Drought:-
- Drought is one of the most frequently occurring national disasters in India. With its increased frequency and expanded coverage in the recent years, about one third of the
country is either drought prone or under desert areas. - These areas are lagging behind in agriculture and also in overall economic growth. They experience wide year-to-year fluctuations in agricultural production and incomes and have a relatively high incidence of poverty.
- The poor in these regions are highly vulnerable to a variety of risks due to their low and fluctuating incomes, high indebtedness and low human development. Helping the poor to come out of vulnerability and poverty and integrating the drought prone areas into the mainstream of development is a serious challenge faced by policy makers at present.
The History of Drought in India:-
- Droughts and famines have received attention of rulers in India right from the 13th and 14th century.
- Muhammad Tughlakh was perhaps the first Sultan to take systematic steps to alleviate efforts of droughts by distributing grains to drought affected people in Delhi in 1343 AD.
- This approach was followed and improved upon by Mughals and many other kings and rulers later on.
- During the British period also efforts were made to provide relief to droughts / famine affected people by organizing relief works and food distribution, distribution of fodder, loans to farmers to start cultivation in the next season etc.The first Scarcity Manual was prepared by the British Government in 1883, which was followed by other manuals by some provincial governments.
- The Royal Commission on Agriculture in 1928 recommended promotion of dry land farming to promote agriculture in famine affected regions. However, the efforts were
scanty and there was an alarming increase in the frequency of during the British period.
After Independence government has adopted a three pronged strategy to face droughts:
(1) providing relief to drought hit population under scarcity relief programmes
(2) designing special area development programme for drought prone areas and desert areas (DPAP – drought prone area programme and DDP – desert development programme) and
(3) promoting dry farming agriculture as a part of agricultural policy.
Somehow this approach has not worked very well, as is evident from the increasing drought prone areas in the country and the relatively high poverty and vulnerability of
people living in these areas.The new opportunities of globalization are likely to bypass these regions if adequate steps are not taken to integrate them into the mainstream economy.
Long term impacts of drought :-
- Its long term impact on agriculture in terms of farmers’ adjustment to uncertain rainfall and uncertain agricultural prospects
- poor performance of agriculture and of the overall economy
- impact on environmental resources like water, forest, land etc and biodiversity including damages to animal and plant species, which tend to raise the frequency
and intensity of droughts in the long run and which affect the life and livelihood of people adversely. - income poverty, vulnerability, and human poverty, which tend to raise the incidence of chronic poverty and of vulnerability of the poor.
What is Drought :-
According to IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) drought is a situation when the rainfall is less than 25 percent of the normal rainfall. The meteorological definition,
however, need not coincide with the hydrological or agricultural definition of drought.
Hydrological drought: Hydrological drought is a situation when the surface and ground water levels fall below the average levels and are affected not only by precipitation but also by infiltration and evaporation. Hydrological dimension of drought refers to the water distribution on land surface after precipitation has reached the ground. Major
indicators of hydrological drought are low reservoir storage, inadequate stream flows, aggregate runoff less than long term average runoff and precipitation at high elevation. Its
frequency is defined on the basis of its influence on river basin: SWSI (surface water supply index) is mostly used to measure hydrological drought.
Agricultural drought: Agricultural drought refers to shortage of water for crop growth or consistently high soil moisture deficiency over the growing season. Major indicators of agricultural drought are shortage of precipitation – departure from the normal, abnormal evaporation, deficiency of sub-soil moisture etc. Its intensity depends on the difference.between plants water demand and water availability. Crop moisture index (CMI) is used to measure agricultural drought.
Ecological drought: Ecological drought occurs when primary productivity of natural or (managed) ecosystem declines significantly owing to reduced precipitation. Socioeconomic drought incorporates features of all the above types of droughts. It occurs when precipitation is not sufficient to meet needs of human activities.
Socio-economic droughts are the aggregate of all the above droughts when precipitation is not adequate to meet the needs of human activities.
Though meteorological drought is mainly a natural phenomenon, a natural disaster, the intensity of its impact on hydrological, agricultural and ecological droughts can be
reduced by appropriate interventions, which, in turn, can also impact on socio-economic droughts. The crux of drought policy is to reduce this impact so as to reduce the adverse
impact of droughts on human well-being. The impact of droughts varies with the time scale of droughts. The longer the period of drought and the larger the number of
consecutive droughts, the greater will be its impact on agriculture, ecology and economy. The regions, which are subjected to frequent droughts, therefore need careful attention of policy makers.
Drought Prone areas of India:-
Drought Prone Area Programmee:-
The basic objective of the programme is to minimise the adverse effects of drought on production of crops and livestock and productivity of land, water and human resources ultimately leading to drought proofing of the affected areas. The programme also aims to promote overall economic development and improving the socio-economic conditions of the resource poor and disadvantaged sections inhabiting the programme areas.
How to Fight Drought :-
Drougth is a climatic phenomenon, hence it can only be fought as a long term strategy.
Short-term:- The short-term drought fighting mechanism is to reduce the socio-economic impact of drought. This is essentially bringing the vulnerable from out of imminent danger .
Long – Term:-The long term requires a integrated approach :-
- Integrated watershed development
- Ground water recharge programmes
- Afforestation to contain loss of moisture
- Desert development programmee- Fighting the aridity and restricting new regions getting decertified.
- River valley Projects
Recent Posts
- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)