Syllabus Connect :- General Studies -Paper II (Issues relating to poverty and hunger)
Mains Connect:-
- Discuss the status of hunger and malnutrition post-COVID 19 in India and the suggest measures to improve it.
Much attention paid to the pandemic’s harm may have been focused on economic growth, but a far more serious challenge that India is likely to face relates to hunger and malnutrition. While concrete nationally-representative data is unlikely to be available soon, several privately-conducted surveys after covid suggest that the situation is far worse than thought.
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Data on consumption expenditure and malnutrition also point to a reversal of earlier gains made against malnutrition and hunger. Unlike economic growth, which is likely to rebound to a respectable annual rate of 6-7%, the long-term impact of India’s retrogression on those two indicators can prove severe enough to affect other human development outcomes.
Data from the 5th round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) under the aegis of the ministry of health and family welfare are now available for 17 states and five union territories (UTs). The NFHS-5 for 2019-20 shows a deterioration on several indicators of child malnutrition over the NFHS-4 for 2015-16 .
In states where there has been progress, its rate has been slower than between 2004-2016. Of 22 states/Union territories (UTs), 13 have seen an increase in childhood stunting between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. Wasting has increased in 12 of those 22, and the count of those underweight has gone up in 16 of them.
Except for Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim, all states have seen at least one indicator of child malnutrition worsen between 2015-16 and 2019-20. The phase 1 fact sheets are mainly for UTs, northeastern states and some major states, with data for states with a high prevalence of malnutrition yet to be reported. It will be important to watch out for states such as Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where malnutrition rates are quite high.
These data-sets are a cause for alarm, even though there are improvements in institutional delivery, immunization and other indicators. That they pertain to the period before the pandemic are another reason for worry. It’s evident that the economy’s slowdown and income decline among low earners had contributed to the worsening of these indicators.
The pandemic has made matters worse, with a further hit to the economy and a decline in wages and incomes. As recent data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) confirms the trend of rising unemployment and declining incomes, India’s already-fragile nutritional situation is expected to worsen further. Mid-day meals in primary and upper primary schools, along with anganwadis, have played an important role in monitoring and supplementing efforts to reduce malnutrition through free food for children (and pregnant as well as lactating women). This programme has been suspended for almost a year now, depriving the most vulnerable of access to food.
Several surveys after the lockdown have confirmed an increase in hunger and decline in food intake. Almost two-thirds of all respondent households of The Hunger Watch survey by the Right to Food campaign across 11 Indian states reported declines in the quality and quantity of food consumed.
About 45% of households reported an increase in the need to borrow for food and one-third reported skipping meals or going hungry. These estimates are similar to the results of a livelihood survey by Azim Premji University, which reported 77% of respondents having suffered a decline in food consumption. Other surveys also confirm a rise in job losses, decline in incomes, and reduced food consumption after the covid pandemic struck the country.
Over the past two years, the Union government has had foodgrain stocks far higher than the levels mandated by India’s buffer norms. As on 1 January, its foodgrain pile was at 80 million tonnes, as against our buffer norm of 21.4 million tonnes. Holding excess food stocks in spite of rising hunger and malnutrition is not just a waste of national resources, it is tragic. To offer the vulnerable succour, India should extend its scheme of additional foodgrain hand-outs and make it universally accessible. With no sign of a rural recovery visible yet in wage or income data, hunger and malnutrition are set to worsen in the absence of state support. Economic growth will revive sooner rather than later. But the scars of hunger and malnutrition could last much longer.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.
Globally, around 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, according to the United Nations.
This can pose a significant environmental and health threat.
In the absence of cost-effective, sustainable, disruptive water management solutions, about 70% of sewage is discharged untreated into India’s water bodies.
A staggering 21% of diseases are caused by contaminated water in India, according to the World Bank, and one in five children die before their fifth birthday because of poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, according to Startup India.
As we confront these public health challenges emerging out of environmental concerns, expanding the scope of public health/environmental engineering science becomes pivotal.
For India to achieve its sustainable development goals of clean water and sanitation and to address the growing demands for water consumption and preservation of both surface water bodies and groundwater resources, it is essential to find and implement innovative ways of treating wastewater.
It is in this context why the specialised cadre of public health engineers, also known as sanitation engineers or environmental engineers, is best suited to provide the growing urban and rural water supply and to manage solid waste and wastewater.
Traditionally, engineering and public health have been understood as different fields.
Currently in India, civil engineering incorporates a course or two on environmental engineering for students to learn about wastewater management as a part of their pre-service and in-service training.
Most often, civil engineers do not have adequate skills to address public health problems. And public health professionals do not have adequate engineering skills.
India aims to supply 55 litres of water per person per day by 2024 under its Jal Jeevan Mission to install functional household tap connections.
The goal of reaching every rural household with functional tap water can be achieved in a sustainable and resilient manner only if the cadre of public health engineers is expanded and strengthened.
In India, public health engineering is executed by the Public Works Department or by health officials.
This differs from international trends. To manage a wastewater treatment plant in Europe, for example, a candidate must specialise in wastewater engineering.
Furthermore, public health engineering should be developed as an interdisciplinary field. Engineers can significantly contribute to public health in defining what is possible, identifying limitations, and shaping workable solutions with a problem-solving approach.
Similarly, public health professionals can contribute to engineering through well-researched understanding of health issues, measured risks and how course correction can be initiated.
Once both meet, a public health engineer can identify a health risk, work on developing concrete solutions such as new health and safety practices or specialised equipment, in order to correct the safety concern..
There is no doubt that the majority of diseases are water-related, transmitted through consumption of contaminated water, vectors breeding in stagnated water, or lack of adequate quantity of good quality water for proper personal hygiene.
Diseases cannot be contained unless we provide good quality and adequate quantity of water. Most of the world’s diseases can be prevented by considering this.
Training our young minds towards creating sustainable water management systems would be the first step.
Currently, institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) are considering initiating public health engineering as a separate discipline.
To leverage this opportunity even further, India needs to scale up in the same direction.