|
|
|
|
|
Suu Kyi is right
A bitter standoff |
|
|
Stink operation
Ensuring food security
‘Don’t weep for me!’
Smokeless
signals
Government policies
|
Suu Kyi is right Myanmar’s iconic crusader for democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, who landed on Indian soil after a gap of over 40 years, did not miss the opportunity to point out that the Indian leadership gave more importance to developing relations with the military junta than providing full backing to the movement for democracy in Myanmar.
She described India’s role as “disappointing”, but with the rider that “friendship should be between the peoples of countries, not between governments, which come and go.” She is, however, not fully justified in her observations so far as India’s conduct vis-à-vis developments in Myanmar is concerned. India has been appreciative of her struggle for democracy and has always admired her determination to take on the military junta despite all kinds of odds she has been faced with. That is why India honoured her with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1992, one year after she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her heroic deeds as an untiring fighter for democracy. Every country’s leadership is supposed to maintain a balance between its national interest and support for the ideals it stands for. It is but natural for India to have sympathy for the pro-democracy movement in its immediate neighbourhood — Myanmar — but without sacrificing its national interest. In fact, India has not been showing as much interest in Myanmar as it ought to have been owing to the tight military control over the state affairs in Myanmar. As a result, China has been the major beneficiary. It is, however, true that Indian diplomacy has been more focused towards cementing relations with the Myanmarese rulers as well as Aung San Suu Kyi as the head of the National League for Democracy only after the military leadership embarked on a political reform process in 2010. The reform drive led to by-elections in April this year in which Suu Kyi’s party won 43 of the 45 seats which were up for grabs. Now she is the opposition leader in Myanmarese parliament and is expected to capture power after the general election in 2015. But it is difficult to believe at this stage that the military will cease to control the power structure then.
|
|
A bitter standoff Violent protests have broken out over sugarcane prices in western Maharashtra. Neither the protesters, who demand a price of Rs 3,000 a tonne nor the sugar mills, which offer just Rs 2,300 are in a mood to relent. The state government has washed its hands off the matter, telling the two parties that whatever price they decide would be acceptable to it.
Fixing the price is a bit complicated. First, the Centre announces a fair and remunerative price (FRP), which is Rs 1,750. State governments add a bonus in the form of a state advised price (SAP). Sugar mills are free to pay any price above the FRP and the SAP combined. There is politics behind the standoff. The sugar mills are patronised by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party. The sugarcane growers’ protests are led by an MP from the area, Raju Shetty, who was arrested after the agitation turned violent. India Against Corruption activists Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal have also lent their support to the farmers. Raju Shetty is trying to erode the political base of Pawar ahead of the 2014 elections. Congress Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is watching from the sidelines, though he can be faulted for using excessive force in enforcing law and order in the area. Farmers have indulged in arson, burning many government and private vehicles, and blocking roads to stop the supplies of milk and other necessities to Mumbai. Maharashtra is the leading producer of sugar with sales touching Rs 25,000 crore a year. There are 200 registered sugar mills of which 165 are in the cooperative sector. Forty per cent of the mills were declared sick in 2011. Political interference has turned the mills inefficient, brought in non-professional managements and resulted in over-staffing. The successive chief ministers have handed out liberal subsidies to the mills and sugarcane growers. Farmers hope this time too the Chief Minister would come to their rescue and they would have their way.
|
|
|
Stink operation Punjab Health Minister Madan Mohan Mittal and Chief Parliamentary Secretary in the ministry Navjot Kaur Sidhu are in an ugly spat over a ‘sting’ operation the latter has conducted to expose a government doctor allegedly indulging in private practice. The minister claims she has no powers or authority to take such action, while the Amritsar MLA, herself a doctor, says she is simply checking a wrong and would not stop.
