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Keshu Patel and his son Kantilal pluck marigold flowers in his field in Mirjapur, Madhya Pradesh. Post notebandi, the unpredictability of getting cash, which he needs for all his transactions–groceries, payment to labourers, transporters–has left him anxious.

On the morning of November 8, 2017, IndiaSpend found Patel plucking marigold flowers on his farm in Mirjapur, near Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh. “The phone isn’t working since the past 20 days,” said Patel. “It can’t be repaired and we don’t have the money to buy a new one right now.”
 
Patel’s predicament underscores the difficulty small farmers face in moving to digital payments, which have increased overall over the past year.
 
Though, farmers and traders said the move to demonetise notes did not have a lasting effect on prices in the flower market, the shift to payments by cheque for large transactions had delayed when farmers would get cash in hand, impacting household purchase decisions, particularly as small farmers and traders struggle with the banking system, and low financial and digital literacy.
 
Many farmers do not own a smartphone–1 billion people across India do not–so they cannot access mobile banking services or internet-based payment systems.
 
Last year, IndiaSpend had spent a day with Patel to understand the impact of demonetisation or, notebandi as it is locally known. Because of lack of cash in the market, flower prices stayed low even in the wedding season, leading to a loss of 70% of Patel’s usual income between the months of October and January.
 
One year after the decision to invalidate overnight Rs 14 lakh crore–or 86% by value of Indian currency in circulation–IndiaSpend visited Patel and the Indore flower market to know whether there were any lasting effects of the move.
 
Cash still most important, don’t use cards or cheques for payments
 
Patel is one of 118.6 million Indian farmers, as the Census recorded in 2011–equivalent to the population of the Philippines. As many as 9.8 million farmers live and work in Madhya Pradesh, one of India’s poorest states. Patel is a “small farmer”, as he has about 2.5 acres of land, less than the average land held by an Indian farmer (2.84 acres), according to the agricultural census of 2010-11, as IndiaSpend reported in December 2016.
 
This year, Patel first sold onions, which he said sold at a rate lower than what he had expected. But the main problem he faced, he said, was that traders would insist they pay him via cheque, some of them post dated. “It would take 4-5 days for the money to come into the bank account, and then we would have to go and withdraw from the bank,” he said. For everyday transactions which would barely amount to Rs 500-1,000, including paying for the transport of produce, engaging with the banking system was more trouble than it was worth.
 
“First you go to the bank to deposit the cheque,” said Patel. “When you go back to withdraw money, they will sometimes tell you the signature doesn’t match, sometimes you will be asked to get the Aadhaar card.” He said his older brother who lives in the same village sold about 25 quintal of soyabean at Rs 2,300-2,400 per quintal about five days ago, but the money hasn’t reflected in his account yet.
 
The Madhya Pradesh government had said farmers could be paid upto Rs 50,000 in cash, but reports said farmers were still being paid by cheque.
 
“We need money immediately if some disease attacks our crops. If we don’t spray the davai (insecticide or fungicide) immediately, it causes us a loss,” said Patel. This year, a part of Patel’s marigold crop withered due to a disease he calls “kapadia”, similar to blight, which blackens leaves and withers flowers.
 

A diseased marigold plant in Keshu Singh Patel’s farm. This year, a part of his crop was spoilt because of disease.
 
When asked whether he uses a card to make payments at the local grocery store, Patel is at a loss. He said grocery shops don’t have a card, that his bank doesn’t give him a card–only cash–and then that he only has a bank account. His son, Kantilal, explains that he owns a card he uses only to withdraw money from the ATM, but right now they have no money in the bank.
 
Prices currently low in the market, but not because of notebandi
 
It is a period of low prices at the mandi (market), not because of any lasting effects of notebandi, but because of the usual ups and downs in the market, said Shabbir Abbasi, 52, a worker at Bharat flowers at the Indore mandi. “Prices should go up in some days as the wedding season begins,” he said.
 
