Jul 06 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

How Bharat Lives





SECC survey of rural households yields valuable data, growth remains the best option

Wide-ranging data on socioeconomic status of rural house holds released last week added to the richness of informa tion on the transformation of rural India. When seen in totality, National Sample Survey information on consumer expenditure and PDS, and the C Rangarajan group report on poverty show rural India has become better off over the last few years. The pace of improvement, however, is not fast enough.It is essential to take a comprehensive look at data to avoid bewildering conclusions. For example Kerala, India's richest state by rural per capita consumption, has more rural households which identify manual casual labour as the main source of income when compared to Rajasthan. Kerala is better off than Rajasthan on any meaningful measure of well-being. Therefore, the sheer range of data which has come in over the last 18 months will help craft better policy but only if the right questions get asked. UPA, in this context, did get some policies right. Rural poverty dropped almost nine percentage points between 2010 and 2012 to stand at 30.9% of the population. Malnutrition too declined. NDA and state governments now need to calibrate interventions to make them more effective.
It is important to avoid the trap of ideological pigeonholing when intervening.Inept governance is India's primary chal lenge. To illustrate, NSS data on PDS shows Tamil Nadu's performance is qualitatively better than West Bengal. Around 34 years of communist rule in Bengal made little difference to the state's vulnerable sections. Simply put, if rural households in Tamil Nadu and Bengal have the same income, the former are significantly better off on account of a better standard of basic governance. Merely throwing money at a problem is not a solution.
The central message of the socioeconomic status of rural households is more than half of them identify labour as the primary source of income. From a policy standpoint, the question to be asked is since they are not tied to land why don't they have more non-farm options of employment? If anything, this survey shows how closely rural India's prosperity is linked to that of urban India. Policies that foster economic growth help in two important ways. People have an opportunity to move to better jobs and governments raise more resources to invest in effective welfare measures. The overall effect of both outcomes is to reduce poverty.

Jul 06 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

`11% of rural, 6% of urban people under 30 never went to schools'

Mahendra Singh

New Delhi:





Around 11% of those between 5-29 years of age in rural areas and 6% in urban areas never went to any educational institution, reveals an NSSO survey conducted between January and July , 2014. The students of the same age group who dropped out were around 33% in rural areas and 38% in urban areas.The survey has highlighted that the proportion of dropouts and `never enrolled' students depended on the living standards of households.The dropout rate was low in case of families with higher usually monthly per capita consumer expenditure (UMPCE). It was found that the proportion of the `never enrolled' category fell steeply from nearly 16% in the poorest households to only 6% among the richest in rural areas. In urban India, too, the percentage dropped from 12% to 1% from the bottom to the top class of households.
The survey found that the proportion of `never enrolled' persons in early 2014 had reduced by around 30% as compared to 2007-08.
However, it noted that the overall picture for proportion of dropouts, both in rural and urban areas, had not changed significantly over time as well as over UMPCE classes.
The survey revealed that the major reason for non-enrolment in rural areas was `not interested in education' (33% male and 27% female) while in urban areas, nearly 33% males and 30% females in the age group 5-29 years never enrolled because of `financial constraints'. The most common reason for dropping out for males was engagement in economic activities (30% in rural areas and 34% in urban areas), whereas for the females, the dominant reason was engagement in domestic activities (33% in rural areas and 23% in urban areas).
It noted marriage as second major reason for females (17%) to leave education in urban areas. The survey found that in rural areas, dropouts were mostly in the age-group of 5-15 years for both males and females. In contrast, in urban areas most dropout were in the age-group of 16-24 years.

Now, a National Award for rag pickers

The national award, with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh, will be given to three best rag pickers and three associations.

Now, rag pickers’ services will be recognised by the government which has decided to give national award for their contribution to keep India clean.

“There are millions of rag pickers in the country. This informal sector has saved the country. They are doing a good job and I have decided to recognise their efforts. We will grant national award,” Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said at an event on waste management in New Delhi.

The national award, with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh, will be given to three best rag pickers and three associations involved in innovation of best practices, he added.

Stating that rag pickers are helping to some extent in handling waste, the Minister pitched for setting up of a credible agency like Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) that can guide municipal bodies to take measures to address waste management in a scientific way.

“At present, agencies that handle solid waste are working on contractual basis and this has failed miserably. Handling waste cannot always be a profitable business. We have suggested that the Urban Ministry build a credible agency like DMRC that can give scientific guidance,” he said.

The Minister also mentioned that there are adequate funds for waste management. “What is lacking is scientific guidance to handle different kinds of waste,” he said.

Expressing concern over the large quantity of untreated waste and sewage in the country, Javadekar said that current rules have been revised to ensure every village of over 5,000 population has a waste treatment plant.

