‘For Children’s Nutrition, Mother’s Education More Important Than Family Wealth’

June 15, 2019

New Delhi: Cutting across the wealth divide, more than a quarter of Indian children under two years of age who were surveyed for a new study did not eat a diversified diet. More than household wealth, it was the mother’s education that influenced how well toddlers and infants ate, the study has concluded.

Only 23% of children aged 6-23 months received an adequately diversified diet, according to the study by Sutapa Agarwal from Tata Trusts, Rockli Kim and S V Subramanium from the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies of Harvard University, and others, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in February 2019.

Among the poorest households, 18% of children had a sufficiently varied diet as compared to 28% of children from the richest households, a difference of 10 percentage points. At the same time, 17% of children of mothers with no education ate an adequately diversified diet as compared to 30% of mothers with a high school or higher education, a difference of 13 percentage points, the study found.

An “adequately diversified diet” entailed consuming at least four items from seven food groups used for the purpose of the study–grains, roots and tubers, legumes and nuts, dairy products, flesh foods (meat), vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, and other fruits and vegetables.

Eating a varied diet is as important, if not more, than the quantity and quality of nutrition. In the study, most children had a higher consumption of grains and a poor consumption of fruits and vegetables, nuts and legumes, eggs and meat.

“More than animal versus plant–we need to think of macro nutrients related to the balance between fat, protein and carbohydrates,” said Subramaniam, one of the co-authors of the study, in an email. “And for young children fat intake is critical. There is an emerging recognition to focus on proteins, but not nearly enough for fat intake among very young children. And here is where dairy consumption–including milk–is important for addressing the burden of child undernutrition.”

Wealth and education gap

“For the poorer strata it is affordability and accessibility, while for the better-off strata it could be lack of knowledge,” said Subramaniam, explaining the study’s findings. Food is an industry now, he said, adding that dietary preferences among the well off need to be interpreted in the larger context of global trends towards homogenous food.

Home to almost a third of the world’s stunted children under five (46.6 million), India is not on track to reach the World Health Organization’s 2025 global nutrition targets, IndiaSpend reported in January 2019.

Of Indian children under two years of age, 90.4% did not receive an adequate diet, the National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) 2015-16 found. Some 18% of children aged 6-23 months ate iron-rich foods, and more than half the children in this age group were anaemic. About 54% consumed vitamin A-rich foods, the lack of which can lead to childhood blindness and poor immunity.

The present study on dietary diversity also used NFHS-4 data, in which mothers were asked to choose from a list of 21 food items they had given their children in the preceding 24 hours.

The items were then divided into seven food groups: grains, roots and tubers, legumes and nuts, dairy products, flesh foods, vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, and other fruits and vegetables.

The mean score of dietary diversity of Indian children was found to be 2.26, on a 0-7 scale, where 0 means children are not fed any of the 21 food items and 7 means they are fed at least one from all seven groups.

The biggest difference between children of different wealth groups was in consumption of dairy products–children in the richest households were three times more likely to consume dairy products as the poorest households.

Meanwhile, children of mothers with high school or higher education had a greater likelihood of consuming all seven food groups and had twice the odds of eating an adequately diversified diet as those with mothers with no education.

Grains consumed most

Among the seven food groups, children mostly ate grain–74% were reported to have consumed roots and tubers, 55% dairy products, 37% other fruits and vegetables, and 29% vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables.

Children’s consumption was the lowest for eggs (14% of respondents), legumes and nuts (13%), and flesh foods (10%), the study found.

Between the richest and poorest households, the difference in consumption of dairy products was the highest (39% in poorest households vs 72% in richest households), followed by vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables (26% vs 33%) and other fruits and vegetables (34% vs 40%).

Consumption of dairy products varied most by mothers’ education level–44% for uneducated vs 73% for educated–followed by vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables (25% vs 34%), and other fruits and vegetables (32% vs 43%).

Although dietary diversity increased in 2016 as compared to 2006, it was poor throughout and actually reduced in the upper two wealth groups (out of five). Despite the reduced gap, the upper groups consumed 2-4 times more diversified diets than those in lower groups.

Consumption of some food items was influenced more by maternal education than household wealth. These included: pumpkin, carrots, squash, dark green leafy vegetables, liver, heart, organ meat, fish, shellfish, legumes and nuts, and flesh food.

Consumption of packaged items such as canned juices increased with increased wealth and mother’s education, which the researchers called “alarming”. They suggested that food items that are cheap in India such as pumpkin, carrots and dark green leafy vegetables should be encouraged.

Can more meat help?

To improve dietary diversity, children should be eating more animal-sourced foods. Indians consumed 194 gm and 242 gm of protein a day in rural and urban areas, respectively, against the recommended 459 gm, according to an analysis published in Livemint in January 2019.

