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UPA birthday Et tu, Sharad Yadav |
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Slowing down
A year of Dr
Manmohan Singh–III
Chasing shadows
Price distortion
behind farm crisis Rural women turn to
computer Rejuvenating health
mission
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Et tu, Sharad Yadav THIS might well be the way the NDA cookie crumbles. One constituent after another of the BJP-led alliance is either jumping ship or rocking the vessel. The latest one to do so is former Union Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav. Predictably enough, like some others, including BJP leaders Pramod Mahajan and Sunder Singh Bhandari, he too has chosen Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for target practice, although the objective is to fell the BJP’s leadership of the alliance. Like the TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu, Mr Yadav too holds Mr Modi responsible for the post-Godhra riots as well as the NDA’s defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha election. While Mr Naidu, by his action of distancing the TDP from the NDA, may have placated the anti-BJP section within the TDP, Mr Yadav seems to be set on cutting loose not only from the BJP but also JD (U) leaders like Mr George Fernandes. Regardless of the motives of those who have now come out against Mr Modi and the Gujarat massacre, it is heartening that sections of the BJP and its allies are anxious to move away from this reprehensible association. There are, no doubt, reasons other than conscience or values at work here. The DMK moved out of the NDA even before the elections because it perceived better prospects in the company of the Congress, especially after the BJP had cosied up to the AIADMK. Then went the INLD of Mr Om Prakash Chautala followed by the AIADMK, which severed its saffron ties. More recently, Mr Naidu, obviously with an eye on the minority vote in Andhra Pradesh, broke away. Clearly, the BJP’s political strategy, especially its prolonged boycott of Parliament, has alienated the party from its long-standing allies. Although the Akali Dal and the Biju Janata Dal remain on board, they too are straining at the leash. If the BJP wants to keep up even a semblance of the NDA, it is high time the party did a re-think and reworked its strategy. Otherwise, the disarray all too evident now may lead to the disintegration of the NDA. |
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Slowing down THE Planning Commission’s mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan, approved by the Cabinet on Thursday, has scaled down the much too ambitious GDP growth projection made by the previous NDA government in 2002 at 8.1 per cent to between 6 and 7 per cent. In the first three years of the Plan the economy registered an average growth of only 6.5 per cent. It is quite common for the coalition parties in power to get carried away by temporary sectoral performances or doctor the growth figures to suit their political compulsions. The basic fact that still has remained unchanged despite years of reforms is: agricultural growth is hurtling downhill since the mid-1990s; 72 per cent Indians live off agriculture and, more than government policies, it is the monsoon that decides which way the Indian economy will move. Economists are fond of setting targets and have to look sheepishly sideways when their projections go awry, which is not uncommon, but the exercise continues even in this fast-changing, globalising world. No one familiar with ground realities would have set an unrealistic growth target of 8.1 per cent unless it is an Atal Bihari Vajpayee with the “India Shining” electoral agenda. Key reforms like cutting losses by disposing of sick PSUs, shedding administrative flab, trimming wasteful government expenditure and having more flexible labour laws are still awaiting implementation. More than getting preoccupied with the growth figures or even the very idea of having a planning commission when no one knows which way global oil prices would move, the government and its economists should spare a thought for those untouched by reforms or are not empowered enough to face the rapid strides of change. A viable social safety net needs to be stitched without further delay so that whatever growth takes place percolates downward. Dr Manmohan Singh had talked of a safety net when he initiated the reforms as finance minister and seems to have forgotten it as prime minister. |
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The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
— Martin Luther King, Jr. |
A year of Dr Manmohan Singh–III
When
Manmohan Singh was sworn in as Prime Minister a year ago, his critics commented adversely about his lack of political acumen. What nobody dared question was his understanding of the Indian economy. There have been (and remain) many who disagree with his economic policy prescriptions — notably, his opponents-turned-friends in the Communist parties. But few doubt his credentials as a professional economist, the first such individual to hold the highest political post in the country. True, Dr Singh is a relative newcomer to politics. Despite decades of experience in dealing with various politicians as a technocrat and bureaucrat, he did not enter politics until as late as June 1991 when P V Narasimha Rao made him the country’s Finance Minister. The only time Dr Singh contested a Lok Sabha election was during September-October 1999 when he stood as a candidate from