Don’t dismantle, reform

The MGNREGA is a self-targeting programme that assumes that only those who can’t find better-paying, less-strenuous work will participate in the hard manual labour offered under the act. / Picture from INDIAN EXPRESS

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INDIAN EXPRESS | Sonalde Desai | NOVEMBER 12 2015 

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One, how well does the self-targeting mechanism work? The MGNREGA is a self-targeting programme that assumes that only those who can’t find better-paying, less-strenuous work will participate in the hard manual labour offered under the act. A recently published report (of which I am principal author) by researchers from the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the University of Maryland, based on the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) of over 28,000 households before and after the implementation of the MGNREGA, shows that the programme is moderately effective in this. Thirty per cent of poor and 21 per cent of non-poor households participate; and 30 per cent of illiterate households versus 13 per cent of households with college graduates participate. However, it also offers work to a variety of middle-income rural households, such as moderately prosperous farmers who can’t find work during non-harvest periods. Since programmes solely directed at the poor rarely enjoy wide political support, this broad participation may be one reason for its popularity.

Two, does it really reduce poverty? The IHDS shows that among the 24.4 per cent of MGNREGA-participating households, the median number of days worked is 40 and…continue reading

 

Guarantee the funds

THE HINDU | EDITORIAL | NOVEMBER 7 2015

For a scheme meant to be used by the poorest of the poor in their leanest times, it is unconscionable that the government owes Rs.3,200 crore to beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Yet that is exactly where matters have reached with the ten-year-old scheme, a fact the Supreme Court took notice of earlier this week. The scheme was launched by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in its first term and delays in wage payments preceded the change in government, but matters have come to a head over the last year, resulting in a decline in the number of people participating. The number of households that got the legally guaranteed 100 days of work fell from 51.73 lakh in 2012-13 to 46.73 lakh in 2013-14 (under the UPA), and then dipped sharply to 23.24 lakh in 2014-15 (under the NDA). Funds sanctioned for the scheme show a similar steep decline under the NDA government, from…continue reading

A voice under 35: Class notes from a Bihar school

The state has achieved near universal enrollment. The challenge now is to guarantee learning for every child. Start by letting teachers concentrate on academic work

When a scheme, especially one with monetary incentives, is introduced, everyone engages with it. However, these same people are not interested in what goes on in the school. (Source: Illustration by CR SasiKumar) / Picture from INDIAN EXPRESS

 

INDIAN EXPRESS | Shailendra Singh | OCTOBER 26 2015

Even in today’s age of technology, teaching in rural areas remains a challenge. Almost all children have access to school. Now the main issue is how to help them learn. Even after four or five years in school, many children are unable to acquire basic skills of reading with understanding, or arithmetic. Why is this?

There are many factors that contribute to these challenges. Despite a lot of work by the government, many rural schools still lack basic infrastructure. I teach in an upper primary school in a village in Bihar. We still do not have enough teachers or rooms for the number of children in the school. This hampers the work we do. I am sure there are many other schools like mine.

Another, even bigger, challenge is the fact that, in every class, there are children at many different levels of learning. You can see this from Class I to Class VIII. For example, in the same class, there are children who can read a story fluently and understand it, as well as students who struggle to read words, and others who are not familiar with letters. It is impossible for an educator to teach all the children in such a class. Even if we wanted to group children by their level of…continue reading

 

Panchayat undemocracy

In an unequal society, exclusions from the democratic process based on social indicators reflect elitist bias.

