Labour’s love’s lost

The proposed labour reforms seek to weaken worker protection at a time when the Indian economy is not creating enough jobs, and the right kind of jobs.

On September 2, 10 trade unions in India organised what was said to be one of the largest labour strikes in history. An estimated 120 million workers took part. The unions were protesting against the government’s unwillingness to grant a 12-point charter of demands they had put forward. A year ago, unions had signalled their discontent by having a similar nation-wide strike.

This year, one of the principal demands of the unions was an increase in the daily minimum wage for unskilled workers from Rs.246 to Rs.692. They rejected an increase in the wage to Rs.350 offered by the government. Some of their other major concerns were: proposed changes in labour laws; growing casualisation of labour; privatisation; and greater opening up to foreign direct investment (FDI).

Future tense, present imperfect 

Labour is restive today. It is apprehensive about what the future bodes for itself. But it’s not as if labour militancy has gone up in recent years. On the contrary, man-days lost due to industrial disputes (lockouts and strikes) came down from 23.7 million in 2001 to 13 million in 2012 before rising to 19 million in 2013. These figures are considerably lower than those in the 1970s and 1980s.

However, there is little doubt that organised labour in India, as in the rest of the world, sees itself as a loser in the changes unleashed by liberalisation and globalisation. It fears that if the government goes ahead with some of its proposed “reforms”, its losses will begin to mount.

Indian businesspeople as well as many economists have long clamoured for greater “flexibility” in labour laws, a euphemism for freedom to hire and fire. The Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2016, which is said to favour such flexibility, is due to be tabled in Parliament in the near future. It is bound to evoke a strong reaction from unions as well as Opposition parties.

Several economists say that rigid labour laws are the reason India has not generated enough jobs in the formal sector — only about 10 per cent of jobs are in the organised sector and the remaining 90 per cent in the unorganised sector. As large firms do not have the confidence that they can shed workers in adverse conditions, they do not wish to enter labour-intensive, low-skilled sectors. This is the reason India has not been able to replicate the Chinese success in labour-intensive manufacturing.

This argument may have well been overtaken by events in the global economy. Many other low-cost economies have already positioned themselves in these sectors. Automation in the West means that the window of opportunity in these sectors is fast closing. The idea that reforming labour laws will trigger a huge expansion in low-skilled manufacturing is thus highly suspect in today’s changed situation.

The experience so far

Moreover, the academic literature on the subject is not unambiguously in favour of easing labour laws as a means for hiring more labour. Dismissal laws in France are more stringent than in India, but that did not come in the way of France’s prospering for over a century. China itself has made its labour laws more stringent so that they are comparable to those in India (except in special economic zones).

Indeed, some of the literature suggests that giving workers greater protection helps increase productivity by giving workers more incentives to invest in firm-specific skills. Along with collective bargaining, worker protection leads to more egalitarian outcomes in society. There is also evidence that the bias against workers in Indian industry may have more to do with tax incentives for capital than with restrictive labour laws.

A second issue that agitates unions is the growing trend towards casualisation of labour. This was one of the reasons for labour unrest at Maruti’s plant at Manesar in Haryana last year.

Companies find it expedient to employ labour on contract. They can then leave the job of managing regulations and inspectors to the contract labour firms. They can also stay small and escape various labour regulations. Most importantly, contract labour tends to be cheaper in general; at Maruti’s Manesar plant, contract workers earned less than half the wages of permanent workers.

Contract labour is a serious assault on workers’ rights. The Supreme Court has made strong observations on companies’ resort to contract labour in order to avoid statutory obligations. The Economic Survey (2015-16) believes that contract labour is merely a corporate response to “regulatory cholesterol”. However, reducing worker protection in the organised sector may not be the answer — many firms would still prefer the contract option simply because it’s cheaper. Rather, we must extend worker protection and benefits to contract labour as well.