Although dairy and poultry foods are cheaper in India than in some low- and middle-income countries, they remain beyond the reach of many. Here, cash transfers can play a role, said a study on child feeding practices in 2006 and 2016 conducted by the agriculture research group International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and published in the journal Maternal and Child Nutrition.

It would also be important to remove cultural barriers to meat consumption among young children, the study said. Among the one-third households that did not consume animal protein, improving consumption of legumes/nuts and fruit and vegetables could help, said Phuong Nguyen, a co-author of the IFPRI study, on email.

Another study from IFPRI had found that despite health and nutrition education increasing three-fold from 3.2% in 2006 to 21% in 2016, the poorest mothers had the second worst coverage of health and nutrition services (after the richest group), IndiaSpend reported in March 2019.

(Yadavar is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

Dalit Man Paraded Naked: Is This “India Shining”?

June 15, 2019

In Karnataka, Pratap, a dalit man was paraded naked in a village for allegedly polluting a temple by entering it. The video went viral a week later, garnering the attention of dalit activists across the country.

On June 3, Pratap, a dalit man was paraded naked. The incident occurred in Shyandrahalli village in Gundlupete taluk of Chamaraj Nagar in Karnataka. He was being punished for having polluted the village temple by entering it. The incident came to light only on June 11, when the video was shared on the internet and went viral.

Pratap, who grew up in extreme poverty, had managed to attain a graduate degree by sheer grit and hard work. He was also an IAS aspirant. A day before the fateful incident, he had gone to Marimallappa Higher Primary School to take the exam for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). However, when he had reached the exam centre he was not allowed to write the exam. Taken aback, he spent some time in Mysore and then decided to ride back on his motorbike to Gundlupet.

His bike broke down the same night in Raghavapura. It was then that he was attacked and robbed by a few thugs. Shocked and frightened, Pratap decided to spend the night there. At around 06:00 AM, he took shelter at the Shanimahatma temple in Veeranapura gate. The temple priest, who was present there, questioned him about his whereabouts, further intimidating Pratap.

Meanwhile, the villagers had assembled near the temple and started questioning him about his background. Soon they learnt that he belonged to the ‘Holeya’ community which falls under the Scheduled Caste category. This was enough to trigger the upper caste people present there into action. Pratap was verbally abused, while being called “son of a lower born, son of holeyas, you have polluted the temple”. He was then reportedly tied up to a coconut tree and beaten up.

Pratap stood helplessly, begging for mercy, to which the priest announced, “This is the chance to teach a lesson to these Holeyas. They have no right to touch our temples.” Hearing this, the enraged villagers started beating Pratap with anything they could lay there hands on. They tore off his clothes, stripping him naked and tied his hands at his back. He was then paraded naked while being whipped in broad daylight from the temple till the Ooty-Mysore highway.

This yet again proves that the gruesome, inhumane caste-system is still alive even as India is pretending to be drowning in the ocean of modernity. It is quite painful to see where we are headed when we learn that there was not a single soul who felt the need to protect Pratap or stop the violence being meted out to him.

As it happens in most of the atrocity cases, the police have not filed an FIR. Efforts are being made by the casteist forces within the police department to cover up the case instead. It is shocking to learn that the villagers have filed a complaint against Pratap saying that he is mentally ill and have accused him of attacking them.

This incident is a violation of Article 17 of the Constitution, which abolishes untouchability. The issue has not even been taken up by the media channels. As soon as the video went viral, dalit organisations staged protests across the state. Under pressure from these protests, the police finally has registered a case under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, IPC section 143 (Unlawful Assembly), 147 (Rioting), 395 (Dacoity), 323 (Voluntarily Causing Hurt), 342 (Wrongful Confinement) and 509 (Intention to Insult the Modesty of a Woman).

Pratap, who had dreamt of being an IAS officer, is now traumatised by the brutality of the casteist mindset. He is struggling for his life after being admitted to a private hospital in Mysore.

‘India Shining’

“The roots of untouchability lies in the caste system. The roots of caste system is in varna system. The roots of varna is in political power,” these words of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar are being proven right today. Today the world is looking down upon India and India is ashamed. The atrocities against dalits is nothing new, but the ways in which dalits are being murdered, punished, abused have changed and today they have taken even more gruesome forms. The world is now disgusted with the violation of rights and loss of humanity in the country.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

Don’t Shed Crocodile Tears for Martyrs!

June 15, 2019

Senior journalist Abhisar Sharma talks about how the current central government is only interested in gaining political mileage from the deaths of security personnel.

In this episode of ‘Bol ke Lab Azad Hain Tere’, senior journalist Abhisar Sharma talks about how the current central government is only interested in gaining political mileage from the deaths of security personnel. No media channel questioned the government about the death of 13 soldiers in the AN-32 crash recently. Retired army officer Mohammad Sanaullah was termed as a foreigner and was sent to a detention camp. Six soldiers died when a MI-17 crashed in February this year, it was found later that it was shot down in friendly fire and the Indian Air Force was asked by the government not to reveal this fact till after the general elections were over.

