Bureaucracy stands in the way of benefits

By Arun Kumar

Most villagers in U.P.'s Hardoi district, except for a miniscule few associated with social or political organizations, were not aware of the passage of the new Employment Guarantee Law last year. Since then, its coming into force in 22 districts of U.P. has not impressed them either.

By many accounts, there is a massive siphoning off of food grains from Public Distribution System in U.P. Likewise corruption in ration card allocation and the Food for Work (FFW) scheme continues, denying people food even for completed manual work. In the meantime the new National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has come in and initial reports give the impression that the bureaucracy in U.P. will not implement this scheme any differently. But first, the food grains and the food for work stories.

People's diary
In village Panchayat Atwa Danda of Hardoi District, Below Poverty Line ration card holders have not received a single food grain in the last five years. The situation is not better in other villages across the state. Antyodaya and Annapurna ration card holders, people who are living in extreme situations of poverty, consider themselves lucky if they get their quota of food grains once in 3 or 4 months. The ration shop owners, mostly in collusion with the panchayat Pradhans, keep the ration cards with themselves and by making fake entries on them, take away the food grains meant for the poor. The officials at the godown, supply inspectors, other officials and private people in the chain between the food and the beneficiaries, are happily part of the racket.

Currently the nexus of mafia and contractors, patronized by officials and politicians, has monopoly over the food grains meant for various schemes for the poor. In most cases the ration supply in full quantities doesn't reach the fair price shop in the village. And, in violation of a Supreme Court ruling, no records are available for public examination, making the whole system totally unaccountable to the people.

During the last two years we see a new phenomenon in U.P. There are reports, from mostly eastern parts, of people dying of hunger and committing suicides when they are not able to pay off their debts. In every single case the administration, of course, denies that these deaths are due to starvation and ascribes them to illness or something else. However, the fact remains that poor people are dying in large numbers and if the food grains meant for them as part of Food for Work scheme or PDS were to reach them, at least some of these deaths could have been prevented. The failure of PDS is representative of the failure of government's poverty alleviation schemes.

In Godwa Khem Village Panchayat of Hardoi District, the Ambedkar self-help group (SHG) staked a claim to desilt the Kashipur Minor (branch of a canal) under the National Food for Work scheme. Both under this scheme and the new Employment Guarantee Act, no contractors can be employed for works. There is a clear instruction that the work has to be done directly by government departments, village panchayats, SHGs or NGOs. Thus Ambedkar SHG's claim was legitimate. In addition, the villagers were also hoping to get water into the canal for irrigation. There has been no water in the canal since 1989.

The Irrigation Department chose to give work to another group of labourers on a different segment of the same canal more than 15 kms away, and even here the food component was not given. Back at Godwa Khem, after requesting the administration for over 6 months, villagers decided to begin the work on their own initiative on 2 January 2006. They have since claimed wages 1592 person-days of work put into desilting the canal. The Irrigation Department maintains that they do not intend to supply water to that point and hence cannot sanction this work. It has instead issued legal notices to 42 villagers in Godwa Khem for having illegally dug the canal!

The issue here is that Irrigation Department charges the villagers money for using water from this canal. People are routinely harassed, sometimes using arm twisting tactics, to pay up for the water from the canal even though they might not have got the water. The department is also denying people the right to work by saying that they do not intend to supply water to the point where people have desilted the canal. But the department charges people money for having used water from the same segment. The villagers are now waging a struggle to get their due wages, and also water in the canal. The Irrigation Department appears to be behaving in an arbitrary and contradictory manner. The engineer responsible at the department is R C Verma.

The new Employment Guarantee Act promises work for the rural poor, but similar norms of the FFW program continue to be blatantly violated. Contractors and machines are being employed in most cases to get the work done. Muster rolls are being fabricated with false entries and are not available for public scrutiny. As noted earlier, workers do not get their full payment, especially the 'food' component in almost never given.

A young Samajwadi Party leader, Chandrashekhar Yadav of village Dharhaura in Kushinagar district complained that machines were being used to dig a pond in violation of the norms of the FFW programme. On 25 May 2005 he discovered the anomaly and complained to the District Magistrate, the district's top bureaucrat, on 26 May. The tractor was seized and the contractor's assistant arrested. However, because of pressure from a local politician, the tractors were released after having been shown as seized under the Motor Vehicles Act, even though the tractor drivers had given it in writing that they were employed to dig the pond, i.e. a violation. Even though FIR was lodged against the contractor, the enquiry report was manipulated to let the suspects go.

In village Badhara, similar violations have been discovered. JVC machines were being used. Chandrashekhar Yadav and his colleagues resisted, but the administration did not cooperate. A complaint was lodged with the Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chief Secretary Neera Yadav and the charges were found to hold in the subsequent enquiry. But no action has been taken against the errant Block Development Officer, Mahendra Prasad Chaubey. In a different wages case, 48 workers of village Jaitapur Bhadewan, in Sitapur district belonging to Akhil Bhartiya Khet Mazdoor Sabha complained that they have still not been given wages and food grains for their work during the periods July-August and November last year. The work was supervised by Vijay Kumar of Rural Engineering Services department and private contractor Rukmesh.

In another case, in Nagepur village of Varanasi district, the Assistant Development Officer Srikant Darwe -- a local bureaucrat -- asked the newly elected panchayat Pradhan Mukesh to reduce the number of ration cards meant for the BPL category by three, probably a method adopted by Government to show reduction of poverty. This was Mukesh was elected president in recent local body polls about 6 months back. Currently there are 26 BPL cardholders in the village, whereas Mukesh feels there are about 35-40 people in all who should be given these cards. Given a choice, Mukesh would like to increase the number of cards; but the ADO Darwe asked him to reduce the number. Normally, village committees do not have the freedom of deciding the number of ration cards in their village, these decisions are taken by officials, and often without a comprehensive survey. Mukesh's views however were recorded in the report of a December 2005 Gorakhpur public hearing on right to food that was subsequently sent to the Supreme Court. The SC is monitoring the implementation of a number of government schemes stemming from the right to food litigation.