Privatisation and FDI are other areas of concern for organised labour. It is not that we have seen major initiatives to sell off PSUs. But there are clear attempts to further shrink the role of the public sector. Public sector banks (PSB), for instance, have been starved of capital and many banks are today without chairmen and managing directors. Moves have also been initiated to merge PSBs. Unions see these moves as impacting jobs in the formal sector adversely.

In principle, FDI should mean more investment and more job creation. However, in a situation where domestic firms have weakened by inadequate growth, FDI is seen as displacing jobs in domestic firms.

It’s the jobs

The proposed labour reforms seek to weaken worker protection at a time when the Indian economy is not creating enough jobs and the right kind of jobs. The rate of growth of employment slumped from 2.8 per cent in 2000-05 to 0. 5 per cent in 2011-12. In the same period, the labour force grew at 2.9 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively. In the organised sector, the share of informal employment rose from 48 per cent in 2004-05 to 54.6 per cent in 2011-12.

Job creation in the private sector is depressed by the low rate of investment. Investment itself is constrained by numerous factors: high levels of debt, high interest rates, a deceleration in corporate loans growth in PSBs, etc. In these conditions, a focus on weakening dismissal laws in the organised sector as the key to job creation is misplaced.

The International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook (April 2016) lends support to this view. It cites studies that have shown that weakening dismissal conditions under adverse economic conditions tends to reduce employment. The IMF argues that if such changes to labour laws are to be carried out, there must be offsetting fiscal expansion that helps raise demand for labour. India is in no position to meet this condition as we are still in the process of fiscal consolidation.

There is a time for undertaking certain structural reforms and there is a time for not doing so. Focussing on changes to labour laws at the present time, far from fostering job creation, is likely to be counterproductive and can only result in greater labour unrest.

T.T. Ram Mohan is a professor at IIM Ahmedabad. E-mail: ttr@iima.ac.in

Keywords: labour, labour reform, labour unrest, unions, strike

Source: The Hindu, 12-09-2016

TISS Seeks HRD Ministry Help on Funding Tussle

Anubhuti Vishnoi

New Delhi:





OUT OF SYNC The institute, which is facing 46% cut in its non-salary grants, tells ministry there is a mismatch in the opening balance of accounts maintained by TISS and UGC

An escalating row with the higher education regulator has led the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to seek human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar's intervention in a 46% cut in its non-salary grants.The development comes barely a year after the Mumbai-based institute was forced to take bank loans to pay staff salaries while the government withheld grants.
The row over funding escalated so much that director of TISS wrote to the University Grants Commission in July , “There is no need to humiliate us. TISS is not asking any favours, we are only asking for rightful grants. And we have no one at the UGC to turn to demand to be treated in a dignified manner.“
At the heart of the row, officials said, is an “accounting problem“.While TISS claims that its opening balance on April 1 stood at about `14.36 crore, the UGC maintains it is not more than `2.48 lakh. In a communication sent to UGC on August 20, TISS termed UGC's assessment “incorrect“. It has put out statistics to claim that UGC failed to release the sanctioned amount to the institute, causing a shortfall of about `15.57 crore.
Professor S Parsuraman, director of TISS, told ET that the institute has written “several times“ to the UGC on the issue. While the HRD ministry has been supportive, “the UGC is not listening“, he said. The ministry, on its part, said the issue is being addressed.
“TISS has communicated to the ministry that opening balance of accounts of TISS does not match with that of accounts maintained in UGC regarding TISS. As a result TISS is receiving less grants from UGC,“ the ministry said in response to ET's queries. “There has been a meeting with TISS and UGC officials. UGC has called for more records from TISS to sort out the issue difference in OB. TISS is yet to provide the required records. It is purely an accountancy matter which is being reconciled between UGC and TISS,“ the ministry said.
The UGC did not respond to ET's queries despite repeated reminders.
In its August letter to the UGC, TISS said the non-plan grant approved by the UGC for 2015-16 was `4,515.02 lakh for meeting expenditure on salary of regular teaching and non-teaching staff. However, the UGC released only `3,212.75 lakh ultimately, a shortfall of `1, 188.76 lakh. For the new pension scheme, the UGC released `343 lakh against a sanctioned amount of `597.29 lakh, causing another shortfall of `229.81 lakh.
TISS described as a “double blow“ the “wholly incorrect and unwarranted deduction“ of `1556.56 lakh from the amount due to institute.