the South Delhi constituency. He lost the election by roughly 30,000 votes to Vijay Kumar Malhotra of the BJP. Dr Singh is the first Prime Minister of India who was never elected to the Lower House of Parliament. (Although both H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral were members of the Rajya Sabha when they served as Prime Ministers, they had on other occasions been elected to the Lok Sabha.) It is against this backdrop that one has to evaluate Dr Singh’s track record over the last 12 months in managing the still-fragile United Progressive Alliance coalition that is dependent on support from the Left for its survival in power. The Prime Minister’s critics have often described him as timid and bureaucratic in his style. Yet, in the past, he had taken quite a few bold decisions. These include his move to devalue the rupee by a whopping 18 per cent against the US dollar in July 1991 not to mention his subsequent initiative to dismantle the infamous licence-control raj, virtually at one fell stroke. During his stint as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in the early-1980s, he had staunchly opposed the entry into India of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) against the wishes of powerful sections. He had also offered to put in his papers as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission after Rajiv Gandhi had derogatorily described the Members of the Commission as a “bunch of jokers”. While he was with the South Commission as Secretary-General and even earlier, during the 1960s, when he wrote his book, Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth, Dr Singh was not exactly enamoured of the prescriptions of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund towards developing countries. Yet, this was the same man who, in late-1991, tried valiantly to convince his political opponents that the IMF’s prescription was a bitter pill that was “necessary” for the revival of the Indian economy since his government had at that time just borrowed $ 5 billion from the Fund. When Dr Singh took over as Prime Minister, world oil prices were on the boil resulting in a sharp spurt in the inflation rate. He listened to the advice of the Left and preferred tax cuts instead of passing on the entire burden of the rise in crude oil prices on to the consumer. The rise in prices was muted somewhat. By then, he had put in place at least three of his confidantes in key positions: besides Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who left the IMF to head the Planning
Commission, he brought in Dr C Rangarajan to head the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. Chidambaram’s first budget sought to shift the sharp right-wing tilt that had been given to economic policies during the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance regime. The most controversial aspect of the budget was the proposal to hike the cap on foreign direct investment in insurance and telecommunications. Despite the staunch opposition of the Left, he went ahead with the telecom FDI cap hike but could not push through a similar proposal in the case of insurance because it needed legislative approval and could not be done merely through an executive decision. At the same time, the UPA government had to bow to the wishes of the Communists in maintaining the interest rate on deposits with the Employees Provident Fund Organisation at 9.5 per cent — although Chidambaram’s ministry was adamant in its opposition to the move. He also had to tell Dr Ahluwalia not to appoint advisors who were associated with international organisations. Because of the arithmetic in the Lok Sabha, the Bill to amend the Patents Act had to be modified in deference to the wishes of social activists who apprehend a sharp rise in the prices of medicines. In spite of initially expressing its opposition to the scrapping of Press Note 18 — which provided protection to domestic industry by disallowing foreign partners of joint ventures in the country from setting up their own ventures without the prior permission of their existing partners — the Left did not make much of a noise about the government’s decision to do away with this controversial note. The move to scrap Press Note 18 on the ground that is was anachronistic, had outlived its utility and was discouraging foreign investors was announced by the Prime Minister himself in Kolkata in the presence of the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. At the same time, due to pressure from the Communists, the government has not yet opened retailing to foreign investors. The Left is unhappy with the government’s attempts to bring more foreign capital into the country’s banking industry and also in managing pension funds. While the Marxists are repeatedly claiming that there is little to distinguish between the economic policies followed by the NDA and the UPA, the biggest grouse of the Left (as far as economic policies are concerned) is that the employment guarantee act has not yet come into being. While the Communists have been playing the role of the “opposition within”, the BJP has been by and large quiet in criticising the government’s economic policies. The party probably realises that there is little that it could have done that would have been very different. Chidambaram has diluted two of the most controversial provisions in his second budget, namely the original proposals to tax banking transactions and fringe benefits enjoyed by employees. On the whole, the UPA government’s performance on the economic front has not been all that bad. But the path that lies ahead is not going to be smooth. |
