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China relents
Dwindling growth rate |
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Tackling adulteration Much needs to be done on food safety Come festival season and there is a spate of raids on various food shops all over the country. Hundreds of tonnes of contaminated sweets and substandard dry fruits are seized every time resulting in some arrests.
Towards a powerful Lokpal
Bride swapping
For want of a kidney Organ donation is still a topic not well understood
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China relents
CHINA has at last realised that it had not been fair in its treatment of visitors from Jammu and Kashmir whom it issued stapled visas till a few months ago. Beijing has now stopped the discriminatory practice, and one hopes it will be pragmatic while dealing with visitors from Arunachal Pradesh too, as it is an integral part of India. New Delhi has been closely observing China’s visa policy with regard to the residents of J and K. The last batch of 12 Kashmiris who went to China in September as part of a delegation of 500 Indians under a government-sponsored exchange programme were happily issued pasted visas. India noticed this change for the first time since December last year though China had been claiming for a few months that it had not been treating Indians from J and K differently. New Delhi has been perturbed over China’s unreasonable behaviour as this amounted to not accepting J and K as a part of India. Contrary to this, Beijing has been increasing its presence in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) despite protests by New Delhi, saying that China’s growing activities in PoK, which India considered as its integral part, are illegal. But China has been unmindful of India’s concerns. China indirectly gave the impression that it considered PoK as a “territory of Pakistan” and J and K as a “disputed area”. This became a major irritant in relations between India and China. Those from J and K and Arunachal Pradesh (China calls it South Tibet) who wanted to visit China have been suffering owing to the unrealistic Chinese visa policy. In July this year five members of an Indian karate team from Arunachal Pradesh could not take part in a prestigious championship in Quanghou in China. The Government of India had issued instructions that no one with a stapled Chinese visa should be allowed to board a plane from any Indian airport. Let us hope that China will continue with its latest visa policy, which may go a long way in improving relations between the two neighbours.
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Dwindling growth rate
Fears
that the Indian economy is bitten by the global slowdown bug have been reinforced by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s admission at the annual meeting of economic editors that the budget projection of a 9 per cent growth rate in 2011-12 would not be met and that the actual figure may be below 8 per cent. As research group Moody’s Analytics said in a recent report, although the economy of neighbouring emerging market China is also slowing, “India presents a more serious cause for worry” as its economy “is slowing sharply.” What is particularly worrying is that inflation, which was sought to be reined in by as many as a dozen interest rate hikes remains stubbornly high and was 9.72 per cent in September month-on-month. The expectation is that the Reserve Bank of India may be forced into further monetary tightening in the months ahead which would exacerbate the slowdown because, by conventional logic, interest rate hikes do lead to some slowing down in growth. Though there is no doubt that a growth rate of around 8 per cent is seemingly healthy by today’s international standards, the economic indicators are far from reassuring. The main 30-share benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange index is down by 17 per cent during this fiscal so far with foreign institutional investors selling more than $2.2 billion worth of Indian shares between August and September on fears of a global recession. Industrial output growth has dwindled to less than 4 per cent while exports are also forecast to slow down. Global oil prices, which have been high for months now, have put pressure on the fiscal deficit which could balloon to nearly 6 per cent of gross domestic product from the 4.6 per cent projected in the last budget. The Finance Minister is hopeful that the high inflation that is prevailing today would be moderated in coming months but there is little to support such an expectation. Productive investment in the economy is indeed at a low ebb and unless there are imaginative measures to spur growth, there could well be harder times ahead for India and Indians in general. |
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Tackling adulteration
Come
