The latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) states that the unemployment rate (UR) in both rural and urban India is at its highest since 1972.
The unemployment rates among men and women in both rural and urban groups, are also the highest ever. The increase in the UR is more than three times among rural men and more than double among rural women according to the usual status since 2011-12.
In urban areas, the UR among men is more than twice and has increased twice among women since 2011-12. It is to be noted that the UR between 1972 and 2012 was almost static or did not have many differences (See Table 1). Besides, the UR rose sharply among youth of ages between 15-29 years and those who got better education.
The measurement of unemployment is based on the Usual status and Current Weekly status. The Usual Status (ps+ss) approach to measuring unemployment uses a reference period of 365 days i.e. one year preceding the date of the survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) for measuring unemployment.
The Current Weekly Status (CWS) approach to measuring unemployment uses seven days preceding the date of survey as the reference period. A person is considered to be employed if he or she pursues any one or more gainful activities for at least one hour on any day of the reference week.
The Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation had constituted PLFS under the chairmanship of Amitabh Kundu. The data was collected by NSSO from July 2017 to June 2018. The survey was spread over 12,773 first-stage sampling units (7,014 villages and 5,759 urban blocks) covering 1,02,113 households (56,108 in rural areas and 46,005 in urban areas) and enumerating 4,33,339 persons (2,46,809 in rural areas and 1,86,530 in urban areas).
The unemployment rates in urban areas are higher than those in rural areas. In rural areas, the UR is 5.3 per cent, whereas in urban areas, the UR is 7.8 per cent according to the usual status. The overall unemployment rate is 6.1 per cent in India according to the usual status. According to CWS, the rural employment rate is 8.5 per cent whereas the urban rate is 9.6 per cent. The overall unemployment rate is 8.9 per cent.
In urban areas, the unemployment rates for females are higher than those for males. Table 1: Unemployment rate (in per cent) according to the usual status and current weekly status from 1972-73 to 2017-18
Table 2: Unemployment rate (in per cent) among youth (15 to 29 years) in usual status during 2004-05, 2009-10, 2011-12 and 2017-18
The unemployment rate among youth between 15 and 29 years has risen sharply since 2011-12. Among rural males and females, the UR is almost three times since 2011-12, whereas among urban males and females, this rate is more than double.
The UR has also sharply increased among those who are more educated. Since 2011-12, the UR among rural males has increased by almost three times, from 1.7 per cent to 5.7 per cent. Those who have higher degree of education and those who are completely not-literate have witnessed almost the same level of unemployment.
Interestingly, unemployment among rural not-literate females has reduced and among urban females, the number of those who are literate up to primary-level jobs, is the same as 2011-12. (See table below) Table 3: Unemployment rates (in per cent) according to usual status for the persons of age 15 years and above with different educational attainments during 2004-05, 2009-10, 2011-12 and 2017-18
Among social groups, the highest UR is among the ‘General’ or ‘Others’ category — 6.7 per cent. This groups is followed by Schedule Castes (6.3 per cent), Other Backward Classes (6 per cent) and Scheduled Tribes (4.3 per cent).
Among religious groups, Christians have the highest UR in both urban and rural areas. In rural areas, Christians have a UR of 7.4 per cent, Muslims have a UR of 6.5 per cent, Sikhs 6.3 per cent and Hindus 5.2 per cent.
In urban areas, Christians have a UR of 11 per cent, Sikhs 9.1 per cent, followed by Muslims 8.5 per cent and Hindus 7.6 per cent.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bt-brinjal-turns-out-to-be-different-genetically-modified-variety/story-N3TdpnulTU0TYnEq4DV3HM.html?fbclid=IwAR3xEebLJCodVkvjkXYjRdVy3yE9yFJOzFedwt-FrQiN5td-RprcQ0-sm1E
Issue of GM brinjal in haryana is becoming more murky and scary. Tests show that (if we have to beleave the department and NBPGR) the samples are genetically modified but doesn’t contain Cry1Ac but has other promoters and other sequences..which brings us the question..what is this?
there seems to be two possibilities
a. there were 5-6 events which are tried by various public institutions like delhi university, Odisha University of Agril and technology, Indian Institution of Horticulture research, Tamil nadu agril university, National research centre for plant biotechnology at IARI and Indian Institute of vegetable research tried different events..whether any of those went to field knowingly or unknowingly? this could be from the research farms or someone sold it to a private company which is illegally doing this. not many private companies have invested in this area as far as data we compiled..i may be wrong….
b. other situation is the event either the mahyco event or anyone of the above escaped into. nature and getting spread multiplied on its own. the broken elements if the gene event may be more damaging, less damaging ..even donno what is. ..what a scary thing?
whether it stopped with brinjal, or also made in roads into okra, paddy, maize, and other 33 crops where genetic engineering is experimented on.
given this…it’s high time we take stock of situation and put biosafety systems in place. things seems to have deteriorated further than 2009 when a moratorium was imposed on bt brinjal by @jayaramramesh.