While the politics of the situation should be left to the BJP, to which both belong, the issue at hand is a matter of principle and a public cause. Any citizen has the right to expose, report and complain against any wrong, as long as no illegal means are resorted to. Mittal says there is a system in place to act on such complaints against doctors; but that is obviously not working. It is rare that a government doctor has faced conviction for private practice. He also claims such action would dispirit doctors in service. But the Punjab Civil Medical Services Association had come out in support of Dr Sidhu the first time she ‘caught’ a doctor in August. In any case, doctors not indulging in anything wrong should in no way be bothered. In fact, they would experience heartburn if they see some of their colleagues making money while they slog in government hospitals. Dr Sidhu, however, does run the risk of getting into an embarrassing situation of a failed or ill-informed ‘operation’, for she neither has training in investigation nor the support. Chief Parliamentary Secretaries thus far have only been a drain on the exchequer, doing no public service whatsoever. It is probably the shock of one deciding to make her presence felt that has upset the minister. The only face-saver for the government is to go all out against various ills afflicting the Health Department, and show results in a time-bound manner. If there is a shortage of doctors, paying them their time’s worth is the answer, not appeasement through condoning illegal practice.
|
|
|
The fall of dropping water wears away the stone.—Lucretius
|
Ensuring food security Food security involves not only the availability of food but, more importantly, also nutritional security and access to food. It is particularly so for vulnerable sections of society — women, children and the elderly. The main emphasis, and rightly so, in India has so far remained primarily on the availability of foodgrains.
As a result, in spite of the fast increasing population, the availability of foodgrains in India has kept reasonable pace mainly through enhanced production. Since 1951, for over six decades, the population of the country has increased by about 3.25 times, yet the availability of cereals has gone up four times, pushing up thereby the per capita availability of total foodgrains from 394.9 grams per day in 1951 to 438.6 grams per capita per day in 2010. The cereal availability increased from 334.2 grams to 407 grams per capita per day. However, the availability of pulses declined from 60.7 grams to 31.6 grams per capita per day. India, being a vegetarian society by and large, it has certainly affected the nutritional security adversely. In respect of some other food items such as edible oils, vanaspati, sugar and milk, the availability of these protective foods has constantly improved over a period of five decades. The availability of edible oils improved from 3.2 kg in 1960-61 to 13.6 kg per capita in 2010-2011, an increase of more than four times. Vanaspati, which is not included in the availability of edible oils, remained constant — around 1 to 1.3 kg per capita during this period — indicating that its production increased almost at the same rate as the growth of population of the country. The per capita availability of sugar went up more than 3.5 times over this period from merely 4.8 kg to 17.0 kg per capita. The highest availability was at 17.9 kg per capita in 2009-2010. Milk availability too more than doubled in these five decades from 124 gram per capita per day in 1960-61 to 281 gram in 2010-2011. Thus, there has been almost no setback in the availability of food in the country, both in respect of foodgrains and protective foods, except in the case of pulses. It should be a matter of concern that in spite of supply of foodgrains and major protective foods keeping pace, rather exceeding the pace of population growth in the country, price inflation has adversely affected the access of a large section of the poor population to the food, specially to protective foods. Under the scenario of highly inequitable interpersonal distribution of productive assets and income levels of society, it is but natural that benefits of investment and ensuing growth and development have gravitated to the better-placed segments of society to the disadvantage of the majority of population in the country. The purchasing power parity estimates indicate that based on $1 per capita per day expenditure, 41.6 per cent of the population in India was below the poverty line. The poverty measured in PPP terms declined by a meagre 0.76 per cent per annum during the last 25 years. The consumption pattern in the country over the last two decades has undergone a considerable change. Total cereal consumption has decreased from 13.40 kg in 1993-94 to 11.35 kg per capita in 2009-10 in the rural areas, and from 10.60 kg to 9.37 kg during this period in the urban areas of the country. Main reduction has occurred in coarse cereals from 2.29 to 0.85 kg in the rural areas and from 1.03 to 0.38 kg in the urban areas during this period. There has occurred a decline in the consumption of pulses also from 0.76 kg to 0.65 kg in the rural areas and from 0.86 to 0.79 kg per capita in the urban areas during this period. On the other hand, oil consumption has increased from 0.37 kg to 0.64 kg per capita in the rural areas and from 0.56 to 0.82 kg in the urban areas. Consumption of all other protective foods has increased both in the rural and urban areas. In order to ensure and improve the access of the poorer sections of society to food, the Government of India created the largest public distribution system of the world based on procured commodities like foodgrains, pulses, oils, fuel oil (kerosene), etc. The largest distribution is of foodgrains. Yet, the reality is that a major part of these commodities never reached the targeted populations. A World Bank survey has indicated that in India only 41 per cent of the grains meant for public distribution reach the targeted beneficiaries. It is reported that foodgrains worth $14.5 billion from Uttar Pradesh alone were appropriated by politicians and their criminal syndicates