Patel hasn’t started regularly selling his produce of marigold and chrysanthemums at the market–he said he will start in a couple of days as his produce matures and prices go up.
 
“There is no money in the market. I don’t know why,” said Champalal Kehlewad, 47, a farmer who sells his produce–flowers, soyabean, potatoes, other vegetables–at the Indore market. “It’s like even nature isn’t supporting the current government,” he said, giving the example of poor monsoons this year.
 

The flower market in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Last year, the month after notebandi, flower prices had stayed low even in the wedding season. But there hasn’t been a lasting impact of notebandi on prices, traders and farmers said.
 
Small transactions by cash, only big traders use cheques
 
“I still don’t have a bank account,” said Jagganath Mahadeo Bhuyyer, who goes by the name Bhausahab, and owns a flower shop in the mandi. He had told IndiaSpend last year that it was too much trouble to start and operate a bank account. “But I am going to open an account tomorrow, on Wednesday, which is an auspicious day,” he said. He said he was selling his house, and he would put money from the sale into the account.
 
Overall, India has high bank account ownership with 63% Indians owning a financial account of some kind. But only 12% used an advanced bank account service such as bill payments, insurance and loan payments in 2016, as IndiaSpend reported in October 2017.
 
Mukesh Mukati, a farmer who sells at the market, has a bank account, but he doesn’t use it regularly. “There has to be enough money in the bank to use it,” he said, explaining that he has also taken a loan from the bank. He said he runs the household on the the cash he receives at the flower market everyday.
 
For everyday transactions at the market, Bhuyyer said bank accounts were of no use. “Why would anyone who pays us Rs 200, 500, 1,000 use an account for it? Why would we pay the farmer such small amounts by cheque?”
 
It is the big traders in the flower market who receive payments by cheque.
 
Pankaj Parod, 37, a trader, has been working in the market for 15-20 years. Before notebandi, there were some payments by cheque or direct bank transfers, but most of the transactions were still in cash, he said. “Now people who buy in bulk, pay by cheque or transfer the money to the bank, but farmers still want us to pay them cash because the amounts are too small, and this delays payments,” he explained.
 
“Now there is no certainty when we will be paid,” said Gajanand, a farmer who has been selling in the market for 30 years. “But we understand that it’s not the traders fault.”
 
No one in the mandi has a credit or debit card machine for payments.
 
‘Ask the government to let traders pay farmers in cash’
 
Last year, the Patel family had about Rs 30,000-40,000 in the bank account, but they used the money for seeds for the next year, and household expenses. This summer, they spent Rs 50,000-60,000 to dig a new borewell because the old one dried in the scanty monsoon. “We borrowed money from someone we know in the village, and are now paying that money back.”
 
“Earlier we used to buy groceries–oil, sugar–in bulk but now we only buy a 1 kg of oil or ½ kg of sugar at one go,” Patel, the farmer, told IndiaSpend. “We are uncertain when the next cash payment will reach us. I’ve never been so anxious about all this in my life. But now I am,” he said.
 
“The government should say farmers can be paid in cash. We are small farmers, we don’t have black money to hide.”
 
“The good thing is that they still pay us in cash at the flower market for small transactions.”
 
(Shah is a writer/editor with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post Why A Flower Farmer Cannot Join The Cashless Economy, A Year After Demonetisation appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
During the one-year study, conducted in 480 villages of Rajasthan and Bihar–states with the lowest female literacy levels in India–mothers with children between ages five and eight were exposed to three kinds of interventions: Home learning, participation programmes in their children’s education, and a combination of both.
 
The results showed an increase of 11 percentage points in mothers who could recognise one-digit numbers for one of the interventions, and mothers were more likely to be involved in their children’s education. As for the children, their math scores improved marginally as well.
 
The study was led by Pratham, an education NGO, Cornell University and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 
Parental education is correlated with higher participation in formal schooling and better decisions to improve child learning.