Courtesy: News Click

Sanctions Are Genocidal, and They Are the US’s Favorite Weapon

June 14, 2019

After withdrawing from the nuclear deal with Iran last year and resuming sanctions last November, the White House in April announced that its goal was to “drive Iranian exports to zero.” To make this drive happen, the White House stopped allowing (my emphasis) countries like India, China, Japan, Turkey, and South Korea to import Iranian oil: dictating to sovereign countries whom they can trade with.

The dictating doesn’t stop there. Last December the United States had Canadian authorities detain and imprison a Chinese executive, the chief financial officer of telecom company Huawei. Meng Wanzhou is currently on trial in Canada, on the allegation that her company violated U.S. sanctions against Iran. Not content with having told China that it cannot trade with Iran, the United States has gotten a third country, Canada, to take a Chinese corporate executive captive in what Trump suggested was leverage for a trade deal: “If I think it’s good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made, which is a very important thing—what’s good for national security—I would certainly intervene, if I thought it was necessary,” he told Reuters in December.

The trade deal with China didn’t come through, and a “trade war” has begun. Meng Wanzhou is still stuck in Canada. And the blockade against Iran is still tightening. Economist Mark Weisbrot assessed some of the damage to the Iranian economy in a recent segment on the Real News Network, noting that when sanctions were imposed in 2012, oil production dropped by 832,000 barrels per day and GDP by 7.7 percent; when they were lifted in 2016 in the nuclear deal, production increased by 972,000 barrels per day and GDP increased by 12 percent that year. In 2018 when sanctions were imposed, oil production fell dramatically again and inflation rose by 51 percent; shortages of dozens of essential medicines, according to a study at the University of California, have followed.

Some basic economics are in order here. A country that does not need to import or export is called an autarky, and in today’s global economy there are no autarkies. All national economies depend on trade: they export, earn foreign currency, and use that to import what they cannot produce. Driving a country’s exports to zero means destroying the country’s economy, and depriving the country’s people of necessities.

Sometimes billed as an alternative to war, sanctions are in fact a weapon of war. Far from precision-guided munitions, sanctions are weapons of starvation, which target the most vulnerable civilians for slow and painful death by deprivation of food and medicine. They are an alternative to war in the sense that unlike the invasion of ground troops or even the dropping of bombs, they pose little risk to the aggressor. This is their appeal to someone like Trump, who revealed the genocidal intent behind the Iran sanctions when he threatened (on Twitter) “the official end of Iran.”

In the 1990s, one focus of the antiwar movement was the impact of the genocidal sanctions against Iraq, which killed 500,000 children (a “price” that Madeleine Albright famously said was “worth it”). Antiwar activists feared that the sanctions were part of a military strategy that would end in even more devastating shooting war. Those fears proved true. Today’s sanctions seem to draw from the same playbook.

International law recognizes that sanctions are a form of warfare, and places the use of the sanctions weapon in the hands of the United Nations Security Council. And so it happened that between the 1990 and 2003 U.S. wars on Iraq, the UN played the shameful role of administering the Iraq sanctions. But today’s unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. circumvent any UN legalities. In the same Real News segment, UN Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures Idriss Jazairy noted that about one-quarter of the world’s population is under some form of unilateral sanctions. Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Cuba, Sudan and others are under various U.S. sanctions regimes. Yemen is fully blockaded by the U.S., UK, and Saudi Arabia; Gaza and the West Bank are completely sealed in by Israel; Qatar is blockaded by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the list goes on.

U.S. sanctions against Venezuela have already killed 40,000 people between 2017 and 2018, according to a report by Mark Weisbrot and Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs. The more intense sanctions imposed in 2019 will kill still more. Venezuela’s electrical grid is damaged, most likely because of sabotage. Maintenance of potable water pumps has become impossible without imported spare parts, leaving millions without water. A Venezuelan professor of economics, Pasqualina Curcio, told a delegation of the End Venezuela Sanctions coalition that sanctions have cost the country $114 billion, “which is nearly equal to one year’s worth of Venezuelan GDP at a typical oil price, or 26 years’ worth of medical imports.”

One of the tactical arguments anti-sanctions campaigners sometimes make is that sanctions “don’t work.” And for their declared purpose of “regime change,” indeed they do not. But when a policy is so widespread, such a first resort, perhaps the declared purpose is not the real purpose. If the purpose is to destroy economies, isolate countries, coerce allies, keep tensions near boiling and maintain a constant threat of war, sanctions are successful. It has been shown time and again that torture “doesn’t work” for obtaining information. But torture is not a technique for obtaining information. It is a technique for breaking a person and, when practiced on a mass scale by an apartheid state or dictatorship, for breaking a society. Sanctions are similar: the point is to break the society, not “regime change.”

