Push irrigation, not dams

 INDIAN EXPRESS | MIHIR SHAH | AUGUST 14 2015    

The presence of a low salinity layer of water with low density is a reason for the maintenance of high sea-surface temperatures in the Bay of Bengal, creating low-pressure areas and leading to the intensification of monsoon activity.(Illustration by: C R Sasikumar) / Picture from Indian Express

 

Recent scholarship supports the chief minister’s refreshing perspective. It shows that most of the peninsular river basins (the Kaveri, Krishna and Godavari) and the Narmada and Tapti have reached full or partial basin closure, with few possibilities of any further dam construction. In the Ganga plains, the topography is completely flat and storages cannot be located there. The problem further up in the Himalayas is that we confront one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world. The Himalayas are comparatively young mountains with high rates of erosion. Their upper catchments have little vegetation to bind the soil. Deforestation has aggravated the problem. Rivers descending from the Himalayas, therefore, tend to have high sediment loads. The Geological Survey of India records many cases of power turbines becoming dysfunctional following siltation. Climate change is making the predictability of river flows extremely uncertain. Diverting rivers will also create large dry regions, with adverse impact on local livelihoods (fisheries and agriculture). The neo-tectonism of the Brahmaputra valley and its surrounding highlands in the eastern Himalayas means that modifying topography by excavation or creating water and sediment…continue reading

People in Sundarbans most susceptible to climate change

DOWN TO EARTH | A K Ghosh| AUGUST 3 2015

The worst-affected and most vulnerable people are those living in the deltas Credit: Marufish/Flickr / Picture from Down to Earth

The phenomenon of “climate change” has undoubtedly become one of the major concerns for the global community in the 21^st century. Scientific evidence has proved beyond doubt the role of human beings in triggering unprecedented changes in the environment, beginning post-Industrial Revolution in the west. While the prolonged debate on climate crisis and how to combat it with mitigation and adaptation measures continue, so does the ever-increasing emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), especially carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Countries with a long history of colonial exploitation in the southern part of the world point out to the historical emitters from the north, who, they feel, should bear the cost of remedial action. But even after more than 20 Meetings of the Conference of the Parties (COP) for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), no acceptable solution can be seen. Meanwhile, people around the world are facing the fury of nature in the form of heat waves, cyclones and storm surges, floods, mountain deluge and drought. The worst-affected and most vulnerable people are those living in the deltas.

India and Bangladesh share the largest deltas in the World—the Ganga, Meghna, and Brahmaputra (GMB) Delta...continue reading

Linking India’s rivers may not be a fruitful exercise, feel environmentalists

The Centre has declared the first inter-state interlinking of rivers, the Ken-Betwa link, involving Uttar Pradesh and Madhya PradeshCredit: Abhishek Sapre / Picture from Down to Earth

DOWN TO EARTH | SUSHMITA SENGUPTA | AUGUST 7 2015

The Centre is keen on interlinking rivers to ensure better flood and drought management and solve water crisis in the country. Interlinking involves the process of diverting surplus river water through a network of canals to relatively drier areas either within a state or among two or more states. Since the time it was rooted, the idea has generated a lot of debate due to its supposed negative environmental impacts. After declaring the first inter-state interlinking of rivers, the Ken-Betwa link, (involving Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh), the Centre is looking forward to announce more such projects. The topic has been raised in every meeting after the Narendra Modi government came to power last May organised by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. In April this year,…continue reading

Chronicle of a struggle retold

THE HINDU | SHIV VISVANATHAN | AUGUST 6 2015

“The battle over the Narmada dam reflects a journey, a pilgrimage, and a recollection of 30 years of resistance.” / Picture from The Hindu

Thus, this calendar chronicles a festival of resistance, of protest, a people’s history of what they think development should mean. As one comes to the last page of the calendar, one feels both hopelessness and a sense of what can be called the poetry of resistance. Today, the movement faces defeat as the new India confronts it with indifference, silence and erasure. Why? This is because development has become the new religion of a middle class, yet the question of the dam — as a problem for science, ethics, history and democracy — stands as an act of defiance, and no matter how weak, resurrects its perpetual questions.