Source: The Impact of Maternal Literacy and Participation Programs: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in India
Note: ‘No Impact’ refers to no statistically significant impact.
 
About 30% of Indian adults above the age of 15 years were illiterate, according to Census 2011, the latest available data on nationwide literacy. Illiteracy is higher for females (40.7%), and for those from the scheduled castes (39.6%) and scheduled tribes (48%).
 
“Even if kids went to school 100% of the time, we are looking at only a couple of hours (of education a day). Several awake hours of children are spent at home, especially of younger children, often with their mother,” said Marc Shotland, co-author of the study and associate director at J-PAL.  
 
Children from richer households–and with better-educated parents–have a learning advantage even if what they learn at school is not factored in. It is, therefore, necessary to look to the household to reduce inequities in children’s education, Shotland explained.
 

60% mothers learn basic math, so do 60% children
 
The study found that 58% of mothers exposed to both kinds of interventions could recognise one-digit numbers. In the control group, where mothers had no such exposure, 47% showed similar math skills.
 
As for children, 60% of those whose mothers had the benefit of both interventions were able to recognise one-digit numbers, as compared to the control group (56%), the study found.
 
For improvements in child test scores, the authors cautioned that some of the impact of the programme could also be because some children attended classes along with their mothers and participated in the home activities.

Source: The Impact of Maternal Literacy and Participation Programs: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in India
Note: ‘No Impact’ refers to no statistically significant impact.

 
How the literacy capsules worked
 
In the study, villages were randomly assigned to one of four groups between September 2011 and February 2012–one was a control group of mothers that received no intervention, the second group was exposed to a maternal literacy programme with daily language and math classes, the third group received home learning to become involved in their child’s education, and the fourth group had the benefit of both.
 
The maternal literacy classes were taught by local volunteers trained by Pratham. For the home learning and participation programme, trainers were paid Pratham staff.
 
The average mother attended 25 and 27 classes in the maternal literacy programme and combined intervention, respectively, with an average attendance between three and five days a month out of the 12.5 classes held.
 
Households were successfully visited about 16 times, on average, for the home learning and participation programmes, and mothers were present during 81% of these visits, as measured during the second half of the intervention.
 

Maternal intervention not cost-effective in short term
 
An intervention targeting mothers might not be as cost effective to improve child learning outcomes in the short term as one directly aimed at the child, the authors wrote. The programme cost Rs 500 per mother. What these programmes do achieve is simultaneous targeting of maternal and child learning levels, they added.
 
The potential larger and long-term effects of the intervention could not be measured as the study did not have enough funds to continue, Shotland said.
 
For instance, maternal education could lead to fundamental cultural changes in the household which could have long-term effects on the child enrolment in school and/or learning. Some of these changes could be seen in the changing role of mothers in their children’s education.
 

Mothers in learning groups feel more responsible for child’s education
 
Most mothers in the intervention and control group believed they had a role to play in their child’s education. But mothers in the maternal learning, home participation, and combined intervention groups were 4.1, 3, and 4 percentage points, respectively, more likely to report being responsible for their child’s education, the study found.
 
Researchers found that the interventions did not have a significant impact on the time mothers spent directly helping children with lessons at home. But they had statistically significant impacts in other respects–on the mother examining notebooks, talking to their children about school, and talking to others about their children’s studies. Home participation and combined intervention showed more mothers helping children with their homework.
 

Govt. certified 22.7 million literate through Saakshar Bharat
 
In 1998, the government of India launched the National Literacy Mission (NLM), with the aim of making 75% of India’s population literate by 2007, but fell short of its aims. Still, as many as 127.45 million more Indians became literate by 2009. Of them, 60% were females, 23% belonged to scheduled castes and 12% to scheduled tribes, according to government data.
 
In 2009, India launched Saakshar Bharat (literate India) to” further promote and strengthen adult education, specially of women, by extending educational options to those adults who having lost the opportunity of access to formal education and crossed the standard age for receiving such education”. The aim was to provide functional literacy to 70 million adults in the age group of 15 years and beyond, primarily focusing on women, and rural areas.
 