festival season and there is a spate of raids on various food shops all over the country. Hundreds of tonnes of contaminated sweets and substandard dry fruits are seized every time resulting in some arrests. However, as soon as the media spotlight vanishes, it is back to old tactics for the people who contaminate food by adulterating it. What to talk of milk being contaminated with urea to prevent it from curdling, a greater horror awaits unsuspecting customers in the form of synthetic milk, a deadly mixture of caustic soda, urea, and vegetable oil. Ripe and delicious-looking mangoes would well have been ripened by using the banned substance, calcium carbide. Formalin, a toxic and carcinogenic chemical, is used to make fish look fresh. Food safety in India is bedevilled by multiplicity of rules. There are six or seven separate food laws for meat, milk, edible oil, fruits and vegetables. With the recent introduction of the Food Safety and Standards Rules, 2011, there is hope that the inadequacies of the 50-year-old Prevention of Food Adulteration Act will be addressed. The newly-formed Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has much to do as it seeks to integrated food law, and lays down standards of food items uniformly across the country. It also needs to have in place a central mechanism on food safety. More than anything else, the people who can make a difference are the officials of state governments, municipalities and panchayats who are entrusted with the task of ensuring the safety of food that we consume. The number of food inspectors in India is woefully small, only 2000. The FSSAI is rightly asking for a change in focus of these personnel, who would now become food safety officials, and also for more workforce. While that is all for the long term, for the immediate future, the food inspectors must use the stringent penalties provided under the PFA Act and ensure that the coming festival season is indeed festive and not one marred by cases of food poisoning. |
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Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more. — Oscar Wilde
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Towards a powerful Lokpal
THE CBI Director in a presentation before the Standing Committee of Parliament, now deliberating over the Lokpal Bill, has strongly argued against the vivisection of the CBI and merger of its anti-corruption wing with the Lokpal. He and his senior officers strongly feel that this will seriously cripple the core functioning of the CBI and reduce it to irrelevance. An organisation built over the last 60 years should not be subsumed under the Lokpal. CBI officers concede that in some sensitive political cases there is, of course, interference from the government, but in respect of an overwhelming majority of cases the CBI functions unfettered and uninfluenced by extraneous considerations. For this reason there is an ever-increasing demand for CBI investigation from all over the country in respect of important cases. Under the Jana Lokpal Bill, drafted by Anna Hazare and his team, the Lokpal will have its own investigation wing for going into acts of corruption by public servants as well as private entities which are parties to the Act. It will also enquire into public grievances and investigate complaints by whistleblowers. For this, the Lokpal needs a powerful investigation wing manned by tested and tried professionals. According to Team Anna’s view, the lower bureaucracy should also come under the Lokpal because the common man is more affected by corruption at the lower level. Only Group-A officers are covered by the Lokpal Bill drafted by the government. Anna’s team wants the anti-corruption wing of the CBI to be merged with the Lokpal. The CBI’s point of view is that to hive off the anti-corruption wing of the CBI will cripple it grievously and make it effete and irrelevant. Though the CBI at present takes up investigation of various other types of cases like economic offences, violent crime, organised crime, crime having inter-state and international ramifications, the anti-corruption probe continues to be the core function of the CBI. The CBI’s paper argues that its Director should be made an ex-officio Lokpal member entrusted with control and investigations undertaken by the Lokpal. The Lokpal will exercise general supervision and control in anti-corruption cases through the CBI Director. In respect of corruption cases, after investigation the CBI will file a final report in competent courts. Investigation and prosecution will remain in the hands of the CBI. Thus, there will be no vivisection of the CBI and no need for a separate investigation wing under the Lokpal. Creation of two investigating wings — one under the CBI and another under the Lokpal with the same mandate, is likely to lead to the overlapping of work, conflict of jurisdictions, and the demand for more resources. Functional autonomy of the CBI as well as its credibility has been eroded over the years, and effective steps are necessary to restore its full functional autonomy. However, the hard fact that cannot be wished away is that no powerful and effective anti-corruption body can function without an investigation wing. Otherwise, it will be a toothless tiger. The proposal to induct the CBI Director after a very careful selection as ex-officio Lokpal is likely to encounter opposition from the legal and judicial fraternity and other members of the institution of Lokpal some of whom are likely to be judges and Chief Justices of the Supreme Court and high courts. So, instead of toying with the idea of bringing the anti-corruption wing of the CBI under the Lokpal, a better and more pragmatic alternative will be to entrust the CBI with the investigation of corruption cases referred to it by the Lokpal. This measure will ensure avoidance of the vivisection of the CBI and consequent weakening of its core competence, and, at the same time insulate it from extraneous pressures, at least in respect of anti-corruption cases referred to it by the Lokpal. The Lokpal will closely monitor the cases investigated by the CBI. This will enable the Lokpal to utilise all the resources of the CBI towards anti-corruption work and not the resources of the anti-corruption wing