Source: Economic Times, 12-09-2016

Achieving Mental Balance And Happiness

Vijay Maharaj





Life mirrors our deeds and thoughts. Some people live and die without even displaying an urge for a higher spiritual life. All scriptural works tell us that life and religion are interconnected and that the latter guides us to live in happiness, without fear or tension, to improve our abilities and build self-confidence. Positive thoughts and the willingness to do any kind of work entrusted to us, will fetch success.The rules governing pure life have been laid down in holy books. They say that life is really meant to release the individual soul from the clutches of tempting influences in order to achieve bliss.
The soul's purity can be maintained by making the body take up divine work, to speak truth and entertain only pious thoughts. Thoughts, words and deeds should be identical. To attain spiritual perfection, one needs to practise meditation and chanting. The mind, senses and the intellect will all perish with the body; spirit alone is immortal.Ultimate liberation can be secured by extinction of all desires.
Therefore sages advise to avoid too much talk and to do more work. Sentiments of other people should be appreciated and respected.Practise what you preach. Stay unruffled in the face of praise or abuse. Maintaining equanimity will arise out of adoption of the procedures prescribed in the scriptures as one will then easily forgive and forget what others say . Never be a slave of circumstances, say elders. The most important advice tendered by saints is: avoid hating others whatever may be the provocation. Be friendly through maitri bhava, remain happy and smiling as pramod and with karuna (compassion), be forgiving. A worldly man is invariably a slave of two mighty currents of the mind attraction and repulsion. He is happy when he experiences pleasure but sad when he is faced with sorrow. He sticks to pleasant objects while he runs away from those which cause him pain.
Most people are not able to resist passion and desires. But the one who overcomes them will be calm and composed.
Even men of strong moral strength have showed signs of weakness and have fallen victim to worldly temptations.
Sacred literature tells us that by developing an attitude of detachment, it may be possible to maintain mental balance.
A story from Jain scriptures points out that a dispassionate man is unaffected by both pleasure and pain.Four disciples once approached their spiritual master. The first said he would undergo penance by sitting on the wooden lid of a dry well. The second said he would meditate at the mouth of a dark den where a lion lived. The third declared that he would conduct penance in a mountain chasm where pythons are plentiful. The youngest said he would carry out his discipline in the dancing-hall of a courtesan, a statement which naturally evoked laughter and derision from others.
The young man who had once been a visitor to the courtesan's house, was now absolutely unconcerned about her charm and continued his austere life even while living in her house. Her music and dance did not disturb his concentration. When he returned to the hermitage after some time, his acharya found him pure, radiating spiritual aura. One can develop dispassion by looking into the defects of sensual life. Detachment from all objects, at all times will result in obtaining knowledge of the Self.

Cheap data can usher in green revolution 2.0

Vishwa Mohan

New Delhi:





Govt Programmes Aiding Farm Output Will Help Only If Farmers Can Access Such Info On Mobiles