Sanctions are Trump’s favorite weapon, but good Democrats are no different. Obama oversaw the destruction of Syria, Clinton laughed about the murder of Gaddafi and the destruction of Libya, and Albright said that 500,000 Iraqi children’s deaths were “worth it.” For the empire, genocide, like aggression, is a normal part of politics. Nuclear planners plan how to commit it. Sanctions officials administer it. And for the most part, human rights organizations take no position on it.

It is possible that at some point sanctions could become self-limiting. If enough countries are sanctioned, they might of course decide to trade with one another. In attempting to isolate so many big countries, the United States could isolate itself, creating a kind of “coalition of the sanctioned.” But from the U.S. perspective, with Brazil, India, and Egypt (the biggest countries in Latin America, South Asia, and the Arab world) all utterly subservient, perhaps this looks like a good moment to try to pressure China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. Trump’s planners can rest assured that it is not them, but millions of innocents in those countries who will pay for their power plays.

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Justin Podur is a Toronto-based writer and a writing fellow at Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. You can find him on his website at podur.org and on Twitter @justinpodur. He teaches at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies.

Courtesy: Counter Current

‘In defence of equality in Birmingham schools’

June 14, 2019

Joint Statement by Southall Black Sisters and Feminist Dissent.
Image Courtesy: BBC.com

As a group of individuals and organisations, we express our solidarity with the head teachers, staff and parents of children at Parkfield and Anderton primary schools in Birmingham and those elsewhere that are struggling against the onslaught of religious fundamentalist forces. In the face of a fierce and well – orchestrated campaign mounted by Islamists (and supported by other fundamentalist and right wing forces), we defend their courageous struggle to deliver an inclusive education curriculum based on the principles of acceptance, equality and humanity.

The protestors claim that aspects of the schools’ curriculums are incompatible with their religious beliefs. They have used misinformation, intimidation, harassment and abuse to generate fear and to impose their bigoted and homophobic world views on others. We reject their tactics and we reject their claim to speak on behalf of minorities or represent ‘community values’. Many parents from minority communities do not subscribe to their fundamentalist vision, they struggle on a daily basis to give their children – boys and girls – educational opportunities that they never had. They struggle to protect their children from a range of inequalities – racism, sexism, and homophobia – and they believe, as do we that equality and freedom depend on access to education and knowledge.

‘Parent power’ has become a key tool used by conservative and fundamentalist forces to curtail what is taught within schools and to withdraw children from those aspects of the curriculum that do not align with their views. Rather than challenge their anti- equality agenda and fight for children and young people’s right to a full and comprehensive education, some local councillors and MPs are ready to extinguish their rights in order to bolster and appease their own vote banks. The leaders of all the main political parties have also been completely silent. But silence is impunity.

We will not allow fundamentalists of any hue to hijack the education system. This is not about liberal values versus religious values but about those who support equality for all and those who do not. This is not about religious freedom but about the politics of hatred, division and violence. This is not about minority rights but about fundamentalist bids for power and control over people and resources.

We urge all those who care about education to speak up and defend the teaching of equality in schools everywhere. We call upon the government to defend without reservation the right of schools to teach an inclusive school curriculum; to promote equality and age appropriate sex and relationships education for all children and young people; and to properly fund and support state schools to deliver a secular, egalitarian and accessible education for all.

Supported by:

If you wish to support this petition, please send your name, organisation (if any) to Pragna Patel (pragna@southallblacksisters.co.uk) so your name can be added to the list of supporters.

88.6% Of Karnataka’s Area Under Drought As Govt Admits Design Flaw in Water Schemes

June 14, 2019

Athani, Belagavi: Dhondiram Tukaram Sutar, 68, a farmer and social worker from Pandegaon village in Athani taluka of northern Karnataka, has 2.5 acres of farmland on which he grows jowar (sorghum) every year. Jowar is a dry-land crop that can be grown in both rabi (winter) and kharif (monsoon) cropping seasons. Last year, Sutar’s entire crop failed due to scanty rainfall, and he has been unable to sow another crop ever since.

“Because there is no water, the crops have failed, and farmers are forced to sell their cattle,” says 68-year-old Dhondiram Tukaram (right), a farmer and social worker from Pandegaon village in Athani taluka of drought-hit Belagavi district of northern Karnataka.

Part of Belagavi district, Athani taluka is facing acute drought–from October 1 to December 31, 2018, Athani recorded 40.38 mm of rainfall against the average of 135.70 mm, while the district received 50.60 mm against the norm of 152.50 mm, according to data collected by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), an autonomous body affiliated with the revenue department of Karnataka government.