The challenge of making Rural Employment Guarantees work
It into this situation that rural employment guarantees are being ushered in. After the passage of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in September 2005, a British journalist Peter Foster working with The Telegraph visited village Purwa Maan in Hardoi, one of the 200 districts covered under the Act. His aim was to find out how villagers felt about the new law. Most villagers, except for a miniscule few who were associated with some social or political organizations, were not aware of the passage of the new law. They were then informed of its provisions and encouraged to respond.

Not surprisingly, they did not seem too impressed. One old man hesitatingly said that he did not expect that he would overnight start getting his full minimum due wages, which is Rs.58 for a day's of difficult labour in U.P. The situation in his area was such that one would consider himself lucky if one got Rs.30 in a private work and Rs.40 in a government work. For women labourers these rates would be even lower. 58 years after India became a democratic republic, the Act has to specify that both sexes must get equal wages, clearly implying that this is not the case right now.

Until there is transparency in maintaining muster rolls and payments are made, both that of cash and food grains, according to the rules, once in every seven days for the workers, there cannot be any guarantee of employment. But from the experience in dealing with the administrative machinery it is also clear that officials and contractors are not going to change their ways on their own. It will probably require a pro-active effort on part of the common people to organize and exert pressure on the system so that it starts delivering according to the law.

The U.P. bureaucracy will have to change its mindset. Gone are the days when they could take all decisions by themselves. They must start relying on common people and people's organizations for implementing important schemes like the Food for Work instead of the contractors and mafia, which right now exercise complete control over the machinery to the extent that the bureaucracy seems helpless. The Right to Information Act is going to make it more difficult for them to take decisions in arbitrary manner. Already, during last 3 years people in Bharawan and Sandila Blocks of Hardoi district have used a 1999 Panchayati Raj Act amendment to access income expenditure details of 30 village panchayats. This has exposed corruption on a large scale as well as put pressure on elected representatives and officials to not indulge in blatant embezzlement of funds. The people are more vigilant and officials and elected representatives feel the pressure.

Currently a struggle is going on in Hardoi district to realize the benefits of Employment Guarantee Act, improve the functioning of PDS, Mid Day Meal scheme and Anganbadis so that benefits meant for the poor, especially under the food related schemes, start reaching them. For the beneficiaries, the functioning of these schemes is a matter of life and death.

A New Cincept Of 'Prison Restaurant' With 'Jail Delicacies'!

In this age of food glut and food writing, INNLIVE explores the concept of prison food delicacies. 

Don’t you agree the era of Food had dawned, ushering in Bhojan Yug? We may no doubt be a poor, underdeveloped nation not reaching our upper calories limits with a large percentage of the population suffering from malnutrition. Let us forget that. We have to focus on gourmet cuisine and the proliferation of culinary experts and seven-star chefs who on TV screens clean, cook and present hundreds of delicacies from different parts of the country.

Special Report: Rotting Food Grains In Hungry India

By Astha Prakash (Guest Writer)

   
It is hard to believe that India is the same country that transformed from a “begging bowl” to a “bread basket”. After high-yielding varieties of seeds were first introduced in India in 1968, the wheat production rocketed from 6.4 million tonnes in 1948 to 20 million tonnes. The Green Revolution converted India into a shining new nation brimming with success and sufficient wheat stalks. But 45 years after the hopes of converting a country that was once on the brink of mass famine to a self-contained nation, the situation continues to be shaky.

Feature: Delicious Street Food

By Golden Reejsinghani

Food sold in these great metropolitans streets has gained more popularity then some of the swanky restaurants doting the city because the street food is not only irresistibly delicious but also affordable.

Whole Mumbai is dotted with people making food in the make shift stalls dotting the streets. On reaching hill road bandra your olfactory senses take control of your legs and lead you inexorably towards the aromatic aromas coming from the Elko arcade the famous shopping arcade of Bandra.Here you can taste the mind blowing Pani puri which is famous for its tangy taste which just explodes in your mouth with all its glory?

Other eats available here are dahi wadas, ragda patties, samosas, Pani Puri with tikhi mithi chutneys and tikis which you can wash down with cold and namkeen lassi. Or spiced sugar cane juice iced to perfection.

A little ahead is the Dahipuri wala who sells out of this world Dahi puri combined with sweet and sour chutneys and garnished with coriander leaves. There are also piping hot medu wadas, dosas and idlis sold here.

These stalls not only get page 3 people visiting the shopping arcades but people from all walks of life come to eat here. From lowly to the richest, from ordinary people to the businessmen to the filmstars.For everyone this is a Mecca of fine eating. From here you can walk up to linking road Bandra a road running close to M.M.K College is full of yummy street food. Here you get fantastic sandwiches. Which are dear to every young collegians heart? Every college student is seen converging on the stalls either munching sandwiches or piping hot vada pavs served with fiery hot chutney which can bring tears to your eyes and fire to your mouth.

From here you can go down to Bade Miyan behind Taj Mahal hotel whose kebabs are famous throughout Mumbai all the glitterati of Mumbai park their cars outside the stall and savor scrumptious kebabs and baida roti.

Bade Miyan is famous because of its kebabs. Like him Noor Mohammadi in Bhendi Bazaar is famous for the ‘ Naali Nihari’.Naali Nihari is a thick spicy soup which is made from Buffallo marrow cooked in a variety of spices and loads of ghee. It is served in the mornings with naans.People start their day in Bhendi Bazaar with Naali Nihari and Naan.

If you are a die hard egeterian then you should make a trip to church gate station here, you can savor a vast variety of omelet’s which are served here piping hot with pav or bread these will make your day once you have eaten them.