The country generates 62 million tonnes of waste annually. “This is expected to increase to 165 million tonnes by 2030 and 450 million tonnes by 2050,” he said adding that the worrying fact is that 68 per cent of waste and sewage is not treated in the country at present.

He said the new draft norms on waste management, which aim to put in place a strong mechanism to address concerns related to different kinds of waste, would be implemented from August-end after seeking public comments.

Keywords: rag pickers, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, waste management

Over 50% of children under five stunted in UP

Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Tripura are the only States which have reduced the proportion of underweight adolescent girls according to the findings of the Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC), a nation-wide sample survey of over one lakh households conducted by the UNICEF.

The State-level numbers reveal that while some States have made remarkable progress in battling child malnourishment, others have made little progress despite a decade of high growth. Among the developed States, Gujarat is the only one to perform worse than the national average in reducing the numbers of child stunting cases and underweight children.

Almost all States have performed poorly in reducing the number of underweight adolescent girls.

Uttar Pradesh still has the highest levels of child stunting, with over 50 per cent of the children under the age of five underdeveloped, meaning that their height is more than two standard deviations less than the expected height for their age for that population.

Jharkhand, meanwhile, has the highest number of underweight children under the age of five, meaning their weight for age is more than two standard deviations less than what would be expected.

Kerala remains the best performing State in the number of child stunting cases, while Manipur and Mizoram have the lowest numbers of underweight children.

Delhi and Mizoram reduced child stunting at the fastest rate between 2004-05 — when the last official National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) was conducted — and 2013-14.

While Madhya Pradesh and Bihar still have high levels of underweight children, both States reduced these numbers at fast rates along with Himachal Pradesh.

No State reported an increase in the proportion of children underweight or stunted, a significant reversal from past trends.

The RSOC findings show that at the national level, stunting is higher in rural areas (41.7 per cent) than in urban areas (32.1 per cent), as is the case for underweight children.

Keywords: UNICEF survey, Rapid Survey on Children, India child malnourishment

Right intent, misplaced action

The decision of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Maharashtra to derecognise madrasas and institutions imparting vedic education unless they are also offering formal education including in subjects such as science, mathematics and social sciences has, predictably, created a controversy. More than a lakh of students — most of them studying in madrasas — could be affected. The decision to declare them “out of school” has drawn flak. The suspicion among critics is that this decision is in line with earlier moves by the State government that were seen to have been taken with a communal bias, such as the ban on beef. But looked at dispassionately, this particular government action does not seem totally without merit. It is clear that many madrasas — often the only resort for poor Muslims dependent on community support — require reform: education in these institutions needs to be modernised with the introduction of curriculum related to subjects beyond religious education. Less than 10 per cent of all Muslim children study in madrasas, according to data released by the HRD Ministry some years ago. In Maharashtra, of 1,889 madrasas, about 559 teach courses in science, mathematics and English, and depend on state support. Religious teaching in many madrasas is found to be largely sect-driven, where education on various interpretations of Islam is imparted. Some of the sect-driven madrasas, such as those affiliated to the Deoband school, have refused to make changes to the curriculum. But others have welcomed state and community support to reform and expand the scope of studies.

Theological education, while preparing Muslim children to take up religious vocations, does not equip them well enough to cope with the modern world, even if there are some exceptions to the situation. This brings out the need for madrasas to expand the gamut of their teaching to other subjects that are taught in non-religious schools. There has been a long-term imperative in education policy in India to standardise education to conform to secular and modern values. State governments should work towards realising this need. It is another matter whether the Maharashtra government’s decision to declare religious schools as ineligible for funding is the right way to persuade them to modernise. Instead, the government could have taken an approach that is proactive and inclusive, allowing for more time for madrasas that were already funded by the previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party-led government to modernise and to involve the Ministry of Minority Affairs to help with the process of reform.

Keywords: vedic education, Muslim children study, HRD Ministry, Maharashtra government, BJP-led government in Maharashtra

Green signal for skill entrepreneurship policy

In a first to implement skill development, while promoting entrepreneurship, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have given its approval for the country’s first integrated National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 today. The policy acknowledges the need for an effective roadmap for promotion of entrepreneurship as the key to a successful skills strategy. The vision of the policy aims “to create an ecosystem of empowerment by skilling on a large scale at speed with high standards and to promote a culture of innovation based entrepreneurship which can generate wealth and employment so as to ensure sustainable livelihoods for all citizens in the country”. To gain its momentum, the policy has four thrust areas. It addresses key obstacles to skilling, including low aspirational value, lack of integration with formal education, lack of focus on outcomes, low quality of training infrastructure and trainers, among others. The policy further seeks to align supply and demand for skills by bridging existing skill gaps, promoting industry engagement, operationalising a quality assurance framework, leverage technology and promoting greater opportunities for apprenticeship training. There is also a focus on Equity, which targets skilling opportunities for socially/geographically marginalised and disadvantaged groups. Skill development and entrepreneurship programmes for women has a specific focus in the policy. In the aspect of building or generating entrepreneurship for skill-based people, the policy seeks to educate and equip potential entrepreneurs, both within and outside the formal education system. It also plans to connect entrepreneurs to mentors, incubators and credit markets, foster innovation and entrepreneurial culture, improve ease of doing business and promote a focus on social entrepreneurship. The previous National Policy on Skill Development was formulated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in 2009 and was reviewed after five years to align the policy framework with emerging national and international trends.

