Nothing is going to change unless system of governance is overhauled in India. Just look at Guwahati.Come the first monsoon showers, the entire city routinely grind to a halt as roads begin to resemble rivers in spate.AND YET,WE HAVE A MINISTRY DEDICATED SOLELY TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY---HEADED BY A SUPER DUPER CORRUPT MINISTER!! KJD
On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 9:16 PM, Chan Mahanta <cmaha...@gmail.com> wrote: > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/world/asia/09food.html?_r=1&hp > > > > Meera Damore sat with her severely malnourished 1-½-year-old son, Pappu, in a > hospital in Jhabua. More Photos » > By JIM YARDLEY > Published: August 8, 2010 > FACEBOOK > TWITTER > RECOMMEND > E-MAIL > SEND TO PHONE > PRINT > REPRINTS > SHARE > > JHABUA, India — Inside the drab district hospital, where dogs patter down the > corridors, sniffing for food, Ratan Bhuria’s children are curled together in > the malnutrition ward, hovering at the edge of starvation. His daughter, > Nani, is 4 and weighs 20 pounds. His son, Jogdiya, is 2 and weighs only eight. > Multimedia > > > Photographs > A Failure to Feed > Related > > Times Topic: India > Enlarge This Image > > Lynsey Addario for The New York Times > Jogdiya, 2, lay with an intravenous drip in the Jhabua District Government > Hospital as his father, Ratan Bhuria, looked after him and his 4-year-old > sister. More Photos » > Enlarge This Image > > Lynsey Addario for The New York Times > A line outside the Fair Price Shop, a government store where subsidized food > is sold, in the village of Ban outside Jhabua. More Photos » > Landless and illiterate, drowned by debt, Mr. Bhuria and his ailing children > have staggered into the hospital ward after falling throughIndia’s social > safety net. They should receive subsidized government food and cooking fuel. > They do not. The older children should be enrolled in school and receiving a > free daily lunch. They are not. And they are hardly alone: India’s eight > poorest states have more people in poverty — an estimated 421 million — than > Africa’s 26 poorest nations, one study recently reported. > > For the governing Indian National Congress Party, which has staked its > political fortunes on appealing to the poor, this persistent inability to > make government work for people like Mr. Bhuria has set off an ideological > debate over a question that once would have been unthinkable in India: Should > the country begin to unshackle the poor from the inefficient, decades-old > government food distribution system and try something radical, like simply > giving out food coupons, or cash? > > The rethinking is being prodded by a potentially sweeping proposal that has > divided the Congress Party. Its president,Sonia Gandhi, is pushing to create > a constitutional right to food and expand the existing entitlement so that > every Indian family would qualify for a monthly 77-pound bag of grain, sugar > and kerosene. Such entitlements have helped the Congress Party win votes, > especially in rural areas. > > To Ms. Gandhi and many left-leaning social allies, making food a universal > right would ensure that people like Mr. Bhuria are not deprived. But many > economists and market advocates within the Congress Party believe the > delivery system needs to be dismantled, not expanded; they argue that handing > out vouchers would liberate the poor from an unwieldy government apparatus > and let them buy what they please, where they please. > > “The question is whether there is a role for the market in the delivery of > social programs,” said Bharat Ramaswami, a rural economist at the Indian > Statistical Institute. “This is a big issue: Can you harness the market?” > > India’s ability, or inability, in coming decades to improve the lives of the > poor will very likely determine if it becomes a global economic power, and a > regional rival to China, or if it continues to be compared with Africa in > poverty surveys. > > India vanquished food shortages during the 1960s with the Green Revolution, > which introduced high-yield grains and fertilizers and expanded irrigation, > and the country has had one of the world’s fastest-growing economies during > the past decade. But its poverty and hunger indexes remain dismal, with > roughly 42 percent of all Indian children under the age of 5 being > underweight. > > The food system has existed for more than half a century and has become > riddled with corruption and inefficiency. Studies show that 70 percent of a > roughly $12 billion budget is wasted, stolen or absorbed by bureaucratic and > transportation costs. Ms. Gandhi’s proposal, still far from becoming law, has > been scaled back, for now, so that universal eligibility would initially be > introduced only in the country’s 200 poorest districts, including here in > Jhabua, at the western edge of the state of Madhya Pradesh. > > With some of the highest levels of poverty and child malnutrition in the > world, Madhya Pradesh underscores the need for change in the food system. > Earlier this year, the official overseeing the state’s child development > programs was arrested on charges of stealing money. In Jhabua, local news > media