If you are the one who loves ice creams then you should head to the chow patty beach here you can get a variety of tasty ice creams available in many tasty concoctions like the berry,kachha kery, cream butter scotch etc.You ask for the flavor and you get it here

If you want hearty food then head to Sion Koliwada which can be termed as mini Punjab you get here delicious and enticingly flavored koliwada fish, prawn fry and tandoori chicken denizens from all over Mumbai flock here to get a taste of Punjab.

But the paradise of street food lovers is the Khau Galli at Kalbadevi.You get everything to eat here right from piping hot kachoris accompanied with sweet and spicy hot chutney to sizzling samosas chili hot pakodas to crunchy pattice,delicious dosas with sambar to steaming soft idlis with coconut chutney. Spiced Papads,tangy bhelpuris and many other chaats savories and sweets are available here prepared just in front of you and served to you with spicy chutneys and sauces and what is more you get all these delicacies at affordable rates.

You can wash these down with a number of flavored sherbets, juices, smoothies and ice creams. Mumbai is chockfull of street food every locality has developed its own khau galli specific to the character of population living there Street food is not only dirt cheap but also very hygienic.

These days the owners of food stalls have become very hygiene conscious because they know if they play hanky panky with the people they will loose their business besides unlike restaurants they serve freshest and best food.

They do not keep the food for the next day to serve in the buffet which mostly consists of dishes made on the previous day. I can write reams about this food but because I wanted to keep this precise I have written about the best and outstanding buys.

Feature: Delicious Street Food

By Golden Reejsinghani

Food sold in these great metropolitans streets has gained more popularity then some of the swanky restaurants doting the city because the street food is not only irresistibly delicious but also affordable.

Whole Mumbai is dotted with people making food in the make shift stalls dotting the streets. On reaching hill road bandra your olfactory senses take control of your legs and lead you inexorably towards the aromatic aromas coming from the Elko arcade the famous shopping arcade of Bandra.Here you can taste the mind blowing Pani puri which is famous for its tangy taste which just explodes in your mouth with all its glory?

Other eats available here are dahi wadas, ragda patties, samosas, Pani Puri with tikhi mithi chutneys and tikis which you can wash down with cold and namkeen lassi. Or spiced sugar cane juice iced to perfection.

A little ahead is the Dahipuri wala who sells out of this world Dahi puri combined with sweet and sour chutneys and garnished with coriander leaves. There are also piping hot medu wadas, dosas and idlis sold here.

These stalls not only get page 3 people visiting the shopping arcades but people from all walks of life come to eat here. From lowly to the richest, from ordinary people to the businessmen to the filmstars.For everyone this is a Mecca of fine eating. From here you can walk up to linking road Bandra a road running close to M.M.K College is full of yummy street food. Here you get fantastic sandwiches. Which are dear to every young collegians heart? Every college student is seen converging on the stalls either munching sandwiches or piping hot vada pavs served with fiery hot chutney which can bring tears to your eyes and fire to your mouth.

From here you can go down to Bade Miyan behind Taj Mahal hotel whose kebabs are famous throughout Mumbai all the glitterati of Mumbai park their cars outside the stall and savor scrumptious kebabs and baida roti.

Bade Miyan is famous because of its kebabs. Like him Noor Mohammadi in Bhendi Bazaar is famous for the ‘ Naali Nihari’.Naali Nihari is a thick spicy soup which is made from Buffallo marrow cooked in a variety of spices and loads of ghee. It is served in the mornings with naans.People start their day in Bhendi Bazaar with Naali Nihari and Naan.

If you are a die hard egeterian then you should make a trip to church gate station here, you can savor a vast variety of omelet’s which are served here piping hot with pav or bread these will make your day once you have eaten them.

If you are the one who loves ice creams then you should head to the chow patty beach here you can get a variety of tasty ice creams available in many tasty concoctions like the berry,kachha kery, cream butter scotch etc.You ask for the flavor and you get it here

If you want hearty food then head to Sion Koliwada which can be termed as mini Punjab you get here delicious and enticingly flavored koliwada fish, prawn fry and tandoori chicken denizens from all over Mumbai flock here to get a taste of Punjab.

But the paradise of street food lovers is the Khau Galli at Kalbadevi.You get everything to eat here right from piping hot kachoris accompanied with sweet and spicy hot chutney to sizzling samosas chili hot pakodas to crunchy pattice,delicious dosas with sambar to steaming soft idlis with coconut chutney. Spiced Papads,tangy bhelpuris and many other chaats savories and sweets are available here prepared just in front of you and served to you with spicy chutneys and sauces and what is more you get all these delicacies at affordable rates.

You can wash these down with a number of flavored sherbets, juices, smoothies and ice creams. Mumbai is chockfull of street food every locality has developed its own khau galli specific to the character of population living there Street food is not only dirt cheap but also very hygienic.

These days the owners of food stalls have become very hygiene conscious because they know if they play hanky panky with the people they will loose their business besides unlike restaurants they serve freshest and best food.

They do not keep the food for the next day to serve in the buffet which mostly consists of dishes made on the previous day. I can write reams about this food but because I wanted to keep this precise I have written about the best and outstanding buys.

Feature: Delicious Street Food

By Golden Reejsinghani

Food sold in these great metropolitans streets has gained more popularity then some of the swanky restaurants doting the city because the street food is not only irresistibly delicious but also affordable.

Whole Mumbai is dotted with people making food in the make shift stalls dotting the streets. On reaching hill road bandra your olfactory senses take control of your legs and lead you inexorably towards the aromatic aromas coming from the Elko arcade the famous shopping arcade of Bandra.Here you can taste the mind blowing Pani puri which is famous for its tangy taste which just explodes in your mouth with all its glory?