Current EU regulations forbid human exposure to pesticides that are classified as mutagenic, carcinogenic, reprotoxic (toxic for reproduction), persistent or capable of disrupting endocrine systems. By virtue of these and other protective measures EU regulations are considered the gold standard in public protection.
However, experts who are closely linked to industry (or are part of anti-regulation pressure groups) have taken control of the EU’s new Science Advice Mechanism (SAM). These experts have contributed to a report commissioned to reevaluate the EU’s authorisation of pesticides. The report, called “EU authorisation processes of Plant Protection Products”, and published in late 2018, recommends dramatically weakening the EU regulatory system. Especially notable is the adoption of many ideas previously proposed by the chemical industry. For example, the EU currently deems the acceptable level of public exposure to mutagenic pesticides (those that damage DNA) to be zero. The new report recommends scrapping this standard of protection.
ILSI-Europe Headquarters, Brussels (Photo Credit: PAN Europe)
The history of the new SAM report is that it was requested by EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis. Its purpose was to determine how to act in cases of so-called ‘diverging views’; that is, when media and public interest groups get involved. The request follows a series of major controversies over EU regulatory decision-making. One such controversy was over the herbicide Glyphosate. A “European Citizens Initiative” delivered more than a million signatures to the EU Commission asking for a ban on Glyphosate. Several cities banned Glyphosate. Even a dairy company banned the use of Glyphosate by their farmers.
With this pressure from all over Europe, the EU Commission had difficulty reaching a decision since many EU member states (Bulgaria, Denmark, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Finland and the U.K) opposed a ban. Ultimately, a very unusual 5-years extension for glyphosate was agreed but soon the discussion will start again.
Issues with neonicotinoids have also pushed the EU Commission into a corner. Neonicotinoid insecticides are linked by much research to ‘bee colony collapse’ and, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature “represent a worldwide threat to biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services” (Goulson, 2013; IUCN 2017). This again placed the EU Commission in the crossfire since many EU member states and their ministries of agriculture wished to keep neonicotionids on the market. Waves of scientific publications and media attention about dying bees and empty beehives forced the EU Commission to finally ban them. Nevertheless, Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Lithuania still resist the ban by using derogations.
A third big controversy has been endocrine disruption. Public concern about hormone-mimicking chemicals forced politicians in 2009 to address endocrine disruption concerns in the regulations and ban endocrine disrupting pesticides. An enormous lobbying effort from industry, the US chamber of commerce, EU Directorate General (DG) Enterprise, and EU DG Growth, tried to stop the implementation of the new rules, especially during the TTIP trade negotiations with the US. EU DG Environment was isolated and in the end DG SANTE (health) was found willing to do the dirty work of undermining the rules. Again, waves of bad publicity from the public and scientists harmed the credibility of the EU Commission. This debate too is far from over.
Conflicted science advice
The SAM report is important since it will soon be used by the EU Commission as an input for its ‘REFIT’ programme to evaluate pesticide regulation. This is a programme that the chemical industry sees as a major opportunity for a regulatory roll-back.
Some of the experts invited to help SAM and listed on the SAM website, however, are not independent. Instead, they have strong links to the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). ILSI is a worldwide network, a federation of non-profits funded by many industries, including the pesticide industry, and which provides expertise in regulatory issues.
ILSI global includes over 400 company members and ILSI Europe includes 88. Among them are every pesticide multinational.
Sourcewatch writes of ILSI that: “The interests of food, pharmaceutical, tobacco, energy, and other industries have become even more entwined. They have learned to cooperate (rather than blaming each other for the cancer epidemic) and they now form coalitions to fight health and environmental regulations.
“It is notable that [ILSI members] generally employ the same lawyers, lobbyists and PR companies, and use essentially the same tactics”.
ILSI has a negligible public profile, and claims not to be a lobby group, but is very active behind the scenes in obtaining seats for ILSI-associated scientists on regulatory panels such as that of the EU Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and international organisations like WHO, the World Health Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN, and the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) of the WHO. Experts generally do not disclose their links to ILSI and pretend to be independent academic scientists.
A recent example of ILSI members successfully getting seats on an EFSA-panel concerned the risk assessment idea of a Threshold of Toxicological Concern (TTC). This idea assumes chemicals are safe at low doses without (expensive) testing. It has been an important goal of the chemical industry to establish TTCs in European and other jurisdictions.
PAN Europe has analysed the process of developing guideline for the TTC at the European Food safety Authority EFSA. We discovered that the chair of the EFSA working group was Sue Barlow, who worked for ILSI and the cigarette industry. She had volunteered to be chair of the EFSA working group. From this position she installed an ILSI network. This EFSA working group then more-or-less copy-pasted the ILSI proposal, making it into an EFSA opinion.