This calendar is a small statement — about memory and defiance. Yet, I wanted to celebrate it because it speaks memory to silence, conscience to indifference and truth to the centrality of power. May be it sounds quixotic, even romantic. Yet, one hopes that every secretariat and every room in the Prime Minister’s Office and his revitalised Planning Committees will carry it. It will be a small reminder of what we have done to our own people. Also, this article is a small ‘thank you’ to all the groups that created this act of memory as a reminder that conscience is not dead in India…continued reading

Another Kind Of Welfare

INDIAN EXPRESS | SARATH DAVALA  | JULY 30 2015

The term that has been in the news recently is “direct benefit transfer” (DBT). This is meant to make the transfer of some welfare benefits transparent and more efficient. DBT has been successful in the case of LPG subsidy and, in one year, the government has been able to save as much as Rs 12,000 crore. While DBT is aimed at improving the efficiency of the management of subsidies, UCT or UBI is an alternative way of thinking about welfare assistance itself. It is an attempt as much to improve delivery as it is to address inclusion and exclusion errors that plague the current targeted social assistance. Swamy takes none of these nuances into account and asserts that “Cash transfers are now being positioned as a magic solution to achieve development goals in health, education, nutrition and food security…” What type of cash transfers is she referring to? And who is positioning it as a magic solution? Which of the pilot studies say so?

Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has said DBT is a “gamechanger”. As far as subsidy management is concerned, this is indeed true. Saving nearly $2 billion  without hurting any of the stakeholders certainly qualifies for a…continue reading

 

Neither BPL nor APL

Socio-Economic and Caste Census can help identify welfare beneficiaries without falling into a binary trap.

ABHIJIT SEN INDIAN EXPRESS JULY 22 2015

The last BPL census had been conducted in 2002 and the procedure then adopted was to collect information on 13 indicators for every rural household and assign a mark for each of these. / Picture from Indian Express

Not many know that the SECC grew from an almost routine exercise to perhaps one of the most ambitious of its kind ever conducted anywhere. The original intent was to simply update existing BPL (below poverty line) lists. The last BPL census had been conducted in 2002 and the procedure then adopted was to collect information on 13 indicators for every rural household and assign a mark for each of these. Households were ranked on the basis of their total marks, and the cut-off for BPL selection was the mark at which the total number of BPL households in a state was equal to the Planning Commission’s poverty estimate for that state. Since the latter was based on surveyed per capita consumption, completely different from the BPL census indicators, the result was a conceptual hotchpotch. It also lacked transparency — no one really knew why they had or had not been classified as BPL — and was therefore subject to manipulation. The outcome, as is well known, was…continue reading

The measure of poverty

Estimates based on SECC and NSS data have different purposes

INDIAN EXPRESS

C.RANGARAJAN and S. MAHENDRA DEV

JULY 20 2015

 

 

Poverty estimates provide the proportion and size of the poor population and their spread across states and broad regions. But they can’t be used for identification of the individual poor. (Illustration by: C R Sasikumar) – / Picture from Indian Express

Recently, the government released data from the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011. There has been comment that hereafter, we need not have consumption-based poverty estimates using NSS (National Sample Surveys) data. It is thought that

SECC data will alone be enough to estimate poverty and deprivation. Here, we briefly examine the differences between the two and clarify that NSS consumption-based poverty estimates are still relevant. SECC-based estimates are important, but no substitutes for NSS-based poverty ratios.

In India, we have a long history of studies on the measurement of poverty. The methodology for the estimation of poverty used by the erstwhile Planning Commission was based on recommendations made by various expert groups. In June 2012, the government of India appointed an expert group (with C. Rangarajan as chairman) to take a fresh look at the methodology for the measurement of poverty.