INDIAN EXPRESS | BRINDA KARAT | SEPTEMBER 30 2015

An argument is advanced that such conditions will encourage people to go to school. This is rubbing salt in deep wounds. Was it Dalits who did not want knowledge when molten lead was poured in their ears? Was it women who chose to be enslaved in their homes by upper-caste patriarchal norms? The burden of historical injustice lies heavy in today’s India precisely because we have not only failed to eliminate injustices but have continued discriminatory practices, reflected in the statistics above. Without free education and the full…continue reading

‘Contractor raj’ on in nutrition schemes

THE HINDU | ANURADHA RAMAN | SEPTEMBER 22 2015

Maneka Gandhi’s letter to Pankaja Munde has thrown the doors open to the entry of private manufacturers in supplementary nutrition scheme. / Picture from THE HINDU

Supreme Court Commissioners, appointed to monitor the implementation of food schemes, say both are posing a problem for the government.

Two months back, The Hindu had reported on the ongoing flip-flop by the Ministry on the issue. On September 3, 2015, Ms. Gandhi wrote to Maharashtra Minister Pankaja Munde, who has been in the news for awarding questionable contracts worth crores to private chikki manufacturers, drawing her attention to the need to maintain quality in food served to infants and pregnant and nursing mothers under the government’s supplementary nutrition scheme. Ms Gandhi’s letter, many food security activists apprehend, may actually allow Ms. Munde to continue awarding contracts to private manufacturers, whose involvement the Supreme Court has strictly prohibited.

Ms. Gandhi’s letter to Ms Munde, states: “My attention has been drawn to the letter dated 9-7-2015 wherein Government of Maharashtra has sought advice of Central Government for use of extrusion technology for preparation of take home rations under the ICDS scheme… The Ministry of WCD has made it absolutely clear that the directions of the Honourable SC regarding quality and hygiene…continue reading

Modi sedates the farmer

DOWN TO EARTH | LATHA JISHNU | SEPTEMBER 2 2015

Latha Jishnu / Picture from DOWN TO EARTH

This Independence Day, farmers were singled out for special honour by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From the ramparts of the Red Fort, he announced that the ministry of agriculture would henceforth be known as agriculture and farmers’ welfare ministry. He promised a permanent system to address agricultural problems and farmers’ welfare.

Modi also waxed eloquent about as the benefits of neem-coated urea-this could explain the barely concealed boredom of the invitees at the Red Fort -and enhanced crop insurance. There were also homilies on how farmers could save water, save energy and save fertilisers.

The grand proclamation on the name change has been met with stunning silence from the farming community. In any case, what could they have said? Thank you for another sop? We are thrilled that this government has offered us more old baubles in new wrapping? Farmers obviously would have seen through this empty rhetoric since they have been using neem-coated urea for over a decade. For the rest of us who have not tumbled to the not-so-clever spin of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, here are some hard truths. Let’s start with the neem-coated urea that has captured the Prime Minister’s imagination. It is not a new initiative to boost the sharply eroding fertility of India’s agricultural lands as his government claims. According to Fact Checker, a data website, urea, as also some pesticides, has been coated with neem for 11 years! The website mined parliamentary answers to show that…continue reading

From farmer to businessman

The fact that food companies prosper but farmers commit suicide shows that profits are in the market, not the farm. It is time to replicate the Amul story many times over

THE HINDU | TRILOCHAN SASTRY | AUGUST 21 2015

In the ongoing debates on the new land acquisition bill, the potential of agribusiness to address agrarian distress has not been explored. There are several domestic agriculture companies, both listed and private, that are doing extremely well amidst an increasing number of farmers’ suicides.

The classic case is of suicides by cotton farmers. Of late, share prices of textile companies are performing extremely well and attracting huge private investment, but cotton farmers continue to be in distress. Even in staples such as pulses, rice and wheat, food companies do well but the farmers are in trouble. It is significant that all these foods are processed, but not by the farmer. The money is clearly in the market, and not merely in production.

“Textile company shares are booming but cotton farmers continue to be in distress.” Picture shows a cotton farmer with bales for sale at the market yard in Warangal, Telangana. Photo: M. Murali / Picture from THE HINDU

Recognising this, several farmer-owned producer companies and new types of self-reliant cooperatives, broadly called Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), have recently been set up. They aggregate, sometimes process, and then market agricultural produce. The best example of such an FPO is Amul Dairy. Along with other National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)-promoted dairy cooperatives, they have brought millions out of poverty.