ILSI has been imposing its ideas on many other current EU risk assessment methods too, intending to weaken protections and ease access of pesticides to the market. Thus a PAN Europe survey showed that out of 12 EU pesticide risk assessment methods analysed, 8 were designed and promoted by ILSI. Industry is being allowed, under the radar, to “write its own rules”.
The conflicted scientists
In the case of the SAM, a prime example of these conflicts is UK professor Alan Boobis who is listed on the SAM website as a contributor to the SAM report. Alan Boobis has been active in ILSI for decades. Until January 2018 he was the chair of its Board of Trustees. Due to his conflicts of interest Boobis was disbarred from a new expert panel convened by EFSA in 2012.
French professor Dominique Parent-Massin is mentioned alongside Boobis as working on the SAM report. Prof. Parent-Massin has previously worked with ILSI member, Ajinomoto – the world’s biggest Aspartame producer.
Also listed on the SAM website is Joergen Schlundt, former Director of the Danish National Food Institute. Schlundt is also a former ILSI board member .
All three are listed on the SAM-website as contributors to the report, or as providers of evidence through another report written by a new network called Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA), or as being part of a ‘sounding board’ and fact-checking process. Despite these counter-indications the SAM website states that “The Commission found that none of the interests declared constituted a conflict of interest.”
Another expert used by the SAM is German professor Daniel Dietrich, editor-in-chief of the journal Chemico-Biological Interactions. With a group of editors of journals of pharmacology and toxicology he has been very vocal in trying to stop the regulation and banning of endocrine disrupting pesticides (in EU Regulation 1107/2009). Dietrich published editorials in several scientific journals that triggered highly critical responses from other scientists, such as members of the ‘Endocrine Society’. Ties between the Dietrich group of authors and industry were exposed by Le Monde journalist Stéphane Horel who found 17 out of the 18 experts of Mr. Dietrich’s group have past or current ties to industry. The Dietrich group has been prolific, publishing articles like ‘Endocrine disruption: Fact or urban legend?’ that disputes the health risks of endocrine disruption (Nohynek et al., 2013). Even after former EU science advisor Anne Glover achieved a consensus between opposing groups that toxicological thresholds below which chemicals are safe (see TTC above) were unproven, Dietrich and his group (along with Alan Boobis) still claimed their opponents used “pseudoscience” (Dietrich et al., 2016). Dietrich also opposed the EU ban of bee-harming neonicotinoids, and both Dietrich and Boobis criticized the IARC-report asserting the genotoxicityof Glyphosate.
Conflicts in EU science advice
The EU has mechanisms to prevent conflicts of interest from derailing its scientific decisions. The SAM website currently presents ‘Declarations of Interest’ (DoI) for its members including for Boobis, Parent-Massin, Dietrich, and Schlundt. But one might wonder if procedures to report conflicts of interest are functioning. DoI’s were not available online when the SAM-report was published (in June 2018). One was even not signed until considerably after publication, in August 2018.
The efforts of ILSI have so far been effective. Several of its campaigning targets are included in an important “SAPEA evidence review report“. SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) is a new body set up by European science academies. This evidence review is intended to feed into the SAM report and featured many of the conflicted scientists above. SAPEA’s report promotes many industry objectives, such as the use of ‘historical control data’. The great importance of this is that, since many potential historical controls exist, their use makes it much easier to ascribe toxic effects observed in animal testing as being simply noise and therefore irrelevant.
Another industry goal is to promote inexpensive (in vitro) ‘mode-of-action assessment’ in preference to expensive adverse outcome testing. A third is to drop the obligation for chronic mouse testing.
The aims of PAN Europe and the Endocrine Society, on the other hand, are: 1) to recognise the reality of ‘low dose effects’ which are currently not tested at all for pesticides; 2) the recognition that chemicals may cause non-linear toxicity responses over a wide range of doses. These are called ‘non-monotonic dose-effect responses’ (whereas regulators presently acknowledge only linear dose-response curves of toxicity and even dismiss effects entirely if they are not linear); 3) mandatory testing for endocrine disruption; 4) to dispute the current regulatory assumption that chemicals have safe thresholds. All are missing from the SAPEA report.
In a further blow to precaution, the SAM report proposes to change EU rules by exchanging the acceptable level of citizen protection from “do not have any harmful effects on humans” for an undefined level, that of “acceptable risk”. This is the change of regulation that would make human harm legal, since it would stop the EU’s much-detested-by-industry ‘hazard approach’ that aims to avoid any exposure of humans to classified (mutagenic, carcinogenic, reprotoxic (toxic for reproduction), persistent and endocrine disrupting) pesticides.
SAM proposes that the EU should re-examine this ‘hazard approach’, which has been under attack by industry for many years; and so it seems that SAM might prove to be the instrument by which industry finally achieves successes for which they have campaigned so long.
The EU has shown itself sensitive to public pressure. What is now needed is for that pressure to be redoubled.