over the last decade by way of diversion of foodgrains to the markets of Kolkata and Nepal. It is an irony of fate that whereas the per capita availability of foodgrains has increased over time in the country, the grains have been looted by political and bureaucratic mafias. The wastage of foodgrains and the management of food stocks are the other aspects of the availability of food in the country. Till today the country could not create a need-based proper storage and management system that would ensure scientific safe storage. India has not been able to develop export and import regimes that would keep optimum quantities of foodgrains as buffer stocks, pipeline supplies and distribution requirements of the states at optimum levels. In brief, there is no shortage of foodgrains and protective foods in the country. From the supply side, in spite of the fast increasing population, the per capita availability has improved. It is the corruption, diversion of foodgrains and other essential commodities meant for the poor to the open market by the mafias, wastages and mismanagement of stocks that are adversely and very seriously affecting the supplies to the targeted beneficiaries. It is an enigma that in spite of the increasing supply of food, including foodgrains and protective foods in terms of per capita availability, the prices have been looking up all through, especially during the last decade! This is adversely affecting the access of the majority of the population in the country to food, particularly to protective food items. There are two main reasons: first is the corruption and food mafias and second the highly skewed distribution of incomes, which is becoming worse by the day. Imagine only one hundred persons in the country own more than 16 per cent of the GDP of the country. On the other hand, it is difficult for 50 per cent of the population to have two square meals a day. Such a skewed distribution leads to a high rate of inflation that puts food out of the reach of the poor. The result is that there is enough food to meet the food and nutritional requirements of everyone in the country, but it is not there for everyone!n The writer is a well-known agricultural economist of North India. |
||||||
‘Don’t weep for me!’ It was November 16, 96th martyrdom day of Sardar Kartar Singh Sarabha. He was convicted for his role in the Ghadar conspiracy, as part of the freedom movement. At the tender age of 19, the great revolutionary was sent to the gallows in the Lahore Central Jail in 1915. To commemorate the occasion, a function had been organised at a community hall in Jalandhar. I was privileged to be the chief guest on the auspicious occasion. At sharp 11 am, the scheduled time, along with my wife, we reached the venue. Mr Balwant Singh, the organiser of the event, was there to receive us. A self-made individual, Mr Singh personifies humility, fired with the spirit of nationalism. He was apologetic as the other invitees were yet to arrive. We patiently waited over a cup of tea. Finally, half an hour later, the proceedings started with the lighting of the lamp and a patriotic song by students of KMV Girls College. It was disheartening to see the thin attendance; mainly a handful of senior citizens and students. Seated next to me was the ‘guest of honour’, a high-ranking civil official. Unmindful of the solemnity of the occasion, he was constantly engaged on his mobile phone while the inaugural speaker was paying tributes to the martyrs and made an early exit, citing some urgent engagement at hand. During the address, I vented out my emotions by sharing the frustration on our utter insensitivity towards those who made supreme sacrifice for our sake. Once, when pitching for better terms for the military personnel employed under extreme conditions, the response of a bureaucrat was that the Army is a volunteer force and well paid for its services. When questioned on the price that he would quote to stake his life, the response was a muted one. A soldier’s loyalty to the nation and willingness to make supreme sacrifice are not driven by monetary considerations. It is the honour, commitment and urge to uphold the trust that the nation has bestowed on him which makes one transgress the limits, well beyond the “call of duty”. Our current crop of leaders making customary platitudes on the national days is understandable as most of them lack in traditions and exposure to national service. It is intriguing why we as a society fail our real legends while we are known to hero-worship political personalities, screen and cricket celebrities. But for momentary spurt of nationalism, we remain largely disconnected with our martyrs and their families. It is an irony that in most cases, the memorials and museums of great revolutionaries remain in a state of utter neglect while colossal resources are spent to immortalise the living personalities, many of a dubious repute. Even after 65 years of Independence, a befitting national war memorial is yet to come up, when over 40,000 soldiers have sacrificed their lives for protecting the sovereignty of the country, post-Independence. Whereas we have drawn liberally from the West by way of the democratic system, we missed out on their strategic culture and values. It is a treat to witness how countries like the US and the UK literally worship their martyrs, soldiers and veterans. Their occasions to pay tributes to the war heroes are solemn, observed with rare decorum and élan. We as a nation make sad exception in this regard. When the function came to an end, I was deeply moved by the sight of Sarabha’s portrait overlooking the cutout of Mother India. His serene smiling face appeared to be conveying, “Oh Mother! Hold your tears. Don’t ever weep for me, as it will hurt my sentiments and pride.” As we were walking out, I felt mortally shaken by the thought that nations which ignore their martyrs face the danger of extinction. I looked back, paused for a while and felt reassured that my fears were unfounded! Regardless of recognition or gratitude, the likes of Sardar Kartar Singh Sarabha are destined to be re-born, to keep the tradition of martyrdom alive, for sheer love of their
motherland.
