Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 15 October 2010

Hungry Rising In India

VITAL TO INVEST IN AGRICULTURE

By Shivaji Sarkar

India is a country of contrasts and growing disparities. The spectacular beginning and end of the Commonwealth Games symbolised it in the most grotesque form. The shows were for the super rich and super elite, who could manipulate or purchase an expensive invitation or ticket.

The extreme poor were banished from the national Capital or were made to hide themselves behind multi-crore rupee curtains splashed all over. The crores spent on the Games could have fed some of the hungriest and under-nourished people who live virtually without any civic right.

The Government in the name of security spent another few crores to round up the deprived and forcibly put them on trains to places from where they had come to Delhi in the hope of getting some morsel of food grains. Undoubtedly, the officials can take pride that they showcased the Capital well!

Wish they had done even a fraction of it to save 67,000 tonnes of food grain that were damaged in the Food Corporation godowns in Punjab and Haryana alone. In the rest of the country too lakhs of tonnes of foodgrains, procured with public money, were damaged. The Government refused to heed the Supreme Court orders to give it to the poor people free.

The decision robs the poor doubly. They pay taxes to procure it. They remain hungry and unscrupulous traders make huge profit by charging prices that are unaffordable. This all happens at a poor man’s cost.

Has he got something to do with the rising stock index, now touching the 20,000 mark? Not really. The stock market is the playground for the super rich and the marginal rich, slightly above the middle class, can hardly dare to enter that arena. Who benefits? Definitely not anyone who has less than crores.

What does the poor get? He is made to see the dream that foreign institutional investments would brighten up his life. It has not and possible will not. The nation does not speak of the realities. Many farmers are still committing suicide as they are unable to get out of the money lenders clutches and the Kisan credit card has not been of much help.

The largest number of poor, whether tillers or labourers, still remain in jobs associated with agriculture. This is what the Global Hunger Index (GHI) states. It is a damning report that virtually devastates many official claims that the country is progressing. If it is progressing then how does India have more hungry than in Rwanda, Nigeria, Sudan, North Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal? Why does it rank 67 among 84 nations?  India is among the 29 countries with the highest level of hunger, stunted children and poorly fed anaemic women.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) defines hunger as the consumption of less than 1800 kilo calories a day, the minimum required to live a healthy and productive life.

India is the first to accept the Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which aims at a hunger free-world by 2015. It is ironic that despite a not so low gross national income per capita, hunger levels remain considerably high, states the Asian director of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which prepared the Global Hunger Index (GHI).

Strangely, the Economist magazine only last week predicted that India might overtake China in having a strong economy. That also is a truth. The economy is doing well but its benefits are not percolating down. The most-touted trickle-down theory has seemingly failed. The poor are becoming more numerous as the country seems to be on the path of progress.

In fact, many other developing countries have done better in tackling hunger. Shockingly, India is home to 42% of under-weight children and 48% have stunted growth. Also, rampant food insecurity has clubbed the country with minor economies like Bangladesh, Yemen and Timor.

In the beginning of 1990, the dawn of reforms, the country had 24% under-nourished people. In 2010 it has changed to 22%. But in absolute terms the number has increased as the population since has increased. In 1991, the population was 84 crore and now it is touching 110 crore.

Besides, the hunger index does not include the poor’s dwelling levels. Recent reports by the Central Statistical Organisation shows that the people’s overall quality of life has come down as more of them are living in slums in abysmal conditions.

According to a World Bank report the poor are unable to access housing facilities which are restricted to the upper-income group. There is a shortage of 70 million dwelling units. In 1990, the shortage was 60 million dwelling units. Today, slums and squatter settlements number 52,000 and hold 8 million households representing about 14% of the urban population, the report adds.

Is the system more exploitative in our country? A comparison with China and Vietnam testifies that. Both these countries having high GDP growth have succeeded in reducing hunger. China is ranked ninth on the GHI and Vietnam has reached 39^th position from a very lowly ranking some years back.

This suggests that development in India is not pro-poor as inequalities are rising. It also means the benefit of development is getting restricted to the rich. According to the World Development Report (WDR) 2008, the neglect of agriculture, which still contributes about 20% to the GDP, is a major cause for the inequality.

The WDR avers that a 1% growth in agriculture is three times more effective in reducing poverty than similar growth in the non-agriculture sector. Sadly, agriculture growth has been a mere 2.2% against the targeted 4% during 2007-09. It has been stunted by a combination of policies that has prevented real investment coming to the agriculture sector.

Agriculture, policy makers are yet to realise, employs 60 crore people directly or indirectly. With its neglect the targets set for MDG or any other goal would be difficult to achieve. Given that agriculture growth boosts the economy in many ways apart from improving the conditions of the people.

India would continue to lag in many ways if it does not take care of its most staple and vibrant sector of the economy. Disparities would come down only when the farm sector takes care of the overall growth. Go back to the villages, Mahatma Gandhi had said 70 years ago. We need to pay a heed to him. ----INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)