“It was during the 2018 floods that we got a call from a farmer in Adilabad. The caller didn’t need any help for himself but said that his neighbour has been sitting in a corner of his field since morning with a bottle of pesticide in his hand. The depressed farmer had lost his entire crop during the Adilabad floods that lashed the district that year. The farmer later called us, crying. We immediately sent our field coordinator to the village and counselled him. His land was stuck in certain legal issues and with the help of the district collector, we made sure the legal tangles were resolved in a week’s time,” Shruthi narrates one of the many incidents where Kisan Mitra, a distress helpline, has saved a life.
Shruthi, who heads the team of counsellors at Kisan Mitra, is among the many volunteers in the organisation who are lending a helping hand to the distressed farmers of Telangana. Kisan Mitra, a non-profit organisation, is a rural distress helpline that acts as an intermediary between the government and farmers.
Set up in 2017, the helpline strives to provide financial security to farmers and makes sure entitlements reach their pockets on time. Apart from securing an economically stable future for the farmers, the volunteers at Kisan Mitra also provide counselling to farmers who are on the verge of suicide and handle distress calls from farmers who are depressed and need a ray of hope in their lives.
Why are the farmers distressed?
Telangana is one of the states worst hit by the agrarian crisis. Thousands of farmers have killed themselves since the inception of Telangana and the state stands second when it comes to farmer suicides in the country. So what exactly is worrying the farmers in the state?
Harsha, one of the founder members of the organisation, tells TNM that it’s the lack of proper implementation of schemes that is drowning the farmers in the state under massive debts.
“Kisan Mitra was floated as a subsidiary of the Centre of Sustainable Agriculture after a number of farmer organisations brought to our notice the farmer distress in the rural parts of Telangana. So over the years, what Kisan Mitra has been able to gauge from its activities is that there is no dearth in the monetary schemes for farmers introduced by the government but there definitely is a lack of interest on the government’s side to ensure proper implementation,” says Harsha.
He goes on to add, “For example, a cotton farmer is entitled to a sum of Rs 30,000 per acre from the government. But the vicious cycle of debt begins when the farmer fails to get the amount on time. For him to continue work on the fields, he borrows money from money lenders at exorbitant interest rates. Some farmers will also submit their land deeds as mortgage. By the time the government money reaches him, he might have already paid multiple installments of the interest money.”
And this is where organisations like Kisan Mitra come into the picture.
“We ensure that the entitlements from the government reach the farmers on time. For this, we begin with creating awareness on what the government schemes are, what are the viable means of investment and also insurance, about which most farmers have least knowledge about,” Harsha explains. Calling for help still a stigma
Of the hundreds of calls that Kisan Mitra receives in a day, most are distress calls made by men. But Shruthi, who heads the counselling team, says there’s a long way to go before men feel that it’s all right to talk about mental health and not give in to the societal pressure of proving one’s hyper-masculinity.
“To begin with, none of the farmers suffer from any psychological issues. It’s various factors joined together that drives a farmer to suicide. In rural areas, mental health is still a taboo to be discussed. It was only last year that a farmer killed himself after suffering from extensive crop loss. His wife knew of his mental condition but was threatened to not to talk about it to anyone. One day, as he got a cue that his wife was meeting the village head for some financial help, he consumed poison and ended his life. Such is the stigma associated with mental health in our country,” Shruthi shares.
And for the same reason, Kisan Mitra conducts awareness programmes not just for male farmers, but also for women who are in a better position to advise and counsel their husbands.
Shruthi, who was working as a psychologist in Hyderabad, left the job and joined the Kisan Mitra team in 2018.
“It’s mostly the small income farmers who fall into huge debts. While many maybe at the verge of suicide, some may also be just seeking solutions to their problems. For farmers who need immediate counselling, we send our field coordinators to help them. If we think a particular farmer needs monetary help, we make arrangements to ensure he is eligible to some sort of monetary scheme under the government. This may not be a direct government intervention but an alternate mechanism where we ensure that the farmer has enough money to buy food or is able to send his kids to school,” Shruthi explains.
Kisan Mitra currently operates out of three districts – Vikarabad, Mancherial and Adilabad. While its field volunteers are limited to these areas, it receives calls and provides counselling to farmers from across the state. Of the 9000 plus calls that Kisan Mitra has received till date, Harsha says they have been able to resolve over 5000 cases and the rest are still pending for some level of intervention from the government.
The organisation also has its presence on WhatsApp, where it tries to disseminate more information on organic farming and provides knowledge on best farming practices.
“We also visit hospitals and meet farmers who have survived suicide attempts. There are many reasons that can lead a man to desperation. Kisan Mitra is currently trying to zero in on these triggers and help victims cope with them,” Shruthi adds.
like ease of doing business, Central government is trying to come up with an index to measure performance of states on supporting agribusiness. here while, the concept notes talks about farmer as entrepreneur, much of the indicators considered to be measured are to process indicators and outcomes are not measured. for example it talks about implementation of market reforms as suggested by centre and not the prices farmers accrued as a result of the reforms.
there is a need to rework on these indices and probably develop an independent one.
here is the press release http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=188052 http://www.agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/Concept_Note.pdf
Manchiryal
Heavy rains on 22nd April caused heavy damage to paddy crop, mango crop, paddy stored at home and market yards and to the infrastructure like the electricity poles etc
reported by Punnam, Kisan Mitra Team, Manchiryal, Telangana
Global warming has caused the Indian economy to be 31 per cent smaller than it would otherwise have been, according to a Stanford study which shows how Earth’s temperature changes have increased inequalities.