Other eats available here are dahi wadas, ragda patties, samosas, Pani Puri with tikhi mithi chutneys and tikis which you can wash down with cold and namkeen lassi. Or spiced sugar cane juice iced to perfection.

A little ahead is the Dahipuri wala who sells out of this world Dahi puri combined with sweet and sour chutneys and garnished with coriander leaves. There are also piping hot medu wadas, dosas and idlis sold here.

These stalls not only get page 3 people visiting the shopping arcades but people from all walks of life come to eat here. From lowly to the richest, from ordinary people to the businessmen to the filmstars.For everyone this is a Mecca of fine eating. From here you can walk up to linking road Bandra a road running close to M.M.K College is full of yummy street food. Here you get fantastic sandwiches. Which are dear to every young collegians heart? Every college student is seen converging on the stalls either munching sandwiches or piping hot vada pavs served with fiery hot chutney which can bring tears to your eyes and fire to your mouth.

From here you can go down to Bade Miyan behind Taj Mahal hotel whose kebabs are famous throughout Mumbai all the glitterati of Mumbai park their cars outside the stall and savor scrumptious kebabs and baida roti.

Bade Miyan is famous because of its kebabs. Like him Noor Mohammadi in Bhendi Bazaar is famous for the ‘ Naali Nihari’.Naali Nihari is a thick spicy soup which is made from Buffallo marrow cooked in a variety of spices and loads of ghee. It is served in the mornings with naans.People start their day in Bhendi Bazaar with Naali Nihari and Naan.

If you are a die hard egeterian then you should make a trip to church gate station here, you can savor a vast variety of omelet’s which are served here piping hot with pav or bread these will make your day once you have eaten them.

If you are the one who loves ice creams then you should head to the chow patty beach here you can get a variety of tasty ice creams available in many tasty concoctions like the berry,kachha kery, cream butter scotch etc.You ask for the flavor and you get it here

If you want hearty food then head to Sion Koliwada which can be termed as mini Punjab you get here delicious and enticingly flavored koliwada fish, prawn fry and tandoori chicken denizens from all over Mumbai flock here to get a taste of Punjab.

But the paradise of street food lovers is the Khau Galli at Kalbadevi.You get everything to eat here right from piping hot kachoris accompanied with sweet and spicy hot chutney to sizzling samosas chili hot pakodas to crunchy pattice,delicious dosas with sambar to steaming soft idlis with coconut chutney. Spiced Papads,tangy bhelpuris and many other chaats savories and sweets are available here prepared just in front of you and served to you with spicy chutneys and sauces and what is more you get all these delicacies at affordable rates.

You can wash these down with a number of flavored sherbets, juices, smoothies and ice creams. Mumbai is chockfull of street food every locality has developed its own khau galli specific to the character of population living there Street food is not only dirt cheap but also very hygienic.

These days the owners of food stalls have become very hygiene conscious because they know if they play hanky panky with the people they will loose their business besides unlike restaurants they serve freshest and best food.

They do not keep the food for the next day to serve in the buffet which mostly consists of dishes made on the previous day. I can write reams about this food but because I wanted to keep this precise I have written about the best and outstanding buys.

Food Wastage In India: Between The Farm And The Kitchen

By Kushal Mehrotra / INN Live

The world needs more food to feed itself. But how much more do we, Indians, really need to grow? Of the food crops we already grow, an appalling amount is wasted, while significant amounts turn into cattle feed and biofuels.

Despite millions of Indians going to bed on a hungry stomach, the country is letting food worth a whopping Rs 44,000 crore go waste each year due to lack of adequate storage infrastructure. 

While the wasted fruits and vegetables alone was estimated at Rs 13,300 crore, other food products like rice, wheat, serials and meat are also allowed to perish without consumption. 

In the year investors began to lose faith in food tech, more Indians ordered food online

India’s food delivery sector has gone from startup playground to a graveyard with companies shuttering and downsizing and food tech investments plunging from $500 million in 2015 to $80 million in 2016. However, restaurants and customers have been embracing online food-ordering.

Overall, the restaurant industry in India grew 11% from 2015 to 2016 but was far outpaced by food delivery’s 30% figure in the same period, according to a 2017 RedSeer report. Although this includes all delivery orders placed—online, over the phone, in-person, etc—a sizeable part of the success stemmed from the expanding online food-delivery market.

Top Wedding Food Ideas To Amp Up Your Shadi Menu

With weddings coming up it's time to trigger the gluttonous side, for good food is among the most integral part of a wedding celebration. And with weddings getting bigger, better, and costlier, we give you a low down on the latest trends that make the wedding affair sweeter, tastier, and yummier. Get ready for the decadent delicacies like apple jalebi with chocolate sauce, Japanese Sushi, glass noodles, cold salads, and more.

Why People Avoid Grains, Wheat While Navaratri Fasting?

Navratri is one of the most important festivals of Hindus, celebrated with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement all across the country. Traditionally associated with Goddess Durga and worshipping her nine incarnations, the festival holds significance in north India, West Bengal, as well as the central and western regions of the country.

While some strictly believe in holding fast for all nine days, most people fast only on the first and the last days, and a few just abstain from consuming alcohol, onion, garlic or non-vegetarian items.

How Did Economic Reforms Change The Average Indian’s Diet?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Economic reforms have diversified Indian diets, but there is still not enough on the plate.

The Indian dietary diversification seems to be nothing when compared to the change which has taken place in the average Chinese person’s diet, where cereals and other calorie-rich items constitute just around a quarter of the diet. 

After Maggi, Fresh Tests Reveal Big Noodle Brands Like Top Ramen, Ching's And Foodles Fail Quality Standards

By Likha Veer 
Group Executive Editor

If you carried the impression that Maggi was the only noodle brand harmful to your health, think again. The latest lab report shows that several other popular brands are equally unsafe for consumption. 