only. The CBI’s anti-corruption unit will be ineffective without the support of the other units of the CBI. For effectively combating corruption, the CBI and the Lokpal should act in tandem and the similar model can be replicated in respect of the state Lok Ayakutas. Of course, the Lokpal can build up gradually its own investigation wing by getting officers on deputation from the police and the CBI. This will be a time-consuming affair. Further, transfer of officers lock, stock and barrel from the CBI will not be possible without the consent of individual officers. There will be reluctance on the part of officers to opt for service under the Lokpal as this will not be under the state, and officers of the Lokpal will not enjoy rights under Articles 309 and 311 of the Constitution. The need of the hour is to invigorate the CBI and give it a statutory basis, strengthen its functional autonomy and insulate it from extraneous pressures and influences. This was the recommendation of the L.P. Singh Reform Committee in 1978 and of the Parliament Standing Committee on Personnel, Pubic Grievances, Law and Justice in 2008. The committee was against the creation of another anti-corruption agency because this will lead to the overlapping of jurisdiction, conflict of interests, lack of synergy. In the proposed anti-corruption architecture, the CBI has to play an important role, and for this purpose it should be strengthened by giving functional autonomy and not divided by taking away its anti-corruption wing. However, the larger issue to be borne in mind is that the creation of a powerful institution of Lokpal, though a very important measure, is not the only antidote to corruption. China has severest punishment (execution) for those charged with corruption after running summary trials. But this has not resulted in reduced corruption there. If there are sufficient gains from a transaction, the bribe-giver will seek to tempt the bribe-taker by increasing the size of the bribe and the latter may feel that the risk is worth accomplishing. This will be a paradoxical and unintended outcome of having a strong anti-corruption agency. Further, the Lokpal Bill should be one of the electoral and governance reforms that should be on the agenda of Parliament. Implementation of the Supreme Court’s directives on police reforms brooks no delay. For the delivery of swift and fair justice, the Judicial Standards and Accountability and Rights to Justice Bill is equally vital. There is also need for electoral reforms so that legislators with a criminal background and antecedents cannot contest elections. A Lok Sabha having 76 MPs with criminal background diminishes parliamentary democracy and sullies the
Constitution.
The writer, a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, is a former Director-General, National Human Rights Commission.
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Bride swapping Whenever
I visit my village, I come back with a plot or two of another Mother India, Waris, Rudali or Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke! This time it is a case of bride swapping (or a mix-up!) ‘exposed’ right in time! About 50 years ago, the marriage of two cousins, Kanshi and Risala, was fixed with two cousin sisters, both named Angoori. Both lived in the same village. Both were similar bodywise. Both were illiterate and of the same age. Those were the days when baraatis would travel on foot, with a cart or two, to carry the bride and the dowry articles. Also, poor people who could not afford to spend enough on weddings were ‘adopted’ by zamindars who would spend once and exploit the people life-long! Our Kanshi and Risala were thus adopted by two wealthy farmers who were rivals and kept matching muscle power to take on one another frequently enough. Both zamindars got jewellery made for the brides-to-be and the D-day arrived. All and sundry in the village decked themselves up. But who was to follow which bridegroom? If you were seen with a party patronised by one zamindar, the other getting wind of it, would automatically persecute you later. Under such stress the joint-baraat set foot to the village of Angoori — raised to the power of two. The wedding, however, remained a smooth affair till both Angooris were body-lifted to the bullock-cart by their respective maternal uncles. Reaching the bridegrooms’ village, both Angooris, bundled and wrapped in clothes all over, were huddled and taken to their ‘not-respective’ bridegrooms’ kutcha houses. The mix-up had taken place. Folk songs ranted the skies when they were accosted with a copper-ware, filled with water and a Pipal tree branch dipped in it, on their head. Curious ladies of the house opened their dowry boxes. A shock was in store for all, when Angoori-I demurely mentioned that the jewellery did not belong to her. A wise man suggested they consult Angoori-II. After a little while and before the nightfall — this is critical to note for obvious reasons — the truth became known and brides replaced and restored, appropriately. However, another version of the episode doing the rounds till date, is that the mix-up became known four-five days later only, when one of the brothers of one of the Angooris, who had come to take his sister back home, exclaimed, “Oh no! She is not my sister!” By then the ‘damage’ had been done and a point of no return had been reached. The families in awe of the zamindars never let the secret go out of their community, till recent times when winds of ‘glasnost and perestroika’ had started blowing generally, only to be ‘check-mated’ by
khaps.