Chasing shadows
Irvine Stone, an author not too well-known in India, once wrote a novel which he called “The Passions of the Mind”. In this, he expressed the view that the purpose of dreams is to release from the unconscious mind what the individual is really wanting, what he somewhere in the core of his brain wishes to happen, or have happened. Stone, of course, was quoting Sigmund Freud, a number of whose pronouncements were discarded by his one-time pupils, Jung and Adler, long before they were scoffed at by modern psychologists. Nevertheless, few people have disagreed with Freud’s theories in regard to word association. For example, the word “dream” in the core of my brain immediately reminds me of an ad in which a pretty girl with the sort of statistics that seldom fail to astound me, used to inform readers of society magazines like The Tatler and The Bystander that she had dreamt having walked down Bond Street wearing her Maiden Form Bra. Some Indian glossies also carried the same ad till our puritan government decided to ban it on grounds of “indecency”. Let me assure you that it isn’t always that my mind runs in such seductive channels. The word “middle” doesn’t make me think, as you may think, of a bare midriff flat as a pancake, showing below that brief garment known as a “choli”. Instead, the moment someone utters the word, I see my name on the edit page of a newspaper or a rejection slip expressing the editor’s regret. For reasons not unknown to men of my age I have to leave my bed at dawn or even before that magic hour. Once awake, I usually find it difficult to go back to sleep, despite the sleeping pills I had swallowed earlier. Sometimes I walk into my living room and turn on the TV, hoping to pick up some boring programme which has a soporific effect on me. At other times I walk across to the park close to my residence with my dog. I sit on a bench and breathe in the clean, cool air. Much to my envy, my dog sleeps peacefully beside me on the bench. A few mornings ago as I stepped into the park I spied at its far end a female figure, approximating to the measurements here in before mentioned, dressed in a pair of gym shorts and a sweater. She appeared to be doing some physical jerks in a manner that quickened both my interest and my pace. As soon as I was within touching distance of her I put out my hand which, instead of encountering what I had hoped would be there, knocked down my bedside lamp with a fearful crash. It happened to be one of those rare days when, having returned from the TV room to my bed I had dozed off and allowed my unconscious mind to take precedence over my normal, well-regulated self.
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Price distortion
behind farm crisis The less-than-expected agricultural growth and the resultant stagnation or decline in income of the otherwise politically powerful farmers of Punjab have made them restive. They have directed their efforts through political pressure to turn the terms of trade in their favour. The farmers’ lobby has demanded and succeeded in getting the support price raised consistently on the basis of the cost-plus, mark-up formula. Still not satisfied, they literally arm-twist the government to freeze the price of a number of inputs such as fertiliser, water, electricity, fuel and credit. Unfortunately, this very policy of distortion in price mechanism by the government is responsible for most of the ills being faced by the agricultural sector in the state. Suppression of the price created incentives to the farmers to use the subsidised inputs excessively without caring for its impact on the present cost and future sustainability of their operations. Moreover, since the government determines the price of agricultural produce on the basis of cost, the farmers feel no compulsion in using inputs in a cost-efficient manner. To cap it all, the assured procurement of wheat-rice at a pre-determined price by the government has almost absolutely insulated the otherwise entrepreneurial farmers from market risk. It means, like any other rational economic agents, the farmers will not undertake any alternate crop, where greater returns are coupled with higher risk. When farmers’ representatives, politicians and academicians point out that farmers face an uncertain future in case of crop diversification and contract farming, they are right. But the point missed in this context is that the choice lies between uncertain better future and certain stagnation. Interestingly, many enterprising farmers understand this logic clearly and accordingly, they are venturing out in search of a better future. A number of politicians also realise this inevitable truth and are trying to find innovative methods to correct the distortions in the policy regime. But the point remains that implementing such a paradigm shift in the policy by stealth cannot reinvigorate agriculture in the state. The issue must be confronted to evolve a new consensus. The need of the hour is to accept the fact at the psychological, social and political levels. Ground realities have now totally changed. The only possible way to a sustainable growth in the income of farmers is through continuous improvement in productivity, an efficient use of inputs and a calculated risk taking enterprise by farmers. Obviously, the existing policy of subsidised inputs and assured procurement at prescribed prices must be phased out in a well-defined medium term period. This will prompt