Prospects of cheap internet data might have taken political overtones with politicians getting into the `atta' (wheat flour) verses `data' debate, but availability of cheap and fast data has the potential to increase farm productivity and farmers' incomes.India's space agency Isro's ongoing programme of predicting site suitability for a particular crop, cropping intensity , early-season crop forecasting, soil texture, moisture as well as agricultural water management will show desired results only when farmers can access these information on their smart phones.
“The country's space ag ency can even assess if a particular crop can be planted in a particular site. But dissemination of such information to each and every farmer in the country remains a big challenge. The government's initiatives through Digital India programme will help, provided farmers can afford internet data on their mobile phones and access those vital inputs,“ said an official involved in the programme.
Though a lot of such information is being shared through various `krishi vigyan kendras' (agriculture science centres) across the country, farmers still don't get fast and accurate farm and cropspecific solutions to their problems on the ground.
Availability of affordable data will help them get such information at a time when the world is fast moving towards `digital farming' whe re data-driven insights are helping farmers improve their on-farm decision-making.The days are not far when they can send farm pictures, including of weeds and infected portion of crop fields, to scientists and get quick solutions on their phones.
Crop science division of global crop protection and seed giant Bayer AG has started testing its digital tool in India.The idea behind `digital farming' is to help farmers identify pests, diseases and weeds down to the square metre of their farms and provide them with solutions to enhance yield and farm profitability .
The company last week demonstrated its `digital farming' tool during the `Future of Farming Dialogue 2016' in Leverkusen, Germany . Responding to TOI's question on how such tools would work in India where a majority of farmers have small landholdings, head of Bayer's crop science division Liam Condon said a lot of testing was going on to find out the rights solution for them. Condon said the testing was being done in India to find out how mobile-phone technology could combine with the outreach programme and how it could be used in smart and simple ways to help the company solve problems of farmers.
During the Farming Dialogue, experts explained that digitalisation could give farmers timely field-level information for selecting right inputs, including fertiliser or crop protection dose, determining the ideal time for crop protection steps and recognising plant stress factors at an early stage.

Source: Times of India, 12-09-2016

Will the Paris agreement be ratified by end of 2016?

Presently, 27 countries accounting for 39.08% of global emissions have ratified the climate pact.

If there is one question that climate treaty watchers are speculating on the world over, it is this: Will the Paris agreement be ratified by end of 2016? The treaty that was negotiated at the UN summit in Paris last year can enter into effect only 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of the global emissions ratify the treaty. That means, only if the requisite countries ratify the treaty by end of November, around the 22nd Conference of Parties (CoP) summit in Morocco, will the Paris pact be ready to enter into force by the end of this year, not otherwise. Presently, 27 countries accounting for 39.08 per cent of global emissions have ratified the climate pact, according to the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change, the nodal UN agency monitoring the implementation of the treaty.

With the two top global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emitters – U.S. and China - ratifying the treaty ahead of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, all eyes are now fixed on the other top global emitters - EU, India, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia and Mexico – to see when they will be following suit. According to an earlier World Resources Institute calculation, if along with U.S.and China, all the other mentioned top emitters take action, then over 70 per cent of the global GHG emissions will be covered.

Here is an up-to-date list of countries that have ratified the Paris climate treaty as of now:

Country	Signed	Ratified
Bahamas	22 Apr 2016	22 Aug 2016
Barbados	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Belize	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Cameroon	22 Apr 2016	29 Jul 2016
China	22 Apr 2016	3 Sep 2016
Cook Islands	24 Jun 2016	1 Sep 2016
Democratic People's Republic of Korea	22 Apr 2016	1 Aug 2016
Fiji	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Grenada	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Guyana	22 Apr 2016	20 May 2016
Lao People's Democratic Republic	22 Apr 2016	7 Sep 2016
Maldives	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Marshall Islands	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Mauritius	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Nauru	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Norway	22 Apr 2016	20 Jun 2016
Palau	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Peru	22 Apr 2016	25 Jul 2016
Samoa	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Seychelles	25 Apr 2016	29 Apr 2016
Somalia	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
St. Kitts and Nevis	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
St. Lucia	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	22 Apr 2016	29 Jun 2016
State of Palestine	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
Tuvalu	22 Apr 2016	22 Apr 2016
United States of America	22 Apr 2016	3 Sep 2016 A