|
||||||
Smokeless signals India’s smokeless tobacco industry is up in arms against various state governments for the ‘step treatment’ by way of a ban. But there are strong scientific, legal and policy reasons to back this important public health intervention that has been enforced by 16 state governments. However, other states in the rest of India and other countries also need to realise that the use of smokeless tobacco is much more than a bucolic problem.
With a number of these tough legislations hitting the gutka and paan masala industry, the country is making groundbreaking progress in strengthening tobacco control efforts that are crucial to protect millions, who are affected by tobacco use, especially women and children. Epidemic proportions India is the second largest consumer of tobacco. Most survey data points to the fact that gutka and smokeless tobacco are driving the tobacco-consumption epidemic in the country. Smokeless tobacco users in India consume more than 22 types of smokeless tobacco products. These include gutka, khaini, zarda, mawa, kharra (as chewed forms of tobacco), dry snuff and liquid snuff and mishri, gul, gudhakhu creamy snuff and bajjar as applied forms. Since smokeless tobacco use is not considered a social taboo, its use is specially high among vulnerable women and children. Between 2005-06 and 2009-2010, the percentage of women smokeless tobacco users has risen twofold, from 8.4 per cent to 18 per cent. Children as young as 14 years have been diagnosed with pre-cancerous lesions resulting from smokeless tobacco use. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey, 2009, revealed that 6 per cent of school-going girls (13-15 years) use smokeless tobacco compared to 3.7 per cent who smoke. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey Report for India, released in 2010, the users of smokeless tobacco, at nearly 164 million, are more than double the number of smokers, who account for about 42 million. The initiation rate for smokeless tobacco, before the age of 15 years, is higher among the poor and those with no formal education, which adds to their existing economic burden. An increase in the prevalence of smokeless tobacco use in India has resulted in increased burden of disease and mortality in the country. India also has the largest number of oral cancer cases in the world, due to the widespread habit of chewing tobacco. The risk of oral cancer is 2.6 times greater for people who consume smokeless tobacco, as compared to non-users. Various studies have found severe adverse health effects, which include pre-cancerous lesions, mouth cancer, cancer of larynx, pharynx, oesophagus, lungs, stomach and pancreas, dental caries, gingival recession, tooth attrition, ischemic heart disease, hypertension, stroke, reproductive health problems, low birth-weight babies and overall mortality. Nicotine in smokeless tobacco products is absorbed through the mouth tissues directly into the blood and reaches the brain. Even after being removed from the mouth, nicotine continues to be absorbed in the bloodstream and stays in the blood longer for users of smokeless tobacco than for smokers. Smokeless tobacco is highly addictive and has poor quit rates (5 per cent). It has been documented that between the initiation of carcinogenic habits such as smokeless tobacco use and invasive oral cancers, pre-malignant lesions such as leukoplakia, erythroplakia and oral sub-mucosal fibrosis (OSMF) occur. It has been shown that malignancies from these premalignant lesions can occur within a period of few months to few years. In a clinic-pathological study conducted on current chewers, paan masala or gutka chewers, the OSMF appeared within about three years. However, temporal patterns between smoking and lung cancer have been observed in 10-60 years of time. A research study has compared plasma nicotine levels after use of moist snuff, chewing tobacco, nicotine chewing gums and smoking. This study reported that due to prolonged exposure to oral tobacco products, the overall amount of nicotine absorbed and sustained was twice high as that after cigarette smoking. This further underscores the need to prohibit the use of smokeless tobacco. An adolescent initiating tobacco chewing at the age of 12 years will start showing symptoms of the OSMF by 15 years of age. Oncologists in India are already seeing this new trend of the OSMF appearing at very young age. There have been cases of young adults succumbing to advanced stages of oral cancers. Carcinogenic agents The chewing of both the tobacco and the areca nut (supari) are hazardous due to known carcinogens (cancer causing) in them, most notable ones being nitrosamines. Smokeless tobacco contains as any as 3,095 chemicals, of which at least 28 are carcinogenic. Areca nut, an ingredient in gutka and