recently reported a spate of child deaths linked to malnutrition in > several villages. Investigators later discovered 3,500 fake food ration > booklets in the district, believed to have been issued by low-level officials > for themselves and their friends. > > Inside the district hospital, Mr. Bhuria said he had applied three times for > a food ration card, but the clerk had failed to produce one. > > “Every time he would say, ‘We will do it, we will do it,’ ” Mr. Bhuria > recalled. “But he never did.” > > A farmer, Mr. Bhuria fell into deep debt six years ago after he mortgaged his > land for a loan of 150,000 rupees, or about $3,200. Like most people in the > district, Mr. Bhuria is a Bhil, a member of a minority group whose customs > call for the family of the groom to pay a “bride price” before a wedding. Mr. > Bhuria spent most of his loan on his brother’s wedding and was left landless, > yet he and his wife kept having children. They now have six. > > He and his wife migrated with their children to work as day laborers in the > neighboring state of Gujarat. Working in Gujarat is common for farmers from > Jhabua, but since none can use their ration booklets outside their home > villages, they struggle to feed their families. When migrants returned to > plant their fields in July, the malnutrition wards began to fill up at the > district hospital. > > “This is a cycle,” said Dr. I. S. Chauhan, who oversees the wards. “The > mother is also malnourished. And they are migrant workers. They work all day > and can’t care for their children.” > > Moneylenders are common across rural India, often providing loans at > extortionate rates. Some farmers hand over food booklets as collateral. > Sitting in a small shop, Salim Khan said people approach him for loans when a > child is sick or if they need cash to travel for migrant work. > > “Until they repay me,” he said, “I keep their ration card.” > > He uses the cards to buy grain at government Fair Price Shops at the > subsidized rate of about 2 rupees, or 4 cents, a kilogram. He resells it on > the open market for six times as much. The margin represents interest on the > loan. He has held the ration cards of some migrants for seven years. > “Sometimes I’ll have 50 cards,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll have 100 or 150. > It’s not just me. Other lenders do this, too.” > > He said he was willing to lend slightly more money to the most destitute > because their yellow ration booklets made him eligible for the full 77 pounds > of grain, the most available in a tiered rationing system. “The yellow ones > are best for me,” he said. > > This is just one of the illegalities that permeate the system, according to > people in Jhabua. Bribery is also common; government inspectors are known to > extort monthly payments from the clerks who sell the subsidized grain. Some > clerks pay small bribes to local officials to get their jobs or keep them. In > turn, moneylenders slip money to clerks to let them use the ration cards to > collect the subsidized grain, sugar and fuel. > > In a cavernous government warehouse, bags of grain are stacked almost 15 feet > high, awaiting trucks to carry loads to different Fair Price Shops. R. K. > Pandey, the manager, blamed local men for the persistent malnutrition in the > district, saying they often sell the subsidized wheat on the open market and > buy alcohol. He also noted that the Bhil population favored corn, not wheat, > so besides buying alcohol, they also sell the grain to buy corn. > > Efforts are under way to reform the national system. Officials in the state > of Chhattisgarh have curbed corruption by tracking grain shipments on > computers, so that officials cannot steal and resell it. > > Many social advocates, suspicious of market solutions, say that such reforms > prove that the system can be improved. But pro-market advocates say that > issuing either food coupons or direct payments would circumvent much of the > corruption and allow recipients more mobility and freedom of choice. They > point to the eventual creation of a new national identity system — in which > every person will have a number — as a tool that can make such direct > benefits possible. > > These sorts of debates seem like abstractions in much of Jhabua, where > poverty and hunger are twinned. At the malnutrition ward, Dr. Chauhan said > that Jogdiya, the tiny 2-year-old, had pneumonia, diarrhea and possibly > tuberculosis. His health had been steadily deteriorating in recent weeks, but > his father, Mr. Bhuria, had no money for either food or medicine. He had gone > to Gujarat in mid-July in search of migrant work but then quickly returned > after Jogdiya and Nani became sicker. A relative had warned him not to go, > saying his children were too sick. > > But he had felt he had no choice. “We didn’t have anything to eat,” he had > said. > > > > Hari Kumar contributed reporting. > > A version of this article appeared in print on August 9, 2010, on page A1 of > the New York edition. > > _______________________________________________ > assam mailing list > assam@assamnet.org > http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org > _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