The current stress on ratification of the Paris treaty is partly due to the outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama’s diplomatic ambition to leave behind a legacy of positive climate action, something that he had indicated in an exclusive interview to The New York Times on Thursday. Except U.S., China, and perhaps Norway and Belgium, most of the other countries that have ratified the Paris treaty till now are countries with low GHG emissions. These small nations stand a high risk of facing the adverse consequences of the climate catastrophe. Island countries such as Maldives, Samoa, Tuvalu, St. Lucia, Seychelles, acted promptly to ratify the treaty because they are threatened by sea-level rise

However, the question remains whether other top emitters who are contributing to the problem of climate change will act as decisively. India, which ranks number four globally in terms of absolute emissions, but has a low per capita GHG emission, has clarified that it will be unable to ratify the Paris accord this year due to domestic procedures that have to be addressed.

Beyond ratification

Despite all the current hype over the ratification of the Paris pact, the truth is that even if all the major GHG emitters ratified the treaty, it will not count towards plugging global temperature rise above the 2 degree Celsius warming threshold. In April, ahead of a signing ceremony for the Paris agreement at the UN headquarters in New York, a UNFCCC report had observed that even if all the pledges made by 197 countries that are signatory to the Paris pact were fulfilled, it would be insufficient to meet the conservative goal of keeping global temperature rise within the 2 degree Celsius threshold. The ideal, desired goal of keeping temperature rise within the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold is far away still.

The national climate action plans, referred to as INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) in UNFCCC lingo, are not enough to meet the goals of the Paris accord. That is why climate treaty watchers must keenly observe the next round of negotiations at the upcoming COP22 UN summit in Morocco in November, which will focus on implementation of the Paris agreement.

Nick Nuttall, the spokesperson for the UNFCCC, based in Bonn, Germany told The Hindu that ratification of the treaty was only the first step, and there has to be a improving of ambition for climate action over time and this will be a long term process. “What is on the table, in the form of the climate action plans are an improvement on what we had before Paris, but they are insufficient. That is why there has to be a regular stock take of the emissions scenario and ramping up of action over time. The ratification process is just a beginning.”

Keywords: Climate change, Paris agreement, global emissions, UN Framework Convention for Climate Change

Source: The Hindu, 10-09-2016

Dark clouds over the PDS

The imposition of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in the Public Distribution System threatens to disrupt recent progress with PDS reforms. It also deprives millions of people of essential food entitlements.

India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) has improved steadily during the last 10 years. The system used to be most ineffective and corruption-ridden, with leakages of around 50 per cent at the national level, going up to 80 or 90 per cent in some States. Around 2007, Chhattisgarh took the lead in reforming the PDS — making it more inclusive, methodical and transparent. Within a few years, the system was overhauled. Today, most rural households in Chhattisgarh have a ration card, and are able to secure their entitlements (typically 7 kg of rice per person per month) on time every month.

The ‘Chhattisgarh model’ 

Later on, it turned out that the Chhattisgarh model (so to speak) was replicable. Odisha was among the first States to emulate Chhattisgarh’s experience, with similar results. Many other States also initiated Chhattisgarh-style PDS reforms: broad coverage, clear entitlements, de-privatisation of PDS shops, separation of transport agencies from distribution agencies, computerisation, fixed distribution schedules, tight monitoring, active grievance redressal, and more.

Jean Drèze

In the last few years, I have been involved in several surveys of the PDS initiated by independent researchers with student volunteers. In 2011, we studied the PDS in nine States: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. We found that the system was working reasonably well for “below poverty line” (BPL) households: on average, they were receiving 84 per cent of their foodgrain entitlements from the PDS. A similar picture emerged from a follow-up survey in 2013. However, high leakages continued in the “above poverty line” (APL) quota, which tended to be used by the Central government at that time as a dumping ground for excess food stocks.

The National Food Security Act (NFSA), enacted three years ago, was — and still is — a chance to complete the process of PDS reform and ensure a modicum of food security for everyone. Under the NFSA, the APL category is abolished and eligible households come under two well-defined categories: priority households, entitled to 5 kg of foodgrains per person per month at nominal prices, and Antyodaya households (the poorest), entitled to 35 kg per household per month. The PDS is to cover at least 75 per cent of rural households at the national level, rising to 80-90 per cent in the poorest States.