Initially scheduled to end by 2012, the scheme was extended until 2017, covering 410 districts. The goal of the program was to raise the literacy to 80% and reduce the gender gap in literacy to less than 10%, according to a government document.
 

Source: Census 2011
 
Between August 2014 and March 2016, the government certified 22.7 million adults as literate, out of the 30.5 million registered for the programme, according to a year-end review from the ministry of human resource development in December 2016. There are no recent estimates of nationwide literacy, or independent evaluations, which could be used to verify this claim.
 
For the financial year 2017-18, the central government allocated Rs 320 crore for Saakshar Bharat, according to a budget document–an increase of 31.1% from the revised 2016-17 budget of Rs 244 crore.
 
(Shah is a reporter/editor with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post Maternal Education Programmes Could Improve Mothers’ Test Scores, Child Learning: Study appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Vehicles set ablaze by a mob protesting against the Naga economic blockade near Imphal, Manipur, on December 18, 2016. The economic blockade of the Imphal-Dimapur road and the Imphal-Silchar road, through which most goods are brought into the state, has overshadowed all other issues this election year in Manipur.
 
State elections in Manipur, a state half the size of Haryana, with one-third the population of Mumbai, over 30 tribal groups, and six active terrorist groups, will take place in two phases, on March 4 and March 8, 2017.
 
The economic blockade–a manifestation of the state’s ethnic conflict–is the “burning problem” right now, said Binod Kumai, a research associate with the Institute for Conflict Management, a New Delhi-based nonprofit. Prices of necessary commodities have skyrocketed, with cooking gas cylinders being sold for Rs 1,000 (Rs 651.50 in the national capital) and a litre of petrol for Rs 200 (Rs 71.33 in the national capital), he explained.
 
“People are not able to see beyond the hope of peace,” said Pradip Phanjoubam, editor of the Imphal Free Press, on the blockade ongoing since November 1, 2016.
 
On December 8, 2016, the Manipur government issued a gazette notification dividing seven districts into 14 districts.
 
The blockade has been imposed by the United Naga Council, which demands the government go back on its decision to create new districts in the hill areas of Manipur, Firstpost reported in February 2017. The group contends that Naga groups were not consulted before the decision, and some new districts divide what Nagas consider their ancestral land.
 
The government, led by chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, said that new districts will help administer the region better, as the Hindustan Times reported in January 2017. The new districts do not change assembly constituencies.
 
But the focus on the blockade has pushed other important issues in Manipur to the background.
 
Low per capita income, unsteady growth
 
The per capita income of Manipur of Rs 24,042 is one of the lowest in the country, and trends over the last 10 years show a slow increase, and sometimes, even contraction in both the net domestic product and the per capita income of the state, according to information compiled by the NITI Aayog.

Source: NITI Aayog
 
Tepid growth is also one of the causes of high urban unemployment. As many as 188 out of 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and 29 years in urban areas of Manipur are unemployed, compared to the Indian average of 139 people per 1,000–a challenge in a state with 23.3% of its population between the age of 18 and 29 years.
 
“Unemployment should have been a big issue, but isn’t because of the blockade,” said Phanjoubam, editor of the Imphal Free Press. “This election is removed from everyday realities.”
 

 
A third of Manipuris live under poverty line, but good basic-health indicators
 
Two of those realities appear to be in conflict: India’s third-poorest state also has the country’s lowest infant mortality rate (IMR), which at nine deaths per 1,000 live births is better than Brazil, Argentina and Saudi Arabia, according to World Bank data.
 
Some reasons for low infant deaths include better medical facilities, more doctors and nurses and women empowerment, as IndiaSpend reported in February 2016. Manipur has one doctor for every 1,000 people, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and better than the all India average of one doctor for 1,700 people. The trained nurse to population ratio is 1:600 compared to the India average of 1:638.
 
