People’s movement on water only way out!

                                                         K.A.Badarinath

A peoples’ movement to conserve fresh water is perhaps the only way to address the key issue of shortages in this vital resource.

If the sheer abuse of this scarce resource is any indication, we are bound to face water riots in parts of this country as seen sporadically owing to localized shortages in some parts.

Warning bells, red herrings and wakeup calls seem to have not worked thus far on judicious utilization, conservation and development of water resources as per a design in last 67 years of independence.

At every level, each sector has shown utmost disregard for managing our fresh water resources while the population continues to expand beyond 1.22 billion with no let up on either usage or abuse.

Last Sunday, in his “mann ki baat”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did make out a case for peoples’ movement for managing and developing water resources. This was in response to some engineering and medicine students taking a stand to have a bath only when required and with minimum water.

Apart from people’s movement for scientific water usage of water, policy intervention is what’s most important to move up the ground water level. The government’s campaign to develop 50,000 check dams and village-based water storage centres is worth pursuing if we were to manage water shortages that could virtually catapult into a crisis unmanageable in few years.

Water management, usage, conservation and development is not an issue faced only by a populous country like India. US space agency, NASA findings suggest that more than half the 37 largest aquifers globally are fast depleting and virtually beyond redemption.

As per NASA satellite imaging and studies, water table in India continued to deplete by 0.3 metres each year thereby seeking policy makers to sit up and search for solutions.

Hence, Prime Minister Modi’s call for deriving more in terms of farm output from every drop of water cannot just remain a slogan. Technological intervention that would mend the way we use our precious natural fresh water resources is the immediate necessity.

World Economic Forum and UN’s water development report have pointed to the fact that water would be the biggest challenge for humanity, given that fresh water shortages would touch an alarming 40 percent globally in 15 years.

If this were to happen, it would be a larger problem than terrorism or armed conflicts happening in parts of the world.

From India’s point of view, re-designing our farming techniques, industrial and domestic consumption of water should be relooked at to provide comprehensive solutions for impending water crisis.

Apart from check dams, the government at centre and states should take the lead in reviving the water bodies that have dried up or desilt our lakes, rivers and flowing water resources. Secondly, linking rivers for replenishment and judicious usage must be hastened up. Suresh Prabhu as a central minister in erstwhile Vajpayee government did make several important suggestions apart from drawing up a holistic plan. This needs to be dusted up immediately and put into action.

Thirdly, as experimented in several villages of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharastra, building water banks can be done immediately. Only members of these banks can withdraw water as per a community policy that can be put together locally.

Fourthly, involving the communities, non-government organisations, youth & students apart from gram sabhas in water management is of paramount importance.

Fifthly, one needs to consider an effective pricing policy towards water only to dissuade companies and commercial establishments from exploitation of this vital resource. For drinking purposes, no one what so ever should be charged as a matter of human right.

Banking the women

                                                         Lakshmi Singh

With access to financial services like bank accounts, loans, etc, women’s bargaining power in society increases 

Our country is positioned at the 29th rank among 146 countries across the globe on the basis of Gender Inequality Index.  It is ironical that a country, which has recently acclaimed the status of the first Asian country to accomplish its Mars mission in the maiden attempt,  There has been amelioration in the position of women, but their true empowerment is still awaited. While the world has achieved progress towards gender equality  and women’s empowerment under the Millennium Development Goals, women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world. Women are considered a taboo and still are not allowed in a few temples with nationwide debates discussing this. Experts say that women can achieve gender parity only by 2135. 

We all know that women constitute half the population and so their equal participation in society is imperative for sustainable development. As long as a financial security is not achieved, their emancipation becomes impossible. Financial inclusion plays a crucial role in helping provide numerous benefits through the strengthening of the banking system. In countries like Mexico, Government has made schemes for women which are directly connected to their bank accounts.

There is no denying that the banking sector plays a critical role in bringing financially excluded people into the formal financial sector. Many government initiatives towards financial inclusion are implemented through banks.

In one of the Financial and Digital Inclusion Project report India ranked ninth among 21 countries in financial and digital inclusion efforts. This was based on four dimensions of financial inclusion: country commitment, mobile capacity, regulatory environment, and adoption of traditional and digital financial services.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the biggest financial inclusion initiative in the world, is a case in point. PMJDY is enabling citizens at the grassroots to perform financial transactions and keep their hard-earned money safe. A year after the scheme was implemented, its success has highlighted the enormous role that financial inclusion programmes can play in the growth of the economy. Today, atleast 17.5 crore bank accounts have been opened in which women have deposited more than Rs 22,000 crore in them. Moreover zero-balance accounts under PMJDY have declined from 76 per cent to 45.74 per cent since its inception.