Impending setback

In June this year, we went back to six of India’s poorest States (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal) for an update. We found that four out of six had a fairly good PDS, with most NFSA cardholders receiving the bulk of their entitlements every month and relatively low exclusion errors. The last two, Jharkhand and especially Bihar, still have a long way to go. Even there, however, the situation is much better than it was a few years ago. In Jharkhand, for instance, the transparency of the system has vastly improved, and the official NFSA website is among the best in the country. However, recent progress is in danger of being undone soon due to the Central government’s counter-productive push for Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in the PDS. This involves installing “Point of Sale” (PoS) machines at PDS shops, and verifying the identity of cardholders by matching their fingerprints against the Aadhaar database over the Internet.

This system requires multiple fragile technologies to work at the same time: the PoS machine, the biometrics, the Internet connection, remote servers, and often other elements such as the local mobile network. Further, it requires at least some household members to have an Aadhaar number, correctly seeded in the PDS database.

This is a wholly inappropriate technology for rural India, especially in the poorest States. Even in State capitals, network failures and other glitches routinely disable this sort of technology. In villages with poor connectivity, it is a recipe for chaos. Note that Internet dependence is inherent to Aadhaar since there is no question of downloading the biometrics.

Recent developments in Rajasthan illustrate the dangers of forcing biometric authentication on the PDS. During the last few months, the Government of Rajasthan has tried hard to enforce the system. The use of PoS machines is compulsory and every PDS shop has one. Yet, according to official data compiled by Nikhil Dey, only 61 per cent of Rajasthan’s foodgrain allocation found its way through the PoS system in July 2016, with a similar figure (63 per cent) for August. The rest is either siphoned off or delivered using the old “register” system — which of the two is hard to say since utter confusion prevails about the permissibility of using registers as a fallback option.

Further evidence comes from Ranchi district in Jharkhand where the PoS system is also mandatory. In July 2016, NFSA cardholders in Ranchi district received less than half of their foodgrain entitlements through that system, according to the model website mentioned earlier. The situation was much the same in August.

As in Rajasthan, it is not clear whether those for whom the PoS system does not work in Ranchi are getting any grain through the old “register” system. Officially, that is not allowed, according to local PDS dealers and officials (indeed, some dealers have been suspended for using this fallback option). Even if it happens unofficially, this dual system, where PDS grain goes partly through the PoS system and partly through the fallback register system, is the worst. The reason is that only PDS dealers know whether and when the register system is permissible, and they have no incentive to share that information with the cardholders. Quite likely, the new system is reviving PDS corruption in Jharkhand, reversing a healthy trend towards lower leakages in recent years.

A short visit to a PDS shop just outside Ranchi quickly brings out the multiple vulnerabilities of the new system. Within minutes we met many people who had been deprived of their food rations for months because they had no Aadhaar number; or because their Aadhaar number had not been correctly seeded; or because their biometrics did not work, or simply because the PoS machine returned various error messages.

Even those for whom the system works face huge inconvenience. Often they have to make repeated trips to the PDS shop, or send different members in turn, until the machine cooperates. Sometimes schoolchildren are asked to skip classes and try their luck at the PDS shop. This unreliable system causes a colossal waste of time for everyone.

By the way, all this is one year after I was told by the Food Department’s upbeat consultants that “the PoS system is functional throughout Ranchi district”.

The Aadhaar juggernaut

In spite of ample warnings, the Central government continues to push for compulsory Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in the PDS. Incidentally, this is a violation of Supreme Court orders. The court did allow the use of Aadhaar in the PDS, but not making it compulsory for PDS users. Nor can the government invoke the Aadhaar Act to justify this move: the relevant sections of the Act are yet to be notified.