The Rangarajan expert group has gone back to the idea of separate poverty line baskets for rural and urban areas, unlike the Tendulkar Committee, which took urban poverty as a given and used it as the common basket for rural and urban households. In defining the consumption basket separating the poor from the rest, the new expert group took the view that it should contain a food component…continue reading

 

Why Marathwada is becoming a graveyard for farmers

Season after season of failed crops is pushing farmers to the brink of desperation, while the inaction of the Maharashtra government is allowing agriculture to slip into a steep decline

DOWN TO EARTH

KUMAR SAMBHAV Shrivastava

MAY 19 2015

Farmers spend lakhs of rupees for digging bore wells, many of which do not yield water anymore / Picture from Down to Earth

In Talavada village in Beed district of Maharashtra, farmer Sahibrao Athole made one last attempt to call for help. Lying alone in his field on the night of June 12, 2014, Athole was gasping for breath. He had consumed a litre of pesticide. Athole used his mobile phone to call a friend and left a message for his family. He told him he had gulped down a bottle of pesticide and that he was dying. At first, Athole’s brother, Rahul, did not believe the message. But he soon realised that it was too late in the night for his brother to play a prank. He rushed to the field, about four kilometres from their house, and found Athole lying unconscious. He was frothing at his mouth. Rahul picked him up and ran a kilometre to reach the road. From there, he was taken to a private hospital. Athole showed some signs of recovery initially, but lost consciousness again after two days. On the ninth day, doctors declared him dead.
At 33, Athole was the only breadwinner of his family which included his wife and three children as well as Rahul, his wife and child. “He was extremely hard-working. He would work in the fields early mornings and late evenings and earn daily…continue reading

Why poverty is development’s best friend

THE HINDU

G.SAMPATH

JULY 13 2015

THE VIEW FROM BELOW: “Defining poverty in terms of income limits solutions to those that can raise income.” In the photo, a girl studies at the doorway of her house in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum. / Picture from The Hindu

Or will it be business as usual? Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s reaction to the SECC numbers offer an unambiguous answer: “The way to eliminate deprivation is to achieve rapid economic growth of 8 percent to 10 percent.”

Mr. Jaitley’s words reflect the prevailing wisdom on the best way to battle poverty. Sample these editorials from the business press on the SECC data: “India needs to grow fast…move ever more people from agriculture to industry” says one. Another asserts that “this database provides the strongest foundations…to comprehend the nature of deprivation in different parts of the country. This is the starting point for an understanding of its causes”.

Really? Did we have to wait 67 years, and for this particular set of SECC data, to understand the causes of deprivation in India? Or is it possible that the question is not about understanding causes at all? That what really concerns policy-makers here is not the problem (poverty) but the solution (growth/development)?

The poverty-development tango

Human beings at different points in time have had diverse cultural conceptions of poverty. Not all of them have been negative. Indeed, at a time when India is witnessing a sort of post-modern, pseudo-Vedic revival, it might be pertinent to point out that the sub-continent is home to a long and ancient…continue reading

Food for nutrition, nature & livelihood

DOWN TO EARTH

SUNITA NARAIN

JULY 5 2015

Sunita Narain, Director Centre for Science and Environment / Picture from Down to Earth

What societies eat reflects their position on the modernity trajectory. Poorer countries have health problems because of lack of food. Then as people get rich, they end up losing the health advantage of food availability. They eat processed food that is high in salt, sugar and fat, which make them obese and ill. It is only when societies get very rich that they rediscover the benefits of eating real food and value sustainability.

In India, ironically, it is happening all at once. We have a huge challenge of malnourishment and now a growing battle with the bulge and its associated diseases, diabetes and hypertension. But we also have an advantage: we still have not lost our culture of real food. The nutrition, nature and livelihood connection still exists as Indians eat local, nutritious, home-cooked meals, which are more than often frugal. But this is because we are poor. The question is whether we can continue to eat healthy meals sourced from bio-diverse nature and built on rich culinary cultures even as we get rich. This is the real test.

But to do this, we must get food practices right. We must understand that it is not necessary or accidental that the richer societies tend to lose the health advantage because of bad food. It is because of the food industry, and…continue reading