farmers to become cost and quality conscious. They will be compelled to use water, energy and other inputs in an efficient manner as their increasing scarcity will be reflected in the growing prices. In the absence of assured returns on wheat and rice, the farmers will also be encouraged to experiment with an alternative cropping pattern. Once, the demand for the cultivation of crops other than wheat and rice emerges, the government can provide the necessary support itself and/or agribusiness firms, including MNCs, can be roped in for the purpose. The money saved with the government in this process can be used for better maintenance of the deteriorating productive assets and also to develop infrastructure in the form of cold storage, refrigerated transport, drip/sprinkler irrigation and other facilities required for the diversification of the agriculture in the
state. The writer is the Chairperson, Department of Business Economics, Ch. Devi Lal University, Sirsa |
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Rural women turn to computer
THE Haryana Community Forestry Project (HCFP) has undertaken a literacy programme for rural women by using computers. With the audio-visual medium becoming the most important aid for adult literacy, a specially designed interactive software is being used to spread literacy. Remember the TV advertisement where a maid is taught to read and write by her employer, and she turns down the post master when he tries to get her thumb impression saying: “Ab main padhna- likhna janti hoon.” A similar change is now sweeping through many villages in Haryana. Computers purchased by the Forest Department, Haryana, under the HCFP are sent to different villages for initiating the literacy programme. The computer-based literacy programme in each village lasts three months. In most of the villages, women have never seen a computer before and the craze is driving most of them to enroll for the course. The computer is installed either at the local government school or at the house of any of the volunteers of the Women Self Help Group (created under the HCFP for income generation) in the village. The class is held in the afternoon, after these women are free from their work at the farm and home. One of the women from the village is chosen as a link worker and trained in using the software. She becomes the teacher. The software of the literacy programme has been developed by Tata Consultancy Service and it teaches the alphabet and word formation. For the past two years, this literacy programme has been successfully implemented by 45 Self Help groups, helping over 470 women to learn to read… till a point they can actually read a newspaper. The project officials say that by 2008, they will cover 100 villages in the Ambala, Kurukshetra, Hisar, Bhiwani and Rewari divisions chosen under the project. An improvement in the socio-economic status of women has been one of the important components of the HCFP. Under this project, Self Help Groups of women have already been trained in various income generation activities like vermi-composting, dairying, tailoring, or setting up a general store. About 1,300 members of these groups have been able to raise an income of Rs 37.72 lakh from these activities during the past three years. “We decided to introduce the literacy component as it would automatically lead to rural women’s social upliftment. We motivate women to undertake the literacy programme, while teaching them how to operate a computer. So even as the computer moves on to the next village, the link worker appointed by the Forest Department continues with the literacy programme, using other visual media like flip cards, and basic primers in the alphabet, word formation and sentence formation,”
says the Chief Conservator of Forests and Project Director, Mr S.K. Dhar. In each of these divisions, NGOs have been involved ensure proper implementation of the programme and ensure success, he adds. The social milieu in villages, where computer-based literacy
programmes are held, is slowly, but surely changing. Budiyon, a small village on the fringes of Ambala and Jagadhari, where the literacy programme is under way, is a case in example. A women’s Self Help Group volunteer in this village has offered her home for the teaching sessions. About 30 minutes before the class, women in the age groups of 35-60 years arrive and start with a dholki. Singing and dancing have always been an intrinsic part of rustic life, and these women begin their daily lessons by singing bhajans and shabads. “If one does not invoke the blessings of the Almighty, no work is complete,” explains Gurmel Kaur (62), who is the oldest student in the group. These women say it was difficult for them to break social mores and enrol for the literacy programme. “My grandson would laugh at me, and say ‘your own parents never taught you to read and write, what is the need to learn now.’ Others in the family dismissed my decision to learn reading and writing as an old age fancy,” says Tara Wati (58). Now she can read the alphabet in Hindi and has also learnt the basics of mathematics. Says Paramjit Kaur, a matriculate, who has been trained as the link worker and takes the class. “Initially it was difficult to enrol women. But slowly, we were able to convince them, by saying that the computer will speak to them and teach them to read and write,” she says. Her own mother, Sardari Kaur (52), too has enrolled for the programme. “When travelling, I don’t have to ask a co-passenger in the bus to read out the name of each village as the bus halts. I can even count all the money and make my monthly budget,” she says, as she gets back to her lessons. |