While the impacts of temperature may seem small from year to year, they can yield dramatic gains or losses over time.
Global warming has caused the Indian economy to be 31 per cent smaller than it would otherwise have been, according to a Stanford study which shows how Earth’s temperature changes have increased inequalities. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that growing concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere since 1960s have enriched cool countries like Norway and Sweden, while dragging down economic growth in warm countries such as India and Nigeria. “Our results show that most of the poorest countries on Earth are considerably poorer than they would have been without global warming,” said climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh, from Stanford University in the US.
“At the same time, the majority of rich countries are richer than they would have been,” Diffenbaugh said in a statement. The study from 1961 to 2010, global warming decreased the wealth per person in the world’s poorest countries by 17 to 30 per cent. Meanwhile, the gap between the group of nations with the highest and lowest economic output per person is now approximately 25 per cent larger than it would have been without climate change.
While the impacts of temperature may seem small from year to year, they can yield dramatic gains or losses over time. “This is like a savings account, where small differences in the interest rate will generate large differences in the account balance over 30 or 50 years,” said Diffenbaugh.
After accumulating decades of small effects from warming, India’s economy is now 31 per cent smaller than it would have been in the absence of global warming, he said. Although economic inequality between countries has decreased in recent decades, the research suggests the gap would have narrowed faster without global warming. The study builds on previous research in the team analysed 50 years of annual temperature and GDP measurements for 165 countries to estimate the effects of temperature fluctuations on economic growth. They demonstrated that growth during warmer than average years has accelerated in cool nations and slowed in warm nations.
“The historical data clearly show that crops are more productive, people are healthier and we are more productive at work when temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold,” said Marshall Burke, a Stanford assistant professor of Earth system science. “This means that in cold countries, a little bit of warming can help. The opposite is true in places that are already hot,” said Burke.
Researchers combined data from more than 20 climate models developed by research centres around the world. Using the climate models to isolate how much each country has already warmed due to human-caused climate change, the researchers were able to determine what each country’s economic output might have been had temperatures not warmed. “For most countries, whether global warming has helped or hurt economic growth is pretty certain,” said Burke.
Tropical countries, in particular, tend to have temperatures far outside the ideal for economic growth. “There’s essentially no uncertainty that they’ve been harmed,” he said. It’s less clear how warming has influenced growth in countries in the middle latitudes, including the US, China and Japan. For these and other temperate-climate nations, the analysis reveals economic impacts of less than 10 per cent.
Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited in all other districts
Total sum insured per tree:
Age 5 to 15 years: Rs. 450
Age 16 to 50 years: Rs. 800
All loanee farmers who were sanctioned bank loans before December 15th, 2018 should have automatically been enrolled.
Details on conditions for insurance claims due to excess rainfall and windspeed
Excess rainfall
After 1st of March, if two days consecutive rainfall exceeds 70 mm, farmers with trees aged 5-15 years will be paid Rs. 10 per tree per mm of excess rainfall, up to a maximum of 100 rupees per tree. Farmers with trees aged 16-50 years will be paid Rs.18 per tree per mm of excess rainfall, up to a maximum of 175 rupees per tree.
High Windspeed:
From 1st of April to 30th of April, trees are insured in case of high windspeed (upward deviation of daily maximum windspeed), in excess of 35 KMPH
Trees aged 5- 15 years: Payment is Rs. 11.25 per tree, with additional 1.5 rupee per KMPH over 35, up to a maximum of 33.75 rupees per tree
Trees aged 16-20 years: Payment is Rs. 20.25 per tree, with additional 2.70 per KMPH over 35, up to a maximum of 60.75 rupees per tree
Payment will be made only for a single event of maximum intensity – not for multiple events
Among all the tribes the group that gets mostly affected are women and children. Tribal women with poor intake of protein and energy are likely to give birth to a Low Birth Weight infant.
Among the tribal population of Chhattisgarh, high levels of malnutrition — with women and children the most affected — is a major challenge they face, besides those of poor literacy and lack of empowerment. The nutritional and health issues of tribal women and children can be addressed by giving them iron and folic supplements, supplying them with fortified food and through deworming, besides other interventions.