Athani has had scanty rains for more than a decade, inadequate to sustain agriculture, so that most farmers in the region rear cattle as an alternative source of income. Sutar has three cows and five goats. He sells their milk for Rs 30 a litre. He also breeds goats for meat and sells two every six months (a kid goat fetches Rs 4000–7,000, whereas a doe or a buck sells for Rs 10,000).

Now, there is not enough water to manage the cattle. Most farmers in the taluka who have had crop failures have been unable to avail of insurance payouts under the central government’s crop insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

This is the sixth and last story in our series on the drought that affected at least 43.87% area in the country as of May 30, 2019, according to the Drought Early Warning System run by the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar. You can read the previous stories here, here, here, here and here.

Source: DEWS, IIT Gandhinagar; May 2019

Dry spell across districts

Karnataka declared 23 of its 30 districts drought-hit, IndiaSpend reported on September 28, 2018. At least 16 of these are perpetually drought-prone, according to an analysis by the Central Research Institute of Dryland Agriculture. These districts also feature among the 24 districts in the country that are known to be disposed to drought, revenue minister R V Deshpande told the legislative assembly in December 2018. Belagavi is identified as a permanently drought-hit region, The Hindu reported on December 19, 2018.

Due to prolonged drought, borewells, which are a primary source of water in the villages of Athani taluka of Belagavi district of northern Karnataka, have dried up, leading to the failure of water-intensive crops such as sugarcane.

At least seven districts in Karnataka are marked ‘scanty category’—where the departure from average rainfall is between -99% and -60%, based on the pre-monsoon rainfall data (March 1 to May 31, 2019) collated by KSNDMC.

Source: Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre
Note: Data is between March 1 to May 31, 2019

Belagavi is one of the six districts recording rainfall of 31 mm, a departure of -68%. In Athani, the pre-monsoon rainfall was 36 mm; the departure from average rainfall, -52%. The situation is graver in the neighbouring talukas such as Chikkodi (18 mm rainfall, departure -80%), Raybag (28 mm rainfall, departure -63%) and Gokak (16 mm rainfall, departure -85%).

Source: Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre
* Height above Local Ground Level

Athani has received only 34 days of rain on average every year—the lowest among the 10 talukas in Belagavi district—as per data collected by the Belagavi district statistical office between 1951 and 2000. This rainfall is concentrated in June, July and August.

The 10 rain gauges in the taluka show the drought situation worsening with each passing year. “Because there is no water, farmers are forced to sell their cattle,” said Sutar.

Rainfall in the northern Karnataka district also varies from year to year, according to H Venkatesh, agrometeorologist working on an All India Coordinated Research Project (AIRCP), under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. While there might be good rainfall in June in one year, monsoons might start late in July the next year. “It rains regularly in October during the harvest season for short-term crops,” said Venkatesh. “We provide short-term and medium-term rain forecast. The extended long-term forecast is in an experimental stage. These predictions reach farmers through the Havaamaana Krishi mobile application.”

The KSNDMC has a 24×7, three-line help-desk called the Varuna Mitra, which provides weather-related information to farmers across Karnataka. “In 2018, we received about 1,525,000 calls out of which 52,471 calls were from farmers in Belagavi,” said G S Shrinivas Reddy, director of KSNDMC. The Indian Meteorological Department provides district-wise weather forecast while KSNDMC gives village-level weather information to farmers.

Pandurang Mane, 70, a farmer from Shirur village in Athani, grows maize and bajra (pearl millet) on 2.5 acres of land. Mane has not had a good harvest in the last two years due to insufficient rainfall. “The seeds that I had sown last year did not even sprout,” he said. Mane’s annual income from farming is around Rs 20,000. He gets by on Rs 5,000-6,000, which includes the money that his children send him. “With each passing year, my income is decreasing drastically. At my age, I cannot even get a job as a farmhand,” he said.

Digging for water an epic task

Almost 600,000 people in Athani depend on groundwater for all their needs—from drinking to farming–but groundwater has been depleted to the extent that borewells, of which every field has one, run dry too. There are a few open wells of about 120 feet depth, but to strike water, the well must go 700 to 800 feet deeper, for which permission has to be taken from panchayats.

Source: District Statistical Office, Belagavi

“Borewells are not serving their purpose anymore,” said A V Manjunath, assistant professor and an expert on agricultural water management at the Institute for Social and Economic Change. “Moreover, the quality of borewell water is also poor due to high fluoride [content].” The levels of fluoride and nitrate in the water are beyond healthy limits, according to a report on a water management plan for Athani taluka published by the Central Ground Water Board in March 2017.

Further, dams in areas such as Kolar and Chikkaballapur have also dried up.