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Rejuvenating health mission The
National Rural Health Mission, launched on 12 April 2005, seeks to provide effective rural health care with special focus on 18 poor performing states on different health indicators. It aims at increasing public spending on health, and promoting equity efficiency, quality, and accountability in the public health system. The mission envisages an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), for every village/large habitat chosen by and accountable to the panchayat concerned. They are expected to help in promoting the construction of household toilets, immunisation, referral and escort services for healthcare programmes besides preparing a village health plan. Though ASHA seems new, its functions are similar to a community health volunteer or the village health guide, schemes launched for which were in the early eighties. Such schemes though desirable, reward non-performance or absenteeism among multipurpose health workers. ASHA may further prove to be a licence to these workers to stay away from their place of posting, and stop home visiting all together. The decentralisation through a target-free scheme later known as the Community Need Assessment Approach in family welfare was started in 1996, whereby targets for family welfare were to be replaced by decisions at the lowest level. This did not happen anywhere in the country. Health workers presumed that no central target means no work, and that’s why they even stopped updating the eligible couple registers. The mission proposes provision of medical and drug kits to social activists, which is an un-just preposition since these activists are not expected to have specific competence and pharmacy background to administer these drugs. In the circumstances, these activists will be no better than village quacks. Similarly, escort services for institutional deliveries, without the 24-hour availability of a vehicle at the village level may not be viable. For strengthening the sub-centres, the mission proposes untied funds of Rs 10,000 per annum per sub-centre, which are grossly inadequate. Given the current population catered to by a sub-centre, the amount should be Rs 2 to 3 per person per annum. The supply of essential drugs to the sub-centre are welcomed, but the question arises who would administer these drugs to the population in the absence of a qualified dispenser, and who would maintain the records for audit purposes? Filling vacant posts, updating buildings and adhering to stipulated sub-centre population norms are not simple tasks. We have been trying to achieve these goals since the establishment of sub-centres during the Fifth Plan, but with little results. The mission proposes adequate and regular supply of essential drugs, equipment, standard treatment guidelines, provision of 24-hours service, removing shortage of doctors at the Primary/Community Health Centres. If this happens, these institutions will come on a par with civil hospitals at the sub-division level. But, many such efforts could only be effectively utilised if the staff posted at these places is available round the clock to the patients and they stay at the place of posting. The mission proposes a number of expert groups/committees but is silent on their modus operandis. Who would co-ordinate, monitor and keep records of their activities? Who would issue the guidelines? Whether district health plans would be a basis of guidelines or the National Steering Group would issue uniform guidelines? In the case of the latter, if uniform guidelines are to flow from the National Steering Group, then why do we need village and district health plans? The proposed time-frame for major components is also quite ambitious. For instance, it states that health providers in each village would be available by 2008 while village health plans (to be prepared by health providers) would be available by 2006. |
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From the pages of Brides and bridegrooms
A
remarkable custom exists among the Roumanians living in the westerly Carpathiaus. Every year, at the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, a market is held on the Gaina (5,000 to 6,000 feet above the sea level) and here all the marriageable girls of the district assemble with their parents in order to be viewed and claimed. Mothers, aunts, grandmothers and various female friends contribute to the dowry, and this completed, it is carried to the market on the Gaina in neatly made trunks, decorated with flowers, and carried by the family’s best horses. Cattle, bees, and other household requisites are also added to the dowry. After the brides are chosen the public betrothal takes place, being conducted by a hermit who lives in this lonely spot. The mark of betrothal is not a ring but a beautifully embroidered handkerchief. |
An insulted person may be quiet during the day, busy with the numerous chores of life. It is at night, in the lonesome quite, that the emotions torture him and insult rankles as new in him bosom. — The Mahabharata We must love those who are nearest to us, in our own family. From there, love spreads towards whoever may need us. — Mother Teresa You have to think anyway, so why not think big? — Donald Trump What shall we utter with our lips, so that He is moved to give us His love? — Guru Nanak  |
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