India has a total of 104,545,716 scheduled tribes which constitute 8.6% of the total population (Census, 2011). There are around 700 different state-specific Scheduled Tribes. Of these 700 tribes, 75 are identified as Primitive Tribes Groups (PTG) due to their pre-agriculture level of technology, stagnant or declining population, extremely low literacy and subsistence level of economy. Chhattisgarh has 7,822,902 Scheduled Tribe population. Of this 3,873,191 are males, 3,949,711 are females and 15.3% comprise the child population. The literacy rate among Schedule Tribe population in Chhattisgarh is 59.09%, and sex ratio is 1020. Gond, Bhunjia, Baiga, Bisonhorn Maria, Parghi, Muria, Halba, Bhatra, Parja, Dhurvaa, Muriya, Dandami Mariya, Dorla, Dhanwar, Kol, Korwa, Rajgond, Kawar, Bhaiyana, Binjwar, Savra, Manji, Bhayna, Kamar, Munda and Abujmaria are some of the prominent tribes of Chhattisgarh.
The heterogeneity among the tribes is quite distinct with each tribe being quite different from the other in terms of language and dialect, customs, cultural practices and life style. Despite this diversity, tribal communities do have similarities, though broad generic ones. They are known to dwell in compact areas, follow a community way of living, in harmony with nature, and have a uniqueness of culture, distinctive customs, traditions and beliefs which are simple, direct and non-acquisitive by nature. The tribal population because of their peculiar way of living do face challenges. The major issues are – poor literacy rates, slow pace of development, lack of empowerment and high levels of malnutrition driven by communicable disease, limited livelihood opportunities, high dependency on land and forest produce, improper infrastructure in remote areas.
All these issues in some way or the other affect the health and well-being of tribes. Among all the tribes the group that gets mostly affected are women and children. Tribal women with poor intake of protein and energy are likely to give birth to a Low Birth Weight infant. Although malnutrition is prevalent among all segments of the population, poor nutrition among females begins at infancy and continues throughout life time. Status of Health and Malnutrition among Tribes in Chhattisgarh:
Malnutrition has necessarily to be approached from a life cycle perspective. An underweight, anaemic pregnant teen mother has to contend with early pregnancy, inadequate spacing between successive births and poor prenatal nutrition and healthcare. The resulting low birth weight baby faces poor healthcare, hygiene and nutrition practices and develops into a stunted and underweight adolescent. This pattern is replicated over subsequent generations of mothers.
If a child’s dietary intake of protein, carbohydrates, fat and micro-nutrients is inadequate, she/he suffers from malnutrition, adversely affecting his/her health and increasing his/her susceptibility to disease. Equally critical are the underlying determinants that operate at the household level– food security, nurture-care for the mother and child and a healthy environment, including safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation, shelter and accessible healthcare. Ultimately, whether these basic rights are available or not to individuals and households depends on the social and economic arrangement that determines access to resources and the ability to effectively use these resources.
As per the National Family Health Survey 4, every district in Chhattisgarh has wasting levels higher than 15 percent (rated as very high). Rajnandgaon district has the lowest level of wasting (17.2 percent) and Bastar has the highest (33.9 percent). The health scenario of tribes presents a mosaic of various communicable and non-communicable diseases in consonance with socio-economic beliefs and practices in the state. The widespread poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, absence of safe drinking water and sanitary conditions, poor maternal and child health services, focused coverage of national health and nutritional services, etc. are the major contributing factors for the dismal health and nutrition among tribal communities.
The above gets authenticated by key health and nutrition indicators as below :
S.No
Indicator
Value (NFHS-4)
1
Neo-natal Mortality Rate (NMR)
48.3
2
Post Neonatal Mortality (PNM)
17.5
3
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)
65.8
4
Under Five Mortality
80
5
% women who had full ante-natal care
18
6
% Institutional Delivery
69.9
7
% children with diarrhoea given food as usual
29.1
8
Underweight children
43.8
9
Stunting (-2 standard deviations SD)
42.2
10
Stunting (-3SD)
19.2
11
Wasting (-2SD)
26.0
12
Wasting (-3SD)
10
13
% of Children Breastfed (BF) within 1 hour of birth
46.7
14
Exclusive BF
5.4
15
Anemia status among Children
26.4
The status of health and nutrition indicators among tribes of the state are poor due to multiple factors which are discussed below.
These can be seen as challenges for further strive :- Real Time Data: The fundamental problem lies in the non-availability of ongoing real-time data on the nutrition status of individual children pertaining to stunting, wasting and being underweight. Effective action under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) to tackle child malnutrition requires reaching out to every child, monitoring her/his growth pattern systematically on a monthly basis from birth to the age of five, and ensuring attention from both the ICDS and the public health machinery to their nutrition and health needs at the project level and below. Poverty Issue: The Lancet, one of the most authentic medical journals, has come out with a daily dietary recommendation of 2,500 calories from various food items fulfilling caloric requirements, as well as ingredients essential for growth of different body parts and mental faculties. An estimation of the cost of this daily diet based on the present day prices of food items comes to approximately Rs 130 per person per day. For a family of 5 members this comes to Rs 650 per day or Rs 19,500 per month. This is impossible to meet in the present day economic structure of tribal predominant regions. The minimum wage in India as recommended by the expert Committee, in the name of national minimum wages, ranges from Rs 8,892 to Rs 11,622 per month meant for the unskilled worker. This is unachievable in the tribal region.