In this context, a cold, hard look is required at how agribusiness operates, and at the policy measures, if any, that need to be put in place to enable FPOs to thrive. However, non-dairy agriculture is far more difficult to handle. Prices and supply are volatile and vary at times by over 100 per cent unlike in the case of milk. This not only makes farming difficult, but agribusiness as well.

A look at the listed successful companies in food processing, if we exclude multi-national companies that focus entirely on semi-ready or ready-to-eat foods, shows the following: for listed rice and pulse mills,…continue reading

12 million people have no cooking arrangements in India, says study

 

DOWN TO EARTH | KUNDAN PANDEY | JULY 31 2015

Around 12 million people in India have no proper cooking arrangements. The situation is worse in urban India where around seven per cent of households lack cooking arrangements while in rural India over one per cent of households is deprived of the facility. The facts were revealed by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report based on the 68th round of survey. Maharashtra (3.8 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (2.7 per cent) are the top two states which reported “no cooking arrangement”, the survey says. According to the report, the situation has worsened over the years. It says that 0.7 per cent of rural households lacked any cooking facility in 1993-94 which touched 1.3 per cent in 2012. Similar is the situation in urban India where 6.3 per cent households…continue reading

A bank account for Mary

THE HINDU | JAYSHREE VENKATESAN | AUGUST 17 2015

The PMJDY celebrates success on its website, but thousands of Marys remain outside the banking system. This won’t change unless the scheme alters both design and implementation

The World Bank’s latest Global Findex study says the number of people accessing a formal bank account in India increased from 35 per cent in 2013 to 53 per cent in 2014. However, we need to consider three things. First, the increase in ownership of accounts is still only 18 per cent. Second, dormancy of accounts is also amongst the highest in India at 43 per cent, indicating that not everyone who has an account uses it. Third, and most importantly, this still leaves close to half the country’s population out of formal financial institutions. The PMJDY is attempting to financially include the poorest in India. However, the problem of financial inclusion is not just one of access, but also of uptake. Given the sheer numbers of those excluded, it is virtually impossible for any one programme to create full financial inclusion. The PMJDY rests on the assumption that pressurising banks to open a savings account under the programme would solve the problem of access, while dormancy is addressed by bundling other financial services such as overdraft facilities and insurance.

This is a naïve assumption. My research across 368 households in four districts in Tamil Nadu over the last six months, shows that there are several barriers to banking, chief being the lack of awareness of the programme and its features, among bank employees, business correspondents as well as households surveyed.

In Tamil Nadu, the Hindi words “Jan Dhan Yojana” were referred to as Jal Dhal, Jal Dhan or some variation thereof, amongst the few who did know about it. Second, as Mary’s case illustrates, there is a reluctance amongst bank officials to open an account for the very poor for reasons that range from apathy to ignorance to arrogance. Third, the account only allows for access to the overdraft facility at the discretion of the banker and both overdraft and insurance can only be accessed subject to…continue reading

Organic farming, Sabari shows the way

An organic farm revolution is brewing all over India, it appears. Many states have announced their own organic farming policies.

THE HINDU | EM MANOJ | JULY 19 2015

Production of bio-control agents, bio-pesticides and bio-fertilisers, is yet to gain momentum in public sector organisations. / Picture from THE HNDU

Sabari, a tribal women’s self-help group (SHG) of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) under Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) at Ambalavayal, has launched commercial production of bio-products to support the organic revolution. The members of the SHG of Nellarachal tribal colony were guided by KVK 11-years ago to enter the field to produce bio-products. They were facing hard times then, as their paddy-fields got submerged by the Karapuzha Irrigation project, according to P. Rajendran, head of the KVK.

The KVK selected 10 tribal women with SSLC qualification, and gave them six months training in fungal and bacterial culture, and packing. Under a…continue reading