the 30km to 60km radius of the plant; and bank loans for youth with 25% subsidized interest rates.

The former president also suggested creating infrastructure facilities like construction of green houses, multi-storeyed housing complexes and playgrounds. Kalam also outlined the reasons of the protest thus: "local residents' truthful questions, dynamics of geo-political and market forces and the people, who are not thinking that the nation's interest is more important than their interest."

However, a section of the protesters still hold on to protest even though the government has been at pains to drive its point home. Earlier, a15-member panel constituted by the Centre met in Chennai and took a decision to interact with the agitators at the earliest.

K Balu, former director of Nuclear Waste Management Group at Barc and a member of the committee, told TOI, "We have with us experts constituted by the Union government and we will meet whomsoever the Tamil Nadu government wants us to meet in Tirunelveli on Tuesday. It is very unfortunate that even when someone like Kalam says he personally inspected and is satisfied with the safety of the nuclear plant, it has failed to convince the protesters. It is necessary for us to find out what are the issues they are afraid of."

But many comments supporting Kalam's view on the Kudankulam nuclear power project have been posted on social networking sites and web portals. "The public perception appears to be changing. I can see that a lot of people, who had angrily reacted to the government on the issue, are changing their views now. They believe Kalam is a credible leader and scientist," said a Chennai-based software professional S Nagaraj. "Dr Kalam has received hundreds of mails appreciating his intervention at the right time," said Kalam's adviser V Ponraj.

Meanwhile, Udayakumar, anti-nuclear activist, has termed the allegations against him as baseless. "Rumours are being spread to discredit people's movement. We have been working here for more than 10 years. It is true that the movement gained momentum in the last few months. Following the Fukushima nuclear accident that took place in March 2011, the fishermen have awakening near a nuclear facility and are now demanding their right to live peacefully. The most recent trigger was the announcement of a mock drill when the public were asked to cover their face and mouth and run for cover following an alarm. The long list of do's and don'ts released by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India has finally enlightened them of the perilous situation."

Another protester said, "The government has failed to instill confidence in us. The plant is unsafe. The safety analysis report and the site evaluation study have not been made public. No public hearing was held. It's an authoritarian project that has been imposed on the people. There have been serious lapses in the environmental impact assessment. A report commissioned by the Russian government reveals that there are 20-25 defects in the reactor design."

Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church, which has been on the forefront of the movement against the plant, is slowly distancing itself. There has been pressure on the church also not to play an active role.

On September 22, the Tamil Nadu government passed a resolution urging the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the central government to halt work at Koodankulam till the people's fears are allayed.

According to NPCIL officials despite the resolution, the Tamil Nadu government is keen on knowing the project progress as it would ease to a major extent the state's power crunch. NPCIL officials told that the state government had written to the company to take necessary measures to increase the power generation at the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) located at Kalpakkam.

Tea Board neglect small tea farmers

Sankar Ray/ Kolkata

More than 86 per cent of small growers in India continue to be outside the ambit of regulations…

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its performance audit report (PAR) on Tea Board of India, the apex monitoring authority on tea economy which is a mix of agriculture and industry, indicted the latter for virtually looking down upon several thousand small tea growers or tea farmers who sell tea-leaves to large tea companies which in turn convert them into made-teas for the market.

"Even after more than five decades of existence, Tea Board has failed to discharge even its basic regulatory role effectively. More than 86 per cent of small growers in India continue to be outside the ambit of regulations by the Tea Board. System of inspection for regulating the activities of various shareholders was weak and non-transparent. Tea Board was not able to ensure submission of business information by stake holders so as to exercise effective control on their activities", the CAG stated in its PAR, submitted to the department of commerce, Government of India. The DoC oversees and monitors the functioning of Tea Board.

Small-growers have a conspicuous presence due to a strong co-operative movement in Tamil Nadu, Nilgiris in particular, unlike in two largest tea-producing states, Assam and West Bengal .There are co-operative factories in Nilgiris to small tea growers with very small holdings sell their produce at remunerative prices. They formed a central organisation of 15 Industrial Cooperative Tea Factories - Tamilnadu Small Tea Growers Industrial Cooperative Tea Factories' Federation Limited (INDCOSERVE). In fact, the Indcoserve and Industrial Cooperative Tea Factories are the largest producers and sellers of tea in Nilgiris with a 17 per cent share in total production in the state.

The Indcoserve set up a network of services for co-operative tea factories along with warehousing facilities in Coonoor, Coimbatore and Cochin. Supply of fertilizers and jute bags for packing of tea, machinery spares, and other inputs to the small tea grower members through tea factories are a part of the network. Small wonder, Tea Board admitted in its reply, 16.904 small tea estates have been officially registered and 75,332 are registered provisionally.

In contrast, DoC concedes, "In Assam, most of the small growers do not possess the required land documents to establish their ownership. Because of this reason, as against, 69,000 small growers in Assam, as of date, only 3943 growers have been registered with the Tea Board.

Rather, the situation is slightly better in northern part of West Bengal, the tea-growing segment of the state . Small tea growers in north Bengal have made an all-out effort to form self-help groups and subsequently, co-operative societies to set up bought-leaf factories in order to generate better financial resources. They formed a body, United Forum of Small Tea Growers Association which submitted a proposal to the Tea Board for setting up a bought-leaf factory under a co-operative ownership.

However all this is in a very rudimentary stage. There are about 28,000 small tea growers producing 225 million kg of tealeaves on an average a year. The Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore and Tea Board organised a workshop for the small growers a couple of years back. It was agreed that new bushes produce good quality teas, provided proper adoption techniques are imparted to the growers. Self-help groups the UFSTGA envisions, is of Kenyan model.

Tea Board secretariat is sympathetic towards small-growers but large estates that dominate the Indian Tea Association and Tea Association of India are a hindrance to self-reliance of small growers. This powerful lobby wants to keep buying green leaves at low prices and mint high profits using the under-utilised capacities in in-situ factories in large tea estates. Tea Board has granted financial assistance to the state governments of Assam, West Bengal and Tripura for a survey for enumerating small tea growers. The reports are awaited. Hopefully, Tea Board will submit a plan for a comprehensive development of small tea sector in view of the growing demand for the non-alcoholic and medicinally strong beverage in India and abroad.