The tribal economy can be classified on the basis of their economic pursuits in the following way: 1. Foragers, 2. Pastoral, 3. Handicraft makers, 4. Agriculturists, 5. Shifting hill cultivators, 6. Labourers, 7. Business pursuits. All these professions are directly or indirectly dependent on land. The tribals, due to their poor literacy rates, lack of understanding of the social and judiciary structure, and their inherent shyness remain in the background. The ancient methods of cultivation, lack of use of modern methods, loss of productivity of land, adversely affects their condition, and pushes them into poverty. Social Issue: Due to the traditional socio-economic practices being adopted by tribals they have limited employment and livelihood opportunities. The difficult living conditions, and hard-to-reach terrain pose problems in the supply chain management of government- supported schemes like Public Distribution System (PDS), ICDS, health care. It also hinders exploring and teaching new livelihood skills to the tribal. Health Issue: Healthcare is a major problem in the far-flung isolated tribal areas. Lack of food security, sanitation and safe drinking water, poor nutrition and high poverty levels aggravate the poor health status of the tribal. The problem of malnutrition is multi-dimensional and inter-generational in nature. Limited health institutions in vulnerable areas and the tribal’s lack of trust in the modern system of medicine creates problems in service delivery. Societal Issue: Babies born to undernourished tribal mothers face a high risk of restricted foetal growth and death. Those who survive are likely to be stunted with a high probability of transmitting their poor nutrition status to their next generation. The status of girls/women within the household, their agency and decision-making abilities, especially with respect to their reproductive rights, are important factors which merit a closer look. Facing intra-household deprivations due to their sex and abject poverty, these young girls often forego necessary nutrition, care and rest during their pregnancy period, delivering low birth weight babies. For these babies, the cycle of malnutrition has already begun. Policy Issues: While food is an essential component, food-based solutions are not sufficient by themselves. Children may receive a diet which is both adequate in quantity (calories) and quality (nutrients). However, if they are already weakened by ill-health and disease, they will be unable to absorb sufficient nutrients from their food. Unfortunately, our singlehanded approach towards addressing under-nutrition has been through food provision.
Second, there is enough scientific evidence indicating the importance of the first 1,000 days (roughly translating to about 2 years) of a child’s life. It is estimated that about 80% of the brain development takes place during this time. However, children start coming to the Anganwadi Centres (our primary intervention in this area) after they are 3 years old. By then, precious time is lost and it is already too late. In fact, there is limited contact between the child and the system (barring routine immunization by the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) and visits by the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker in case the child is visibly sick) till the child attains 3 years of age. Thus convergence of schemes and bringing them under one umbrella require deep thought and practice in tribal areas. Implementation Issue: Considering the multi-dimensional nature of malnutrition, convergence is the key. However, an analysis of the three biggest programmes in this area – ICDS, POSHAN and National Health Mission (NHM) – showed that there were only 39 common high-burden districts among them (NITI Aayog, 2017). The number is likely to be less if we consider the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Such lack of geographic convergence results in substantial loss of resources as well as sub-optimal results. Convergence and coordination among the frontline workers, especially those delivering health and nutrition services is the key. This, in turn, needs to be supported and supervised by a strong monitoring mechanism. The capacities of the frontline worker to deliver on the field needs to be enhanced. While all the programmes have in-built components of Social and Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC), counselling and health and nutrition related education, these are generally neglected and receive less priority, mainly due to their intangible nature. Following are the points that can be envisioned for intervention :
Nutrition and Health issues of tribal inhabitants can be immediately addressed by targeting six different beneficiary groups through six different interventions (Iron and Folic Acid supplementation, deworming, intensified Behavioural Change Communication, testing and treatment at the point of care, mandatory fortification and addressing non-nutritional causes of anemia) by leveraging six re-vamped institutional mechanisms. Undoubtedly good health is an essential ingredient for better scope of literacy and livelihood.
Improving nutrition and health for women and children requires investment to be made in changing the determinants of poor nutrition and health, using a variety of policy instruments and other efforts. Such policy efforts could be merging of similar schemes and programmes targeting the same beneficiary or redesigning with larger pool of funds and better monitoring structures.
Purchasing capacity of people in remote tribal region needs to increase to eradicate and erase malnutrition and health issues in the tribal region. All health, nutrition, livelihood and development schemes have to be dovetailed and converged under a single umbrella to focus on overall development and welfare of tribal inhabitants.
(Sajid Memon, Joint Project Coordinator, Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Chhattisgarh, belongs to the state civil services of 1998 batch. He has 15 years’ experience of working in externally aided nutrition projects and dovetailing of Information Technology with Nutrition and Health.)