paan masala, also has addictive and health-damaging properties. Many research studies have further shown that risk of oesophageal cancer is 2.2 to 7.1 times higher among smokeless tobacco users compared to non-users. Death due to ischemic heart disease is 1.25 times higher among chewers. Some studies also have quantified adverse impact of smokeless tobacco use on reproductive outcomes. Pre-term birth and low birth-weight risk increased by 2-3 times among chewers, while there was threefold increase in still-births among users. It has adverse effects on blood-lipid profile and sperm count, too, according to some studies. Using chewed forms of tobacco also causes the public nuisance of spitting, which not only defaces public infrastructure; but also make the surroundings unhygienic. Additionally, environmental hazards due to plastic packaging of these products have been established. The Supreme Court of India prohibited plastic packaging of gutka, paan masala and other similar chewing products. Smokeless tobacco use is also a burden on the government and poses important development challenges. It is estimated that direct medical costs for treating smokeless tobacco-related diseases is Rs 13.09 billion and the indirect cost is Rs 4.8 billion (approx.). Tobacco consumption impoverishes roughly 15 million people in India. Expenditure on smokeless tobacco is responsible for 42 per cent increase in poverty. Tobacco in any form is the number one preventable cause of death and disease globally. Various states governments that are serious about improving the health of their population have to prioritise and tackle the most serious health threat first. Currently, smokeless tobacco is that identified threat in India. Easy access It is high time all stakeholders realised that smokeless tobacco poses a unique challenge. It is available in a myriad varieties from chewable forms to applied products. These can be accessed easily, and are excessively affordable, especially for adolescents. Public health specialists identify these as 'gateway' products, which attract new and young users to use tobacco in general, which may later include both smoking and smokeless forms. Another concern related to smokeless tobacco use is the low awareness of its ill-effects. In some areas, smokeless tobacco is thought to have medicinal properties for curing palliating common discomforts such as toothache, stomach-ache, and headache, thus propelling its use. Therefore, the urgent need to prohibit the use of smokeless tobacco products in India is critical. The writer is Director, Health Promotion and Tobacco Control Division, Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi |
|
Unlike cigarettes and other smoked tobacco products, which have been deliberated extensively on national and international platforms and are controlled by clear 100 per cent smoke-free policies, no clear-cut mandate exists for smokeless tobacco products. The smokeless tobacco industry filed writ petitions in High Courts of Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Maharashtra but failed in this judicial battle. At present, they are rallying their 'cause' with baseless 'paid' media campaigns, highlighting that smokeless tobacco has a thousand chemicals less than cigarettes, as though it matters how much poison is needed to kill a consumer! Regulation of smokeless tobacco in India comes with a chequered past with previous attempts to ban gutka being revoked or embroiled in litigation. The tobacco industry has also made serious and successful efforts to popularise its products through rampant surrogate advertising. With global commitment for reduction in the prevalence of tobacco consumption, emerging ideas towards a tobacco endgame are being discussed around the world. The ban on smokeless tobacco products in the different states of India seems a true example in support of this. These recent developments are appropriately timed and an urgent need of the hour. This can be seen as India's step towards the 'tobacco endgame' of reducing wide-scale prevalence of tobacco use and protecting health of vulnerable poor, women and children in India. |
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
The Indian Government realised this gap and after a National Consultation last year, announced Rules of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) - a nodal agency of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare — which prohibits the use of tobacco and nicotine in any food products (Section 2.3.4). Gutka has been declared as a "food product" in 2004 by the Supreme Court of India. It is, therefore, completely justified that under FSSAI Regulation 2.3.4, gutka is a prohibited food product. Following this central notification, the state governments have enforced these rules through a comprehensive ban.