 Many of the private sector banks have come forward in the rural markets through microfinance institutions.

Some of the State governments like Rajasthan have taken the lead. In Rajasthan, financial inclusion forms a critical component in the form of  Bhamashah Yojana that connects itself  with women’s empowerment. The scheme was launched in 2008 based on the premise that conditional and direct transfer has the highest impact of government spending on poverty reduction. Monetary benefits to which families were entitled under a number of welfare schemes were transferred to the bank accounts of the women in the family.

It was the first direct benefit transfer scheme in the country. At that time, 50 lakh families were enrolled and 29.07 lakh bank accounts were opened under which Rs 161.49 crore had been transferred in 10.76 lakh accounts.

In 2014, the Bhamashah initiative was refurbished with a broader coverage of gender empowerment, financial inclusion and family-based benefits. It now provides end-to-end delivery system for individuals and various family-based benefits of the government’s social welfare scheme like the PDS, pension funds, health insurance, MNREGA and scholarships through a centralised e-government platform by leveraging the enhanced electronic infrastructure of the state.

These transfers are made to the bank account of the woman of the house through the Bhamashah smart card, which also provides biometric identification of family members. The card is also a co-branded debit card with the participation of several banks.

Many of the NGOs have taken active step in this direction. The Mahila banks in a state like Jharkhand where women are not considered other than child rearing is an innovative solution in a dominant patriarchal society.

Alternative for India Development (AID), an Indian NGO that works to better the lives of tribal communities. AID established Mahila Bank in 2007. Mahila Bank is a unique twist on the mobile banking trend that had been sweeping the development sector. Instead of simply providing accounts to women across these communities, AID employs women from the community to manage local ‘branches’ in easy to access locations. When applying for a bank account, these branches use biometric technology to ensure the bank accounts are secure and may only be accessed by the owner.  Additionally, AID employs a cadre of local women who provide training, and lead community meetings in the scattered villages across Jharkhand on the various schemes available and why banking is important.

The merits of financial inclusion are deeply rooted in citizen empowerment.  Financial inclusion can be a powerful agent for strong and inclusive growth of women and their empowerment

Street children falling victims to drug menace

                         Lakshmi Singh

 A study suggests 27 per cent of call centre workers in the country use drugs. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh today have the highest number of school children using drugs.

Drug menace among children belonging to the upper class is not a new phenomenon. Earlier, Goa was a hub of drugs. Even in some high-end parties in major metros, drugs keep guests on a high. Use of cocaine and mind-altering amphetamines has become very common.

Technology has also helped spread and access to drugs. You can order it via internet and get it home-delivered. India is now a hub of drugs sold through illegal internet pharmacies and courier companies.

A study suggests 27 per cent of call centre workers in the country use drugs. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh today have the highest number of school children using drugs. About 70 per cent of the youth in Punjab are addicts.

What is alarming is tobacco, cannabis, inhalants, sedatives, heroin and opium are some of the common items which are consumed among children on streets, according to a study by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

Some of the findings of the study were that over 50 per cent children living on streets reported bad or very bad relationship or no relationship with the family.

The percentage of inhalant users  was higher in the children living on streets than in children living at home and the lifetime and last one year usage of opium was higher in the children living on streets than in children living at home.

The study "Assessment of pattern, profile and correlates of substance use among children in India" conducted through the National Dependent Treatment Centre at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, covered 135 sites across 27 states and two Union Territories with a sample size of 4,024 children.

If declining agricultural incomes and increasing unemployment have made drug addiction a culture in the states like Punjab, the irony of street kids are broken homes which forced them to reach the capital to get addicted into drugs due to torture by police and poverty.

Drugs are so easily available to school kids to street kids. The natural drugs like marijuana and hashish are mostly famous among teenagers as it fits their monthly pocket money. What has revolutionised the market are more lethal synthetic substances, popular with a generation that now experiments with cocktails simply put, a mix and match of drugs.