Situation in border villages

Nearly 88.6% of Karnataka is drought-hit—156 of 176 talukas. A joint survey to estimate the loss endured in the rabi season was to be conducted by the state and central governments. However, villagers said, the teams had not yet visited all the villages, particularly those that border Maharashtra. Although a few primary facilities such as fodder banks and tanker water supply have been initiated, their availability has been insufficient, according to the Belagavi district administration’s survey reports, which IndiaSpend has reviewed.

Without drinking water, fodder for cattle, water for irrigation and a source of livelihood–jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have also been scarce–villagers living close to the border are migrating to villages such as Kavathe-Mahankal, Dhulgaon, Salgare, and Mahalunge in Sangli district of Maharashtra. The fields in the neighbouring state are “well-irrigated”, and it is “easy to find work,” villagers told IndiaSpend.

Compensation for crop failure

“The seeds that I had sown last year did not even sprout,” says 70-year-old Pandurang Mane (left) from drought-hit Athani taluka in northern Karnataka. His income has been reducing every year, he says, and he cannot get work as a farmhand at his age.

Water-intensive sugarcane is a major commercial crop in Athani, in a self-destructive pattern well-known throughout arid Karnataka–farmers continue to cultivate sugarcane for its potentially more lucrative returns, making it the country’s third largest sugarcane producer and accounting for 16% of India’s sugar production. Currently, it is cultivated only in areas situated near the banks of the Krishna river.

Several dryland crops, such as cotton, maize, jowar, bajra, ragi, wheat and Bengal gram, are being grown in areas that do not have easy access to water. Villages such as Ainapur, Shirhatti, Saptasagar, Shankaratti, Darur, and Satti, which are close to the Krishna river and are conducive to growing water-intensive crops, are thriving when compared to villages such as Jambagi, Ajur, Madabhavi, Pandegaon, Malabad, Shirur, Anantapur and Shivnoor that are situated far away from the river and receive scanty rainfall.

Total crop loss in Athani due to lack of water during the rabi season (2018) is 34,604 hectares (of 1,60,774 hectares of the sown area). Some 23,375 farmers were to receive compensation of Rs 2,353.08 lakh combined, under the National Disaster Response Fund and State Disaster Response Fund, based on a survey report by the central team. However, the funds for this have not been released yet.

The PMFBY crop insurance scheme witnessed the highest number of enrollments in Belgaum district. In 2016 alone, 140,089 farmers enrolled for the rabi season and 31,538 for the kharif season. This number fell in 2017 with only 1,910 farmers enrolling for the rabi season and 151 farmers in the kharif season because of good rainfall during that period.

In 2018, 1,849 farmers from Athani enrolled for crop insurance during the rabi season and 8,547 during the kharif season. However, farmers have been paid compensation only for the period until 2016. Farmers who faced crop failure in 2017 and 2018 are yet to be compensated because the central government has not released the funds, district collector S B Bommanhalli told IndiaSpend.

No fodder for cattle

In Khilegaon village, there are no fields for the cattle to graze. “We are entirely dependent on fodder banks to raise our cattle,” said Annappa Nimbal, 55, a native and farmer in the village. Mane, who owns four cows, nodded in agreement. The fodder bank in Shirur village, which opened on February 2, 2019, caters to Shirur, Sambaragi and Pandegaon villages. More fodder banks have opened in Mole, Khilegaon and Ajur panchayats.

With no rains and limited or no stock in fodder banks, farmers of Athani taluka either send the cattle to their relatives in neighbouring Maharashtra or let the cattle wander in search of whatever greenery is available.

To avail of fodder, the farmers have to provide Aadhaar cards and record the purchase in a book, acknowledged by the accountant. Veterinary officers provide officials with a list of farmers in each village and the number of cattle they own. “This ensures the provision of real-time requirement of fodder and prevents misuse of fodder funds,” said M B Patil, 35, who is the talathi (village accountant) at the revenue department in Shirur talathi office. In Shirur village alone there are 2,200 cattle. About 180 farmers avail the services of the fodder bank regularly.

Each animal is given 15 kg of fodder at a price of Rs 1 per kg for wet and Rs 2 per kg for dry feed. However, for a healthy cow to provide enough milk, it needs at least 20-25 kg of fodder per day, said the villagers. Sometimes, the farmers send the cattle to their relatives’ places in Maharashtra where there is enough water and fodder.

Sugarcane bagasse from the sugar mills is the primary source of fodder and comprises 1,518 tonnes of sugarcane brought to each fodder bank. However, when the mills close during the summer, there is a shortage of feed. Earlier, there were goshalas (cow shelters), but the concept has been shelved for the past five years. “It should be brought back,” said Sutar.

Earlier, farmers could deposit their cattle in goshalas, that were run by a task force comprising panchayat development and revenue officials. These were replaced with fodder banks five years ago.