Two-minute wake-up call

Nestle's resistance to the nationwide ban on Maggi noodles shows why the country needs an urgent policy on recall of harmful food products

THE FOOD Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) ordered a nationwide ban on all variants of Maggi noodles on June 5, leading to a massive food product recall—the biggest in the country so far. The recall was initiated after FSSAI authorities found lead beyond the permissible limit and monosodium glutamate without appropriate labelling in the popular two-minute noodles.

Food recall procedure involves removing a potentially harmful product from the market to ensure consumer safety and has been recognised as the most effective means of protecting public health globally. Earlier this year, FSSAI had ordered the recall of several energy drinks, including Monster and Restless, due to non-compliance with safety standards. But this was not part of any systematic food recall procedure in line with global practice. Unlike Western countries such as the US and European nations, India does not have an official recall policy, says Bejon Kumar Misra, an expert on consumer protection policy. Section 28 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, provides for recall of food products, but it does not specify necessary details, such as the role and responsibility of food business operators (FBOs), including manufacturers, retailers, importers and suppliers, timeline of the recall process, tracking of compliance and follow-up.

Recall policy a must

The absence of such critical guidelines explains why food companies such as Nestlé have acted less responsibly when it comes to safety standards. Despite excessive lead found in samples, Nestlé continues to maintain that Maggi noodles are safe and is contesting the recall order in court. This is in contrast to the recall of beef products in Europe by Nestlé in 2013 after finding horse DNA in two of its products. Unlike in India, the company took responsibility and apologised to consumers.

In some cases, recall has been voluntary—recall of Sunchips by Frito Lay’s and Special K red berries by Kellogg’s in the US this year (see ‘Back from the market’). Meanwhile, there have been 32 food recalls in Canada since March and 33 in the US since April. “In general, food companies voluntarily perform recalls when approached by government agencies. However, there have been a few instances when they have not and the government has been forced to take legal action to remove the products from commerce,” says Tony Corbo, senior lobbyist at Food and Water Watch, a Washington-based consumer rights group.

Draft gathers dust

FSSAI had developed rules for recall in 2009, but there has been no update. No FSSAI official was available for comment. In April this year, the apex food body issued a draft regulation, “Food Safety and Standards (Food Recall Procedure) Regulations, 2015” for public comments. It is open to the public for feedback till August 1.

The draft is a comprehensive document on the recall process. Addressing the common interest of industry, government and consumers, it clearly mentions possible reasons or triggers for a food recall, methods of recall communication and role and responsibilities of FBOs. The draft puts the onus of recall largely on FBOs, with the food authority, Central and state, acting as a supervisory body to monitor progress.

As stated in the draft, a recall can be initiated due to any complaint or public health hazard identified by the manufacturer, consumer or food authority. With little variation, the proposed regulations are broadly in line with features of recall procedures adopted by several countries such as the US, Canada and New Zealand.

While the draft incorporates most of international practices, it misses out on a few aspects that are integral to the international recall system. These include “recall classification”, which determines the level of hazard involved. Notably, the 2009 rules had such a provision. The latest draft also needs to be strengthened with respect to a safety alert system. The food authority should have a web-based facility to monitor the recall and keep the consumers informed. “Government recall mechanism needs to be more transparent,” says Devinder Sharma, a food and trade policy analyst. An example of such a transparent facility is Europe’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed. It details the list of product recalls that have taken place, product type, category, notification date, reasons of alert, hazards and action taken.

India urgently needs a comprehensive document on food recall and FSSAI should finalise the proposed draft without much delay. “Product recall is a logical step in the regulatory system. Unfortunately, the Indian regulatory system is weak,” says politician Brinda Karat.

J P Dadhich, sub-regional representative, International Baby Food Action Network, a global network of organisations, welcomes FSSAI’smove, saying it is a step in the right direction. “The challenge now is to finalise the guidelines quickly and implement them effectively,” he says.

Sharma notes that the recall of Maggi should serve as a wake-up call not only for the government but also industry. Considering the huge number of food products available in the markets today, increasing cases of contamination and growing globalisation of food and food chains, India needs to have a system in place wherein an unsafe product can be timely put out of consumers’ reach, a system that can tell the end consumer in the remotest parts of the country about the risks associated with unsafe but available food.