Until a few months earlier, a new and cheap drug Mephedrone, commonly called meow meow was legally available and could even be ordered online. A poor man’s cocaine, this white powder cost just Rs.150 per gram. With almost 80,000 children between the ages of thirteen and sixteen believed to be addicted to meow meow, the drug was banned in February this year. But the market for Cocaine, which costs Rs. 3,000 for a gram is only expanding, with increasing popularity amongst the rich and glamourous. It is also one of the most dangerous, laced with unknown substances, including powdered glass. The purer it is, the higher it costs. If you want the best, you could even be paying Rs. 20,000 per gram.

Most of the kids who were found selling books flowers, clean cars, beg and steal at the traffic signals in Delhi were aged between the age of 8 and 17 years. A survey conducted by the NGO Salaam Balak Trust says that most of the kids reached the capital to either escape an alcoholic father or a step mother who was to push them into prostitution. They took a train to Delhi, got snuffed by gangs roaming the platforms and since then, it has been a story of rape, torture, drugs and starvation.

The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) came out with shocking figures of crimes against children: 5,484 children were raped and 1,408 others killed in India last year. In the Capital alone, 29 children were murdered and 304 raped in 2010. But these figures do not include even a fraction of crimes committed against street children. "Not even 10% cases of rape, sodomy or murder of street children are recorded. Who is going to file an FIR for these children who have been abandoned by society and trapped by gangs?" asks Prabhakar Goswami, Director of i-India, a Jaipur-based NGO which runs a helpline for street children.

The NCRB figures are based on FIR and daily diary reports and, therefore, hide more than they reveal as the worst victims of child abuse are not counted at all. "Street children are abuse physically, mentally and sexually on a daily basis. They get trapped in a cycle of abuse that leads to drugs and crimes, but no one is bothered," says Sanjay Gupta, Director of Chetna, an NGO working for street children in Delhi. "In Delhi, there are at least five lakh street children, but in government records, less than 50,000 exist."

More than 20,000 people have committed suicide due to drug addiction related issues in the last 10 years. There’s an urgent call to treat this as the epidemic. Else rural or urban, this calls for urgent attention or else we’ll soon be facing India’s lost generation.

A good U-turn

                                              Mukesh R

Narendra Modi government was in news recently for taking U-turn on its stand on the previous UPA’s flagship programme for rural employment MGNREGA. But thankfully, it was not a bad U-Turn. In one of his speeches in parliament Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, his political acumen says, he should continue with the MGNREGA.

According to media reports that cited a circular, the proposal was to amend the NREG Act by restricting the area of work and altering the labour-material cost ratio. The plan was to limit the scheme that guarantees 100 days of employment to the rural poor to just 2,500 blocks as against 6,500 blocks. Further the wage-material cost ratio was to be altered in favour of material - from 60:40 to 51:49. What this means is that until now 60 percent of the expenditure was spent as wages and 40 percent as cost of material.

As per the proposal, the spending on wages would drop to almost the same as that spent on material, which would mean a reduction in the funds set aside for wages. Moreover, there were also plans to curtail the central government's fund disbursal to states, with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah even seeing the allocation to the state being halved.

These were the proposals made by former Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari. Now new minister Birender Singh has told Rajya Sabha that there will not be any change in the scheme.

"There is no ambiguity about the government's intention. The scheme will continue in all the 6,500 blocks," Singh said, allaying all apprehensions that the new government may be killing the scheme.

According to a PTI report, he also said all necessary funds have been released and assured the 60:40 ratio on labour and material would not be altered.

What prompted this U-turn from the proposed amendments is a hue and cry raised by a section of economists, rights activists and other political parties. According to a Firstpost report, the economists, including Jayati Ghosh of JNU and Anirban Kar of Delhi School of Economics, had shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him not to make changes to the scheme that provides livelihood for about 50 million households.

Whatever the reason, the change in stance is welcome because going ahead with the decision to alter the scheme would have been a flawed one given the signs of weakness in India's rural economy.