Farmers are forced to walk for three to four kilometres to the nearest fodder bank. “As the drought situation continues to worsen, more fodder banks will be opened in Sambaragi and other villages,” said Patil, the talathi.

Job creation critical during drought

“Although we have agricultural land, we are unable to till it. We are also not getting any jobs under MGNREGA scheme. We are living a dire life,” said Nimbal, the Khilegaon farmer. With no options left, villagers migrate to neighbouring Maharashtra in search of work in farmlands and construction sites. Mane from Shirur has two sons who along with their wives, do odd jobs in Miraj and Sangli in Maharashtra. “They come to the village once a month,” Mane said.

Gram panchayats have stopped undertaking new works under MGNREGS, and the percentage of works completed under MGNREGS has decreased over the years. Officials claim there is no budget allocation for new development works. In Athani, the number of job cards issued is 3,226, and there are 1,403 registered active workers, according to the MGNREGS website. However, the number of registered active workers is only 281 in the current year.

“The zila panchayat needs to undertake bund construction works in the villages. It will help in rainwater collection in drought-affected regions and will also create job opportunities,” says Shivaji Kaganikar, 55, an activist from Belagavi.

MGNREGS is an important lifeline for people in rural areas since the scheme assures 150 days of guaranteed employment in a year in drought-affected areas. “MGNREGS is the only programme which will help poor people in the drought-ridden areas get two square meals a day,” said Shivaji Kaganikar, 55, an activist with the NGO Janajagaran and a member of the Bhrashtachar Nirmulan Samiti, an anti-corruption NGO, in Belagavi.

However, some villagers IndiaSpend spoke to said jobs are not given until rural women fight for it in large numbers. Wages are not paid on time, and corruption is rampant, they said. In some areas, people create fake job cards and bank accounts, said Kaganikar. The zila panchayat should undertake bund construction works under MGNREGS for rainwater collection in drought-affected regions, which will also create job opportunities, he said. There is a need for greater transparency and to create awareness about the programme.

Flawed water schemes

Government water tankers are supposed to provide 40 litres of water per person every day, but the villagers complain that they get only 15-20 litres (two to three pots). A queue at a water tanker in Mole village of Athani taluka in northern Karnataka.

Savitri Rokade, 45, a housewife from Ugar Khurd town, Athani, recently led an all-women protest march against the shortage of drinking water. She blamed politicians for the water problem: “This has been going on for a few years, and the authorities have not been able to find a permanent solution to resolve this issue. Rich people can buy a pot of water for Rs 20. How can the poor quench their thirst and tend to their cattle? Authorities should provide enough water tankers to villages until the water scarcity ends.”

The Multi-Village Water Scheme (MVS) of the state government, which supplies river water to villages, brings drinking water to Athani villages from the Krishna river. However, when the river dries up in the summer, the scheme becomes dysfunctional, and Athani and Kagwad talukas suffer the most. This “design flaw” exists in various water schemes, Krishna Byre Gowda, the rural development and panchayat raj minister, was reported to have acknowledged at a press conference on May 18, 2019. He said that around 75 water schemes have stopped functioning due to lack of water and the absence of a back-up plan.

Making the situation worse, the Maharashtra government is not releasing water from the Koyna dam to the drought-hit villages in north Karnataka as it had done in previous years.

Water levels in Karnataka’s 13 reservoirs are down to 13.38% of their overall storage capacity, as per the KSNDMC.

A Basaveshwara-Kempwad lift irrigation project in public-private partnership mode aims to irrigate about 27,462 hectares in Athani at a cost of Rs 1,363 crore ($204.88 million). It will lift water from the left bank of the Krishna to cater to about 20 villages. However, the project will take at least three and a half years to become functional, M Shrinivas, an official associated with the project, told IndiaSpend.

In the last five years, the centre has cut 64% of the funds to Karnataka under the National Rural Drinking Water Project. The Centre’s contribution in 2018-19 has fallen to Rs 312.33 crore from Rs 868.76 crore in 2013-14, the Deccan Herald reported in February 2019.

With Athani experiencing persistent drought for the last 14 years, the bunds (embankments made to prevent runoff and store rainwater) and lakes have gone dry. The government is desilting some of the lakes, but is yet to install the pipeline that would carry water from the Krishna to the lakes during the monsoon.

Government water tankers are supposed to supply at least 40 litres of water per person every day. However, the villagers claim that they get only 15-20 litres (two to three pots)–not enough for bathing, washing or watering the fields, so they end up using drinking water for these activities.

Insulating against drought

Successful dryland agricultural practices can help conserve moisture in the soil, which can last to some extent during dry spells. “To increase productivity or to get a good yield, even during drought, the farmers should plough vertically at low-lying land so that the rainwater gets harvested in the fields during monsoon, which helps to maintain soil moisture,” said Surakod V S, senior scientist of agronomy at AICRP.