Punjab is a northern state in India, comfortably nestled with five rivers flowing through the state. With a history of having several of its regions a part of the great Indus Valley Civilization, the state always boasted of its extremely fertile soil making agriculture a significant part of its economy. Rice, sugarcane, and cotton are grown in the state with wheat being the largest grown crop. Fruits and vegetables are also widely grown in the state. Punjab is considered the “Wheat bowl of India” since it produces up to 164.720 lakh net tons of wheat.
However, recent events like mounting farmer debt have been putting tremendous pressure on the tillers of the land and loan-waiver is not a permanent solution to the problem. Reportedly, earlier this week thousands of farmers staged a protest squatting on the railway tracks at Jandiala near Amritsar.
Heaven screaming for help
The state that paved way for the Green Revolution in the 1960s, has witnessed a drastic fall in the agricultural output over the years, with the farmers drowning in debt. The cost of inputs like labour, fuel, and fertilizers have increased over the years with the price of output remaining stagnant. The once fertile soil has turned to be running out of water-retention capacity due to increased use of chemicals and pesticides. Inadequate rainfall adding to the woes of the farmers. The groundwater is being used to irrigate 73% of the land in the state which has led to a sharp decline in the groundwater levels. In addition, there are no regulations on the digging of tubewells.
Wheat and Paddy come under the category of crops with a guaranteed minimum support price (MSP). However, growing paddy is stripping the land of water that affects the fertility of the soil in the long term. The prices of other crop are uneven and unregulated. When the farmers try growing other crops, marketing and earning from them becomes tricky. With farming becoming increasingly impracticable, the small farmers are leasing their land instead of farming it to avoid losses. For all the reasons mentioned, the farmers resort to debt from the financial institutions or private moneylenders. These debt-ridden farmers when unable to repay the loans succumb to the pressures and commit suicide.
Farmers and the Government
There are around 10.93 lakh farmers across Punjab, of which 2.04 lakh (18.7%) are marginal farmers (those having less than 2.5 acres of land), 1.83 lakh (16.7%) small farmers (those having 2.5 acres or up to 5 acres), and 7.06 lakh (64.6%) farmers have more than two hectares.
Captain Amarinder Singh, the Congress candidate, before 2017 Assembly Polls promised that his government would eradicate the instances of farmer suicide with a complete loan waiver scheme however with coming to power the scheme came with a catch.
The loan waiver scheme covered only those loans that were taken from banks and cooperative societies. It provided relief to marginal and small farmers for loans up to Rs 2 lakh availed from the lending institutions.
An astounding 900 farmers and labourers have reportedly committed suicide in the last two years.
This is according to a data compiled by Bharti Kisan Union (Ugrahan) from several news clippings related to farmer suicide appearing in five Punjabi newspapers since the Congress government took over in 2017. Sukhpal Manak, Press Secretary of Sunam block of the union, who prepared the list, said that the actual number might be higher as they have not included the suicides reported in local and news channels, Hindi and English newspapers and web portals.
The reports of several farmers committing suicide over a period of two years hint at the government’s failure to provide a safety financial cushion to them. The farmers who resorted to extreme steps of taking their lives have either not been covered under the waiver-scheme or had taken loans from private moneylenders. The Tribune reported that a 40-year-old debt-ridden farmer Gurmel Singh committed suicide after he was unable to repay the farm loans. In his suicide note, the victim cited mounting debts as the reason and stated that the state government did not provide any relief.
State Government’s reaction
Chief Minister Captain Amrainder Singh indulging in political blame- game, said states alone cannot do everything and they need assistance from the Centre as well. He was speaking during the launch of the third phase of his government’s loan waiver scheme at Anandpur Sahib on 24 January.
An extension to his existing scheme it now includes farm laborers and landless farming members of Primary Cooperative Agriculture Service Societies providing relief to nearly 2.85 lakh farmers.
A permanent fix from the Experts
Senior Agricultural Economist, Professor Gian Singh says that loan waiver was not a permanent solution to farmers’ miseries. According to him, a permanent solution would be when the farmers do not need to take loans in the first place or if, at all they do, they are able to repay it with ease.
Director, Institute for Development and Communication, Professor Pramod Kumar said, “The answer does not lie in debt waiver, it lies in increasing the MSP [Minimum Support price] to increase the productivity. Therefore, the need is to rethink over the agriculture policy. The basic question is how to double the income of farmers that is the fundamental question which all these governments have started addressing now. The need is to involve policies which can increase the farmer’s income or double it so that farming as a venture becomes profitable or liveable.”
He also suggests that more emphasis should be given on technology transfer also by providing the farmers with the social security and safety cover so that the farmers are not compelled to borrow money from private moneylenders, which will again get them into a debt trap.
“If this is not done they [farmers] will never be able to emancipate themselves from the vicious debt cycle. The governments will come and waive-off loans but the farmers will continue to live under a debt trap till their income is not doubled.”
Photo: Getty Images
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