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For want of a kidney
IN India nearly 200,000 persons develop terminal kidney failure each year and their life can be sustained only through lifelong dialysis or kidney transplantation. Unfortunately, only 10 per cent of them are fortunate to get the benefit of such treatment and the remaining 90 per cent succumb to their condition, often in a short time. As dialysis centres are mostly located in major city hospitals and the procedure has to be carried out within urgent time frames, the benefit cannot reach common people living in remote areas. Affordability is another concern with chronic kidney disease treatment. Although the State Government of Andhra Pradesh has come out with a unique scheme of free dialysis for people Below the Poverty Line under the Arrogya Shree initiative, the quality of life on dialysis is far inferior to that after a successful transplantation. Hence, more and more patients with terminal kidney failure prefer to undergo a kidney transplantation rather than lifelong dialysis. Over the years the number of kidney transplantation centres has steadily increased throughout the country. However, the number of transplantations is almost static at 4000-5000 operations per year, against the approximately 50,000 operations required. Shortage of human organs for transplantation is the single most important reason for such a low rate of organ transplantation in our country. According to the Human Organ Transplantation Act passed by the Indian Parliament in 1994, only first degree relatives of the patient (parents, children, sibling and spouse) are entitled for organ donation. Unfortunately, either sufficient numbers of entitled organ donors are not coming forward for donation or else they are rejected on medical grounds, leaving the patients with no other option except continuing with lifelong dialysis. Organs from “Brain Dead” donors are another source of organs for transplantation. As the brain controls most of the body functions, permanent loss of brain activity following extensive damage to the brain due to injuries, and consequent haemorrhage or stroke, a person can be pronounced dead on medical ground though major body functions can be sustained for a short period of time ranging from a few hours to a few days with artificial life support measures. Even the Indian Parliament has accepted brain death as the end of life when diagnosed and confirmed meeting approved and validated guidelines and endorsed Clinical Pathways. These “Brain Dead” individuals can be considered as potential organ donors and their organs can be used for transplantation after obtaining permission along stipulated guidelines and procedures from the next of kin. After brain death a person can donate corneas (eyes), liver, kidneys, lungs, heart or heart valves and pancreas for transplantation to the needy. In most of the western countries more than 70 per cent of organ transplants are carried out using organs from brain dead donors. According to the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), which oversees the cadaver transplant programme in the US, 28663 patients underwent cadaver kidney transplantation in 2010 and there are still 1,1100 patients with terminal kidney failure waiting for their turn to receive a kidney from a brain dead donor. Shortage of organs for transplantation is a worldwide problem and million of lives are lost every year because organ transplantation option cannot be offered to them. Organ donation rate is the highest in countries like Mexico and Spain where more than 30 per million population (PMP) agrees for organ donation after death against a dismal figure of about 0.1 PMP in India. Lack of public awareness about usefulness of organ donation after death and non-acceptance of ‘brain death criteria’ as cessation of life are found to be the main reasons behind such a low rate of organ donation in our country. Due to the concerted efforts of many individuals, hospitals and NGOs, the organ donation rate is higher in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat as compared to the rest of the country. The state government controlled deceased organ donation and transplantation programme in the state of Tamil Nadu is showing encouraging results and the Andhra Pradesh government too is planning to introduce a similar programme (Jeevan Daan) in the near future. There are still thousands of such patients with terminal failure of vital organs at various hospitals in the country waiting for their turn to receive a human organ to save their lives. On the other hand more than a lakh persons die every year due to traffic accidents in our country. Projections are that this is likely to increase to 1,50,000 by the year 2020. At any given point of time there are about eight to 10 brain dead patients in hospitals in any major Indian city sustained on artificial life support systems alone, who can be considered as ideal cadaver organ donors. Even if the next of kin of a small percentage of them agree for organ donation, it would be possible to save many more lives. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the government and society in general to create awareness about brain death and organ donation. The medical fraternity can act only as facilitators in the process. A well-known quote in the organ transplantation circles says, “Don’t take your organs to heaven with you. Heaven knows we need them here.” Those who have learned to know and accept death rather than to fear and fight it, become our teachers about LIFE. Registered organ donors and enlightened kin of brain dead individuals who consent for cadaver organ donation are giving the world an ultimate and final gift…the gift of life!
The writer is Vice-Chairman, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad
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Organ donation is still a topic not well understood Every year in our country there is a need of approximately 175,000 kidneys, 50,000 hearts and 50,000 livers for transplantation. As against the need, only 5000 kidney transplants in 180 centreers, 400 livers in 25 centreers and 10-15 hearts in very few centteres are done annually. 95 per cent kidneys and livers are from living donors.
Although the contemporary science has brought in tremendous success in the field of healthcare. aAnd one such advancement is organ transplant, but due to lack of awareness, nobody comes forward to donate organ. People are not aware of organs that can be donated, other than eye. Many patients succumb to death suffering from chronic illnesses, waiting for organ transplants and they die without receiving suitable organ. To encourage organ transplantation procedures and reduce mortality rate through timely transplant, a major improvement is required to happen in the existing organ donation and transplant system. Facts on organ
donation/transplant A person should be well aware of the cost of the donation, if he/she is considering to be an organ donor. The cost of organ transplant, principally include preliminary testing, the surgery cost and the post-operative recovery costs. The cost of an organ transplant can be segregated in terms of Medical costs and non-medical costs. n Medical costs may include:n insurance deductiblesn pre-transplant evaluation and testing surgery n fees for the recovery of the organ from the donor n follow-up care and testing n additional hospital stays for complications n fees for surgeons, physicians, radiologist, anesthesiologist and recurrent lab testing rehabilitation n Non-medical costs include: n food, lodging and long distance phone calls for you and your family n transportation, to and from your transplant center, before and after your transplant n Air travel to get to your transplant hospital quickly n lost wages if your employer does not pay for the time you or a family member spends away from work The costs or organ transplant vary in different countries, hospitals and the type of organs. One of the driving forces for illegal organ trafficking and for "transplantation tourism" is the price differences for organs and transplant surgeries in different areas of the world. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, a human kidney can be purchased in Manila for $1000–$2000, but in urban Latin America a kidney may cost more than $10,000. Kidneys in South Africa are sold for as high as $20,000. Price disparities based on donor race are a driving force of attractive organ sales in South Africa, as well as in other parts of the world. In China, a kidney transplant operation runs for around $70,000, liver for $160,000, and heart for $120,000. Although these prices are still unattainable to the poor, compared to the fees of the United States, where a kidney transplant may demand $100,000, a liver $250,000, and a heart $860,000. Chinese prices have made China a major provider of organs and transplantation surgeries to other countries. In India, a kidney transplant operation runs for around as low as $5000.
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Human
organ donation yet to make a significant mark in India. India lags behind in
the implementation of a cadaveric donation programme. For example: merely 3000
are lucky to get kidney donor, while over 100,000 Indians suffer from End
Stage Renal Disease.