In the rabi season, farmers should cultivate land in small square patterns while sowing seeds, which helps retain water and maintain soil moisture, Surakod said, adding that the farmers in Hanawad village in Vijayapura near Athani have been getting good yield by practising this method even during drought.

Micro-irrigation techniques, such as drip irrigation and sprinklers, can facilitate feasible agriculture in drylands. “People think that if surface water is readily available through canals, why should they opt for drip irrigation. However, people living away from canals always get less water. If farmers living upstream used drip irrigation, those living downstream would not experience severe water stress,” said Manjunath.

Traditional and easy techniques such as mulching can also help retain soil moisture and conserve water. Bunding is another technique to store rainwater and prevent run-off. Aggressive investments in soil and water conservation programmes are a must to mitigate Karnataka’s drought situation.

This concludes our six-part series on drought. The previous stories can be read here, here, here, here and here.

(Shankar is a Belagavi-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)

Courtesy: India Spend

“History can never be used to justify faith”: Romila Thapar

June 14, 2019

Written by Valay Singh and published by Aleph (2018), Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord is a biography of the city Ayodhya. Over thousands of years, Ayodhya has been a place of reverence for many faiths; but it has also been a place of violence, bloodshed and ill-will. Going back almost 3,300 years to the time Ayodhya is first mentioned, Valay Singh traces Ayodhya’s history, showing its transformation from an insignificant outpost to a place sought out by kings, fakirs, renouncers and reformers and, later, becoming the centre-stage in Indian politics and the political imagination.

But what is the history of Ram, whose janmabhumi Ayodhya is claimed to be?

A panel of speakers that include Romila Thapar, Kunal Chakrabarti, Zoya Hasan, and Valay Singh discussed this and other questions at the book launch of Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord in New Delhi. Veteran historian Romila Thapar talked about the necessity of maintaining a distinction between history and belief and congratulated Singh on separating the historical narrative from the narrative that emerges out of faith. Talking about Ram, she said, “Speaking as a historian, there is no cross-evidence for the historicity of the person of Ram.” She also talked about how communities of all kinds have appropriated Valmiki’s Ramayana and given it a distinctive identity: “The worshipper of Ram can believe whichever of these many versions of Ram he or she chooses to because this is a matter of faith and belief. It doesn’t impinge on historicity or history.”

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

Adani Gets Permit for Carmichael Mining Project in Australia

June 14, 2019

Amidst legal cases and heated protests from Australian conservation bodies and citizens, the coal mine was finally handed over to the group after approval from the Federal and Queensland government.

After a period of 10 years since the project was first proposed, Adani Group has received the permit to begin work on the Carmichael Mining project in Australia. Amidst legal cases and heated protests from Australian conservation bodies and citizens, the coal mine was finally handed over to the group after approval from the Federal and Queensland government. Senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta discusses this development that has come in the wake of the decade-long lobbying by the Indian business conglomerate.

Courtesy: News Click

1...1,3961,3971,398...2,697 Page 1,397 of 2,697

‘For Children’s Nutrition, Mother’s Education More Important Than Family Wealth’

Dalit Man Paraded Naked: Is This “India Shining”?

In Karnataka, Pratap, a dalit man was paraded naked in a village for allegedly polluting a temple by entering it. The video went viral a week later, garnering the attention of dalit activists across the country.

Don’t Shed Crocodile Tears for Martyrs!

Senior journalist Abhisar Sharma talks about how the current central government is only interested in gaining political mileage from the deaths of security personnel.

Sanctions Are Genocidal, and They Are the US’s Favorite Weapon

‘In defence of equality in Birmingham schools’

Joint Statement by Southall Black Sisters and Feminist Dissent.
Image Courtesy: BBC.com

88.6% Of Karnataka’s Area Under Drought As Govt Admits Design Flaw in Water Schemes

“History can never be used to justify faith”: Romila Thapar

Adani Gets Permit for Carmichael Mining Project in Australia

Amidst legal cases and heated protests from Australian conservation bodies and citizens, the coal mine was finally handed over to the group after approval from the Federal and Queensland government.

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Important Links

Other Links

CONNECT

In Karnataka, Pratap, a dalit man was paraded naked in a village for allegedly polluting a temple by entering it. The video went viral a week later, garnering the attention of dalit activists across the country.

Senior journalist Abhisar Sharma talks about how the current central government is only interested in gaining political mileage from the deaths of security personnel.

Joint Statement by Southall Black Sisters and Feminist Dissent. Image Courtesy: BBC.com

Amidst legal cases and heated protests from Australian conservation bodies and citizens, the coal mine was finally handed over to the group after approval from the Federal and Queensland government.

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Important Links

Other Links

CONNECT

Joint Statement by Southall Black Sisters and Feminist Dissent.
Image Courtesy: BBC.com