The new test report by Delhi government’s food department has revealed that of the 12 samples of other brands of noodles, eight have failed the quality test. The samples collected were from brands like Top Ramen, Tops, Ching’s and Foodles. 

EXCLUSIVE: 'India Is Less Hungry Now'

An NSS survey shows that almost all people are now reporting eating two square meals a day. So why then do we need a universal Food Security Bill? In what could further roil the bitter poverty debate in India, a government survey shows that close to 99 percent of Indians say they are getting two square meals a day.

This could also beg the question – is there a need for a universal food security legislation, as the UPA seems so keen on legislating?

The National Sample Survey on Perceived Adequacy of Food Consumption in Indian Households shows that the proportion of rural households saying they are getting two square meals a day throughout the year has increased from 94.5 percent to 98.9 percent between 1993-94 and 2009-10. The proportion of urban households saying the same increased from 98.1 percent to 99.6 percent.

Correspondingly, there has been a decline in the proportion of households saying they did not get two square meals in any month or got it only in some months. Only 0.2 percent of rural households said that they did not get two square meals in any month in 2009-10, against 0.9 percent in 1993-94. In the urban areas, no household said it did not get adequate meals in any month in 2009-10, against 0.5 percent in 1993-94.

These figures will be laughed out by all of us who know that there are a lot of people going hungry out there. If the survey is right, we may well ask, how come India ranks 65th in the Global Hunger Index, below Sudan, Rwanda and Burkina Faso? Can 355 million people who get to spend less than Rs 30 a day on food, medicines and education actually say they get adequate food?

Let’s get things in perspective. One, the survey isn’t about any income or poverty line drawn arbitrarily by economists ensconced in ivory towers. Nor is it based on hard data on certain indicators, as in the case of the Global Hunger Index. It is a perception-based survey. That is, households were asked whether they had two square meals a day every day throughout the year.

The survey, the report points out, did not set any standards of food adequacy.  “How much and what kind of food should be considered as adequate was left to the informant’s judgment.” So it is possible that for some people, just two dry rotis with an onion could be one square meal. Getting this twice a day will be two square meals. So let’s factor that skew in.

Two, this is a sample survey covering a little over one lakh households across different income and social groups in rural and urban India, and not a census, where each and every household is covered. So it’s quite possible for 99 percent households to say that they are getting two square meals a day and for large numbers to face near-starvation conditions.

The right way to look at the survey is to see it as the trend over different time periods. The increase in the number of people reporting that they get adequate food throughout the year and the decline in those who say they don’t is steady. So in each survey, the first category has increased and the second decreased bit by bit.

It is this that is important, regardless of what the poverty industry would like us to believe – that we are going downhill. Just as it is important to see that irrespective of the formula used to estimate poverty, there has been a significant reduction in poverty levels in recent years.

Disaggregated data in the survey shows that some sections are still not better off than others. In rural areas, agricultural and other labour accounted for a higher share of those saying they did not get adequate meals all through the year. In the urban areas, casual labour and the self-employed (hawkers, rickshaw pullers, cobblers etc) accounted for a larger share of the same category. Similarly, scheduled castes and tribes form a larger proportion of this category in both the rural and urban areas.

Wouldn’t, then, it be better for any food security legislation to focus on these categories rather than including people who may be getting more than two proper square meals a day?

In four states – Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu – more rural households than urban households said they got two square meals a day throughout the year. The report doesn’t give any reasons for this, but this could be either because people may be growing their own food in rural areas or social support systems are more robust in villages than in towns.

There’s a wake up call in the report for those ruing the dismantling of the socialist-influenced economic management in 1991. West Bengal, with its three uninterrupted decades of communist rule, had the lowest number of rural households saying they got adequate food through the year – 95.4 percent. Even Odisha did better with 96 percent. The proportion of agricultural labour households in West Bengal reporting that they did not get adequate food was 6.9 percent. Only Manipur and Odisha did worse in this respect.

The states with the highest proportion of families saying they got adequate meals through the year are, predictably, the high growth, investment friendly states – Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan (where 99.8 per cent of rural households and 100 percent of urban households said they were satisfied) and Tamil Nadu.

There’s a lesson in this, isn’t there?

Cong Schizophrenia: Cash Transfers Or Food Security?

The idea of providing food security through the public distribution system cannot ultimately coexist with the idea of giving the poor money to choose. But we now have a government keen on cash transfers and the food security bill. Are party and government on the same page this time?

When the Congress, with all the enthusiasm of a new convert, announced that it was going the whole hog on the direct cash transfers scheme, it appeared both party and government were on the same page.

While Rahul Gandhi said the scheme would not only enable the Congress to win the elections in 2014, but also in 2019, the finance minister was busy counting the shekels he would save by eliminating bogus recipients of subsidies. And Jairam Ramesh, the Rural Development Minister, even announced the party’s election slogan: ‘Aapka paisa, aapke haath.”

However, it now appears that the right haath does not know what the left haath is doing. If the early idea was to replace food and other subsidies in kind with cash in the bank, the growing talk of introducing a Food Security Bill – which is about putting rice, wheat and coarse grains in the jholas of the poor – means the government is in two minds.

Ila Patnaik, writing in The Indian Express, brings out this schizophrenic thinking by wondering if the government knows what it really wants. Explaining the diametrically opposite philosophies that drive cash transfers and delivery of subsidised food, she says: “Surely, it is clear that there is a contradiction between the philosophy (sic) of the two. The strategy of cash transfers, when it means giving money to poor households to bring them above the poverty line, is based on the philosophy that households should be free to choose what they buy. Providing subsidised cereal to households is a policy that is based on the notion that it is best if the state decides what is good for the people and provides it.”

In one scheme, the state reduces the poor to supplicant status. In the other (cash transfers), the poor man develops a stake in the market economy. Does Sonia Gandhi want to continue playing god, when her finance minister would like the poor to stand up and behave like empowered consumers?