Global slowdown triggered by China offers India a golden opportunity

                                                               K R Sudhaman


India is in a sweet spot as global economy is not looking good in the face of market turmoil in China. A global recession triggered by poor showing of European economy had hit badly the export led growth model of China, whose economy grew by 6.9 per cent in 2015, the slowest in two decades. Following this slowdown, high commodity prices had started correcting exerting more pressure on China down turn. The massive over investment in China in steel, cement, shipbuilding, petrochemicals, real estate and other infrastructure sectors began to burst. This volatality in equity and commodity markets did not augur well for the global and Chinese economies. Global economy may not be in a crisis as in 2008 during the financial meltdown but it is certainly not out of the woods and outlook for global economy is certainly bearish in 2016.
In such a scenario, there will certainly be some ripple effect on India but there will be no menace as is happening elsewhere in the world. This is because India is now a reviving economy with strong fundamentals. The current account deficit is below one per cent of GDP, Inflation is down though there is some increase in food inflation lately and foreign exchange reserved comfortable and swelling. The fiscal deficit has been reined in and is withing manageable limit of less than four per cent and is falling further partly because sharp fall in commodity prices particularly oil, which has pushed down drastically subsidy bill. It has also helped in increasing indirect tax revenue because increase in excise duty to pre-crisis level.
This is the time for India to get its act together and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rightly put it at the World Economic Forum summit at Davos. Exuding confidence on the Indian Economy, Jaitley said India would utilise the headroom available to get some additional growth engines going through efforts to revive private investments.
Several speakers at the ongoing Davos Summit in stressing that India will be the next growth engine of the World with the picture in China and Europe gloomy. It is not very good in US as well. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has aptly summed up India's comfortable situation. He termed India as a recovering economy, despite weak global markets and two consecutive years of poor rain. As these things turn, growth will get stronger, he said. When the growth rate is falling elsewhere in the World, India's growth is increasing to become the fastest growing economy in the world. Of course India is growing to its potential as yet at 9-10 per cent annually. For that to happen, India needs to push investments in infrastructure and kick-start private investment to get the economy firing all fronts. The fall in commodity prices will help in pushing investments in infrastructure as input costs in steel, cement and the like will come down substantially.
The General Budget to be presented to Parliament by Jaitley on February 29 provides an opportunity to push reforms so as to get its house to convert the global challenges to opportunity to take the Indian Economy to new high. This is a golden opportunity for India to become an economic power. We had similar opportunity in 2004-05 and we missed the bus. Hope we do not miss the bus this time. If we get it right this time the 21^st century would belong to India, which is not only in sweet spot but also it has has the demographic dividend with 65 per cent of the 1.25 billion population below the age of 35 years. The country is geared to cash in on this once in a lifetime opportunity. The general budget, particularly game changing tax reforms like GST, bankruptcy law, make in India hold the key.
So far India has not been able to grow to its potential barring 2004-08 when the economy clocked nearly a double-digit annual growth. One of the major reasons for growing to our potential is corruption at all levels right from the top to bottom. This is a menace that is deep-rooted in the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed lot of promise to end this menace, when he secured majority in Lok Sabha elections in 2014, first time any party has done in the last 30 years. But so far there is no visible effort to end this corruption menace so as to ensure the economy marched ahead.



(K R Sudhaman, who has been a journalist for over 40 years)



 

कृषि भूमि पर महिलाओं का बढ़ता अधिकार

                                                        आशीष कुमार ‘अंशु’

महिलाओं के अधिकार क्षेत्र में देश की इस समय 01 करोड़ 65 लाख हेक्टेयर कृषि भूमि है। जो देश की कुल कृषि योग्य भूमि का 10.30 फीसदी हिस्सा है