PoS machines seem to be expected to ensure a corruption-free PDS. This expectation, however, builds on a misunderstanding of PDS leakages. The main vulnerability today, at least in the States I am familiar with, is not identity fraud (e.g. bogus cards), but quantity fraud: PDS dealers often give people less than what they are entitled to, and pocket the rest. PoS machines are ineffective in preventing quantity fraud. They may help in reducing identity fraud, such as it is, but that does not justify depriving people of their food entitlements when the technology fails.

As with many other applications of Aadhaar, this one is proceeding like a juggernaut, without paying serious attention to the collateral damage. Instead, the Central government peddles bogus figures of Aadhaar-enabled financial savings (often relayed by unsuspecting columnists or economists) to justify further imposition of the technology. It is only when concerned journalists, activists or researchers make enquiries from the victims that we learn about the adverse effects of Aadhaar on the PDS.

The Central government and its advisers pride themselves on their commitment to “evidence-based policy”, but this is a case where evidence is being systematically ignored to press on with technological solutions based on blind faith (handsomely nurtured by commercial interests). The drive to impose biometric authentication on the PDS must stop immediately to avoid further damage. There are better ways of plugging last-mile leakages, including the use of simpler technologies not dependent on the Internet. Imposing a technology that does not work on people who depend on it for their survival is a grave injustice.

Jean Drèze is Visiting Professor at the Department of Economics, Ranchi University.

Keywords: Public Distribution System, PDS, Aadhaar card, biometric authentication, National Food Security Act, NFSA

Source: The Hindu, 10-09-2016

India needs to have a multipronged approach towards sanitation

Initiated by the prime minister in 2014, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) aims at making India clean by 2019. This year, Rs 9,000 crore was allocated for the mission. Additionally, the government is charging 0.5% as Swachh Bharat Cess (SBC) on all taxable services from November 15. The mission has a rural and an urban sub-mission, with different objectives and approaches for tackling the issue.

As per government reports, 115 cities have achieved the ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF) status and another 739 cities (out of the 4,041 statutory cities and towns) will achieve it this financial year. According to reports on the rural areas, the top five states are Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, and Uttarakhand, and the bottom five are Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Bihar, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, and Jharkhand. This year 39,309 villages out of targeted 612,157 have been declared ODF.

Since the start of the mission, 21 million toilets have been constructed in rural areas, covering only 53.6% of the total rural population of India. There is a considerable gap between the target and what has been achieved so far, which means there is a critical need to accelerate the efforts to achieve 100% coverage.

The target set for rural areas is 12 crore toilets and till date only 2.5 crore toilets have been built. At this pace the deadline is likely to be missed.

Besides toilet construction, its usage is an important factor. For promoting usage, raising awareness is important and information, education and communication (IEC) activities are vital. About 97% of the total expenditure from April 2015 to February was on the construction of household latrines, clearly indicating the neglect on IEC activities, for which merely 1% was spent in the last fiscal.

The sanitation programme of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan also ignored the importance of IEC activities and raising awareness It was reported that many villages were awarded the Nirmal Gram Puraskar, as all the households had toilets — but in reality people were still defecating in the open.

One of the focuses of the mission has been on behaviour change regarding healthy sanitation practices and usage of toilets. This change of mindset is a challenging task. Another important reason for toilets not being used is the lack of access to running water — this is a major problem in drought-affected states.In addition to being ODF, waste management is crucial because if this is not strictly monitored, water sources could be contaminated with faecal coliform leading to grave health risks..

There is a need for integrating the mission with other water policies like the Namami Gange and Mgnrega. There is also a need for thoughtfulness and attention for developing innovative ideas for solid waste management. For the success of the mission, access to water, capacity building, implementation of IEC activities, management of waste and involving users is of as much importance as constructing toilets.

Sonia Grover is associate fellow and Fayaz Ahmad Malla is research associate at TERI

Source: Hindustan Times, 10-09-2016