Does the UPA government believe that the public distribution system is broken and cash transfers are needed, or does it believe that the PDS works well and can serve a multiple of the numbers it is currently catering to?
In the budget session of Parliament, the government is expected to further push subsidy expenditure through cash transfers. In the same session, it is expected to table the food security bill. Surely, it is clear that there is a contradiction between the philosophy of the two. The strategy of cash transfers, when it means giving money to poor households to bring them above the poverty line, is based on the philosophy that households should be free to choose what they buy. 

Providing subsidised cereal to households is a policy that is based on the notion that it is best if the state decides what is good for the people and provides it. It is unlikely that in the mind of this government, that has not yet clearly articulated the full policy, cash transfers are designed to be like a negative income tax where freedom of choice is given to the individual and the family, which can buy what it chooses to. A badly designed cash transfer scheme would be one linked to consumption of specific items — food, education, kerosene, fertiliser, etc. Under this scheme, the choice of where to buy would lie with the household.

Currently, cash transfers are limited to a few small items like scholarships and pensions. They can be kept limited to these items and incrementally expanded to include a few more. Or, they could be expected to cover all subsidies, where an income subsidy amount is paid directly to the beneficiary, rather than through a price subsidy on particular items. If the logic of cash transfers was to be carried forward, each poor household would be given a sum to money to pull it above the poverty line. Like an income tax, which is paid by better-off households to the government, this would be a benefit or a “negative income tax” the government pays to households.

Giving poor households money is based on the belief that no one understands the needs and priorities of the household better than the individual and her family. If she chooses, a person below the poverty line could pay for the transport that takes her to a hospital instead of buying 10 kg of rice. Cash transfers are genuinely meaningful if they become the main plank of a government’s anti-poverty programme. If it is one of many programmes, then it has a marginal impact on both efficiency and government expenditure.

Cash transfers in, say, scholarships or pensions, can only solve the problem of delay in payments. If combined with Aadhaar, there will be some additional saving for the government, as ghost and duplicate beneficiaries can be removed from the system. This might save as much as 10 to 15 per cent of the expenditure under that head. The big savings through cash transfers can come if, instead of paying a price subsidy, say on wheat, the government could transfer money directly to a family to buy a minimum consumption bundle to rise above the poverty line. That would enable the government to get rid of a large number of price subsidies, such as those on kerosene, LPG and food. Families would then buy these directly at market prices. The theft and wastage from the public distribution system would go away.

The food security bill, as proposed to be tabled, is based on a completely different philosophy. Not only does it assume that it is best for the poor in India to eat wheat and rice — instead of pulses, fish, vegetables, eggs or milk — it also assumes that the state will handle the purchase, storage and sale of this wheat and rice better than the market can. It assumes that this wheat and rice (often rotting, as it is stored in the open due to the shortage of warehouses with the Food Corporation of India) will be bought by the people. It assumes that people are not buying large quantities of wheat and rice because the price is too high, and that once it is supplied by the government at a low price, they are going to buy it.

Several assumptions about individual preferences are being made here. It is being assumed that the behaviour observed in household data that shows that diversity in food, and particularly the preference for protein such as dal, eggs, fish, chicken and meat, does not hold true or will not hold true as incomes rise. But the evidence suggests otherwise. In the last few years, there has been an increase in the price of proteins and some observers have linked the price rise to the increase in demand resulting from rural incomes going up. On the other hand, cereal prices have not been the fastest growing prices. The prices of non-cereal food items have grown the fastest, reflecting growing demand.

In addition to the issue of preferences is the problem of leakages from the PDS. The problem is well known and understood to be large. Many committees have suggested shutting the PDS down and replacing it with food vouchers. If the bill is passed, then for providing 67 per cent of the population some 50 million tons of cereals, the PDS will have to be expanded.

The answer to why the government is moving in two opposite directions does not appear to lie in the political beliefs or philosophy of the Congress. Maybe it lies in the strategy of providing goodies to voters in whatever way possible. If the strategy works and the Congress is voted back to power, the food security act will likely become one of the biggest headaches of the next government. Instead, the government should focus on fiscal consolidation and growth in this budget, and not promise more money down leaky pipes.

The Battle for Water - India’s Food Insecurity Compounded By Water Scarcity

Since India’s independence, the mammoth task of feeding its hundreds of millions, most of whom are extremely poor, has been a major challenge to policymakers. In the coming decades, the issue of food insecurity is likely to affect almost all Indians. However, for the poorest amongst us, it could be catastrophic. India ranks 65 of 79 countries in the Global Hunger Index. This is extremely alarming.

In the past few years, uneven weather patterns combined with over exploited and depleting water resources in various parts of India have wreaked havoc on food security, particularly for small and marginal farmers, as well as the rural poor.

The recently launched Global Food Security Index (GFSI) estimates that in 2012, there are 224 million Indians, around 19% of the total population, who are undernourished. The same report also estimates that while the Indian government has various institutions designed to deal with the impact of inflation on food prices, it only spends 1% of agricultural GDP on research to build food security for the poorest. Overall, India ranked 66th on the GFSI. It is estimated that one in four of the world's malnourished children is in India, more even than in sub-Saharan Africa.

Water insecurity, further exacerbated by climate change, is arguably the most impactful factor on India’s food security. India’s total water availability per capita is expected to decline to 1,240 cubic metres per person per year by 2030, perilously close to the 1,000 cubic metre benchmark set by the World Bank as ‘water scarce’.

Factors such as increasing usage, poor infrastructure, and pollution have led to a decline of water quantity and quality in India. Climate change, meanwhile, is expected to cause a two-fold impact.

One, increasing temperatures have hastened the rate of melt of the Himalayan glaciers, upon which major Indian rivers like the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra depend.