विश्व बैक द्वारा हाल मंे किए गए अध्ययन से यह बात स्पष्ट हुई है कि भारत की कृषि भूमि पर अब महिलाओं का अधिकार बढ़ा है। 2001-11 के प्राप्त आंकड़ों को आधार बनाकर किए गए अध्ययन में पाया गया है कि ऐसी जमीन जिस पर महिलाओं का अधिकार है, जिस पर उनका नियंत्रण है, जिस जमीन पर वे खुद खेती कर रहीं हैं, ऐसी जमीन में इस दशक में तेजी से वृद्धि हुई है।
वैसे इस तेजी से हुई वृद्धि के बाद भी महिलाओं के कब्जे में दस फीसदी ही जमीन है। महिलाओं की भागीदारी की बात करें तो कृषि भूमि पर इसमंे 36 फीसदी की वृद्धि हुई है। वहीं इस दशक में उनके नियंत्रण के भूमि क्षेत्रफल में 24 फीसदी की बढ़ोत्तरी हुई है। अब यह जानना दिलचस्प होगा कि महिलाओं में जहां मालिकाना हक को लेकर 36 फीसदी की वृद्धी दर्ज की गई, वहीं पुरुषों के बीच यह वृद्धि महज 13 फीसदी है। इस बीच महिलाओं का जमीन पर अधिकार जहां 24 फीसदी बढ़ा है, वहीं पुरुषों का कृषि भूमि पर अधिकार 02 फीसदी कम हुआ है।
महिलाओं के नियंत्रण मंे देश की कृषि भूमि की बढ़ोत्तरी एक शुभ संकेत है। भारत मंे हम जानते हैं कि पारंपरिक तौर से महिलाआंे को पुरुषांे के मुकाबले कम अधिकार मिले है। यह बात विश्व बैंक के अध्ययन से भी साबित हुई है कि महिलाओं का जमीन पर अधिकार होगा तो यह उनके आत्मविश्वास को बढ़ाएगा। उन्हें आत्मनिर्भर बनाएगा। इससे देश में उनकी आर्थिक सामाजिक स्थिति में भी सुधार आएगा।
महिलाआंे के अधिकार क्षेत्र में देश की इस समय 01 करोड़ 65 लाख हेक्टेयर कृषि भूमि है। जो देश की कुल कृषि योग्य भूमि का 10.30 फीसदी हिस्सा है।
इस अध्ययन के सार्वजनिक होने के कुछ दिनों पहले ग्रामीण विकास राज्य मंत्री सुदर्शन भगत ने कहा था कि सरकार स्त्री अधिकारों के लिए देश व्यापी जागरूकता का एक कार्यक्रम प्रारंभ करने वाली है। जो महिलाओं के सामाजिक आर्थिक अधिकार, कानूनी अधिकार और भूमि पर अधिकार को लेकर समाज में जो पूर्वाग्रह और भेदभाव की सोच है, उसे दूर करने का प्रयास करेगी।
महिलाओं के बढ़ते कदमों को प्रमाणित करता यह अध्ययन बदलाव की आहट है, इसे सुने और इस बदलाव का हम सब मिलकर स्वागत करें। क्योंकि स्त्री पुरुष बराबरी सिर्फ राजनीतिक नारा बनकर ना रह जाए।

Gloom & doom on farm front

                                                    K.A.Badarinath

Second consecutive drought owing to monsoon failure has brought gloom to our farmers and rural distress is on spread across the country.

While our worthy Parliamentarians slug it out on “unworthy” issues during the month-long winter session, the life in rural India continues to become worse with spread of monsoon misery.

The narrative on farm front continues to chronicle pain and suffering of our farmers while Delhites are worried about rather mundane issue of an odd and even numbers plan for movement of their cars beginning 2016.

Cotton and basmati growers in Punjab to sugarcane farmers in Western Uttar Pradesh, the story is that of utter gloom and pain with no state compensation or insurance companies coming to their aid. White fly attack and low prices has worsened farmers’ lives in Punjab. Non-payment of sugarcane arrears has pushed farmers in Western Uttar Pradesh to despair.

Same is the story of farmers in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Maharastra where they continue to be trampled by the vicious money lenders given monsoon failures.

Low commodity prices, virus attack and failure of monsoon has ensured regular reports of farmers suicides while the states and centre have become mute spectators to their desperate acts of ending lives.

When Indian Express detailed the suicides of five farmers in 30 days across the drought prone Nabarangpur in Odisha, the district’s officials and Naveen Pattanaik government in Bhubaneshwar claimed there were other reasons for these deaths. Officials even disputed the fact that they were farmers.

Fourteen farmers’ deaths in Madhya Pradesh had chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan sit up as many of them are from his home district of Vidisha as the soya crop failed due to monsoon failure and yellow virus hit the white lentils or urad crop.

Madhya Pradesh has declared 41 out of 50 districts drought hit and requested Rs 10,000 crore to tackle one of worst farm crises in the state.

This phenomenon of drought is not just limited to Madhya Pradesh. In fact, half of 600 districts across 18 states are in the grip of continued drought. If agriculture experts were to be believed, only four times in last 100 years that the country experienced back to back droughts. And, the year coming to an end is one of the worst.

All pervasive opinion is that the rural economy has come to a grinding halt, centre and states will have to think out of the box to tackle this crisis.

But does the moot question is does the political leadership at centre and states have this as the priority? Would they go beyond Delhi to look at life on farm lands is the moot question.

Agrarian economy needs immediate attention, issue specific to each state needs different solution to tide over the crisis.