Second, the effect of climate change on monsoons in India will cause them to become more erratic, arriving earlier or later and lasting for shorter, more intense periods of time. India’s farming communities depend overwhelmingly on the monsoon, as their cropping patterns are built around it. The combined effect of climate change and over exploitation is violating the water cycle, degrading aquifers and  eroding ground water resources.

Over 50% of agricultural land in India depends entirely on groundwater. In North and Northeast India, where perennial rivers (rivers that have water year round, i.e. glacier fed rivers in India, such as the Ganges) sustain the agricultural land, have to deal with issues such as flooding caused by climate change impacts such as speedier glacier melt and erratic monsoons.

Meanwhile, farmers in states in West and South India, where rivers are seasonal, have to depend heavily on rapidly depleting groundwater resources.

The worst affected by this type of water-fuelled food insecurity are the small farmers of India. Estimates suggest that between 1995 and 2010, over 2,50,000 farmers in India, mostly from states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, killed themselves. Most of these farmers were drowning in vicious cycles of debt caused by failed monsoons and increasing droughts.

Responses to this crisis, including the National Action Plan on Climate Change, lay out various solutions and intended interventions, but most focus on the long term. To secure the future of India’s water resources vis-à-vis its agriculture in the future, it is important that certain steps be taken immediately. First and foremost, authorities will have to remove the mindset that water is an endless resource and the solution to water woes is simply a further development of India’s fast depleting groundwater.

Indeed, Dr. Mihir Shah, co-Founder, Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS) and member of the Planning Commission of India has stated that the ‘era of further water development may be over’ and emphasized that we have to urgently introduce more efficient water management. In this regard, promotion of irrigation efficiency will be crucial in the future.

Systems such as drip irrigation and System of Rice Intensification (SRI) to farmers across India will be essential. It will also be necessary to promote water conservation methods such as rain water harvesting, which has been successful in urban India, in villages as well.

At the same time, reducing inefficiencies and water wastage through conveyance losses will require governmental and NGO support in actions such as replacing faulty pipes and pumps.  Hence, India needs to invest on improving its water productivity, and any capacity to produce more food like rice with less water will be an important contribution to sustainable water and food security.

 In short, India is facing a bleak future of becoming water scarce and painfully food insecure. How exactly are the country’s hundreds of millions, who depend entirely on agriculture for their livelihoods, as well as those that depend on agriculture for their food needs, to make ends meet?

Delaying this issue is simply not an option for India as this could lead to increased instability, poor human development and enhance intergenerational poverty. India needs to ensure food security through sustainable development and create resilience amongst the most vulnerable in the country: the poor.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a sober warning about the management of his country’s water supply: he reminded scholars gathered in the capital that with 17 percent of the world’s population, India only possesses 4 percent of the world’s water supply. 

Singh made the remark during the opening address at India Water Week, a four-day event bringing together water researchers and policymakers from around the world.  He stressed the need to conserve groundwater, on which more than two-thirds of the country depends for its water.

The prime minister also attributed India's widening gap between demand and water supply to rapid economic growth and urbanization. 

"Inadequate and suboptimal pricing of both power and water is promoting the misuse of groundwater," he said. "We need to move to a situation where groundwater can be treated as a common property resource." 

Singh pointed out that climate change poses a further challenge to the availability of water, which is tightly interwoven with issues of food security.  An estimated 300 million Indians live in extreme poverty and he added that number could rise without proper water management.

"The planning, development and management of water resources has to keep pace with current realities. The present legal situation gives every landholder the right to pump unlimited quantities of water from a bore well on his own ground. There is no regulation of ground water extraction and no coordination among competing uses." 

Regardless of governance, India faces a basic mathematical conundrum when it comes to water supply, said Jin Zidell, founder of Blue Planet Network.

"You have, unfortunately, exploding populations with a fixed amount of water," Zidell said. "We're drinking the same water that the dinosaurs were drinking, a very fixed amount. I don't know how to fix that situation, other than massive change in farming techniques."

Zidell points out more than 70 percent of the world’s water supplies are used for agriculture -- a ratio that is difficult to sustain as populations grow and become wealthier.

HOLY 'RAMADHAN FASTING' - A TOOL TO HEAL THE BODY

By Aeman Nishat in Hyderabad

We all are already aware of the fact that in all of our religions fasting has been an integral part. Why is it that one month fast of Ramadan, fasts on Agiyaras, Janmashtami, Shivratri, Navaratri, Jain fastings, etc., all are included as an important ritual to follow? Why has all religions given fasting so much importance? Donate Zakat Here

Well, the answer is interesting and here it goes. Fasting of all kinds always rejuvenates the healing abilities of body. Fasting enables the body to work on other healing procedures rather than just digestion of food. Donate Zakat Here

Delhi Foodies Have Found A New Trend Of 'Food Festivals'

Delhi foodies makes a new trend called 'food festivals' where they will invite all types of food makers and spread the food across to select, pay and eat as they like. This trewnd is catching up in Delhi and NCR areas.

Delhi foodies have found a new fad — alfresco food festivals. The latest one, called 'The Grub Fest', was a three-day gala at the Nehru Stadium that brought together home-grown favourites like Karims, Khan Chacha and United Coffee House with newer, multi-cuisine entrants such as Ploof, Fio, Town Hall, En and Saraya and absolute newbies like Ghaas Foos, a vegetarian, fusion, home-catering service. 

Impact: 'Landmark Food Scheme May Have Turned Stale'

By Mithilesh Mishra | Raipur

CHHATTISGARH ELECTIONS 2013 

The reach of Chhattisgarh's food distribution programme has not been uniform. Santosh Chaudhury, 35, runs a laundry in Raipur’s affluent Telebandha area. With his moderate income, he supports his family of four and doesn’t have too many complaints against the Bharatiya Janata Party government that has been in power for the last ten years. Raman Singh has done a lot for the poor, he says, while purchasing his monthly quota of subsidised foodgrains from the neighbourhood ration shop.

Why Congress Rule Always Leaves Inflation As Legacy?

If the Congress-led UPA government ever manages to get inflation down, it will be either because of sheer luck (global factors), or because it has managed to damage domestic growth so badly that inflation has nowhere to go but down.

This is the scenario that seems to be shaping up today – though it is too early to predict what will happen in the remaining 12 months in which this lameduck government stays in power.

First, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) came in at a barely positive 0.6 percent in February. The April 2012-February 2013 IIP average is no better at 0.9 percent. So industry did not grow for one whole year – and that is why inflation is coming under some control now. No one is investing or buying more than the year before.

Second, consumer price inflation is still in double digits – printing at 10.39 percent in March compared to 10.91 percent in February. But this is largely luck. Just when diesel prices are being raised, global oil prices have fallen by enough to make the “fuel and light” part of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rise by just 8.31 percent in March. It is the non-food part of the index that is keeping inflation down – once again, a tribute to how successfully the government has managed to damage growth.

Third, the final IIP figure for 2012-13 (March) is sure to be a dampener, not least because the index number for March 2012 was high at 187.6. Compare that with February 2013’s 176.2, and it is clear that a pole-vault is required to show positive growth. Unlikely to happen. One should not be surprised if IIP for the whole year is near zero.

Fourth, some luck is heading UPA’s way in the form of a fall in gold and crude oil prices. This should ease the current account deficit (CAD), but the fall in oil (Brent crude is now at $103.11 a barrel) will help dent the price index. But if the UPA is committed to raising diesel prices to market levels, this fall will reduce the fiscal deficit (subsidies) but won’t impact the price index positively. Reason: any fall will still be neutralised by domestic increases, since the diesel price subsidy when crude is at $113 is Rs 6.50 a litre. Crude will have to fall more sharply to impact our CPI.

Fifth, consumption trends are nothing to write home about. In February, the consumer part of the IIP was flat – at 0.5 percent. While non-durables grew at 2.9 percent (which was still a fall from last year’s 4.4 percent), this rise was neutralised by a fall in consumer durables output by 2.7 percent. People are clearly not in a mood to splurge on autos, fridges or computers.

The prognosis for inflation is thus mixed: while fading growth is reducing pricing power for the manufacturing and services sectors, both at home and abroad (witness the Infosys results yesterday), political pressures will be pushing the food part of the index in a different direction. Food, which comprises nearly 50 percent of the CPI, is pulling the index higher with a 12.42 percent rise in March.

Going forward, one has to expect further pressures on food inflation even without growth as we head for election season. This is because minimum support prices (MSPs) for foodgrain tend to be jacked up more than needed in an election year.

Moreover, the Food Security Bill, which wants to cover two-thirds of the population with super-subsidised grain (Re 1 per kg for coarse grains, Rs 2 for wheat and Rs 3 for rice), could end up pushing up food prices.

One may ask: why should food inflation rise when you are going to get rice and wheat at Rs 2 and Rs 3? This should bring down CPI.

Two reasons why. One, if food is to be supplied this cheap, subsidies will bloat. It is the high fiscal deficit resulting from uncontrollable subsidies that is part of the cause for inflation.

Two, there is also this counter-intuitive argument for higher food inflation: when the average family gets basic cereals at such low rates, the extra disposable income available will be used to buy high-protein foods – including milk, vegetables, processed foods, even booze. Cereals and products account for 14.59 percent of the CPI, while non-cereal food and beverages account for 34 percent. If inflation in these products shoots, food inflation will rise even if you get rice and wheat cheaply.

Historically, the Congress party’s rural vote-buying techniques have always resulted in high inflation.

If we look at CPI annual averages in the past, whenever the Congress has ruled the country, inflation has soared.

In the 1991-96 period, the first five years of reforms under Manmohan Singh, average CPI (Industrial workers) was 10.2 percent. In the next two years of the United Front government this average fell to 8.1 percent. Inflation really tumbled to 5.4 percent during NDA rule from 1998-2004, setting the stage for faster growth with low inflation.

This is the benefit that UPA-1 reaped, but, thanks to its usual profligacy, inflation has again started soaring from the levels achieved during NDA. During the first eight years of UPA (upto 2011-12), inflation has already averaged 7.7 percent.

But take the initial years out, when the Indian economy was in the sweet spot created by global growth and NDA’s low inflation, and the UPA’s real record surfaces: inflation averaged over 10 percent in 2008-12, till growth came crashing down in 2012-13.

The Congress-led UPA’s lasting legacy, as we have noted in the past, is inflation. This, in fact, is what is bringing down growth. As we have noted several times before, that spells stagflation.

Only luck can now reverse this legacy – and the kind of luck needed is a dramatic fall in world oil prices over the next one year.

But even with this luck, the bottomline will be: low growth, high inflation.

The moot point is why is inflation a Congress phenomenon? One can only attempt a guess: when a dynasty has to rule forever without real charisma or popular support, you need to buy votes by spending government money, whether it is through farm loan waivers or subsidies. It’s not that non-Congress dynasties have fared any better once their charisma faded, but they have limited the damage to some states. At the centre, there is only one dynasty in action. That probably is the link between Congress rule and higher inflation.

Insight: Child Obesity, Are Parents Only Responsible?

By Suleiman Khateeb (Guest Writer)

Junk food, lack of exercise, poor parenting and modern lazy lifestyles are all triggers for obesity among children, which is turning out to be a major health hazard in present-day India. Rahul recently celebrated his 11th birthday. But he looks much older. He has a prominent paunch and weighs over 48 kilos. He hates outdoor games and loves watching television. He is the only child of his doting patents. Sitting by the window of a train zipping from New Delhi to Trivandrum, he refuses a healthy homemade breakfast of idlis and tomato chutney. All he wants is chips. He finishes one packet, then another.