The number and proportion of people below the poverty line in Manipur has fallen since 2009, but, in 2011-12, over a third of Manipur’s population still lived below the poverty line of Rs 1,118 per capita per month in rural areas and Rs 1,170 in urban areas.
 
Only two states–Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand–have a higher proportion of people below the poverty line than Manipur.
 

Women in the state are also better off that most in India. A girl born is more likely to be educated; more likely to be working as an adult; more likely to survive childbirth and more likely to not be the victim of crime, than in most Indian states, as IndiaSpend reported in November 2016.
 

Source: Census 2011; Census 2011; The National Sample Survey Office Report; Regional Institute of Medical Sciences Manipur 2010-11; Sample Registration System Report 2010-12; NCRB Crime in India 2015 Report.
Note: Rankings are among 29 states; they do not include union territories.
 
These health and gender indicators are high in spite of the insurgency, which began in the 1960s, after Manipur, home to over thirty tribes, became a part of the Indian union.
 
There are broadly two insurgent demands–one from the Nagas who want Greater Nagaland, a state which would contain parts of Manipur. The Nagas are one of three major ethnic groups in Manipur, along with the valley-based Meiteis and the hill based-Kukis.
 
The other insurgent group, comprised of the majority Meiteis, wants to secede from India, and form a separate sovereign state. Despite the turmoil, deaths related to the insurgency have fallen.
 
Reduction in insurgency-related deaths: Down 90% over 10 years
 
Overall, since 2009, fatalities because of insurgent activity in Manipur have reduced, with a greater reduction since 2012. In 2016, 14 civilians and 11 security officers died, down from 107 civilians and 37 security officers in 2006, according to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal.
 
Another issue of contention is the 59-year-old Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which provides special powers to Indian armed forces in disturbed areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. These include the power to fire, even if it causes death, at any person who breaks a law, including assemblies with more than five people.
 
The AFSPA also gives an officer the power to arrest without a warrant a person who has committed a cognisable offence (serious crimes for which a police officer can start investigation without permission of the court), or if the officer has suspicions that the person might commit one. An officer working under this Act cannot be prosecuted without the sanction of the central government.
 
Detractors say it gives armed forces too much power and allows them to act with impunity. Residents have demanded the act be rescinded from Manipur.  

 
Irom Sharmila, a Manipuri activist who was on a hunger strike against AFSPA for the past 16 years, broke her fast this year, to form a political party with the aim of repealing the Act from Manipur. Her party, People’s Resurgence and Justice Alliance, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Naga People’s Front, are some major parties contesting for a government that has been run by the Congress party for 15 years.
 
(Shah is a writer/editor with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: IndiaSpend
 

The post In Poor Manipur, Ethnic Conflict Overshadows India’s Lowest Infant Mortality Rate appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A worker is silhouetted against the setting sun while installing an overhead electric cable pole in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. About 28% of the voters interviewed for a survey said power cuts were the biggest issue in the state, while 20% said jobs, the economy and development were the biggest issues.
 
Elections in UP, with 138 million voters, greater than the population of the north American country of Mexico, start February 11, 2017.
 
FourthLion conducted 2,513 telephone interviews in Hindi of registered voters in UP, and said their sample is representative of UP’s urban and rural voters as well as socioeconomic, age, gender and caste make-up. The survey was conducted between January 24 and January 31, 2017.
 
The next part of this series, based on the survey, addresses political preferences of voters.
 
About 28% of the voters interviewed said power cuts were the biggest issue in the state, 20% said jobs, the economy and development were the biggest issues, while 10% said a shortage of clean water was the biggest issue. Few voters said the roads, food, the currency ban, crime, corruption, agriculture, sanitation, health and education were the biggest issues.
 

Source: FourthLion-IndiaSpend survey

 
Why might access to electricity be the biggest issue?
 
The percentage of households that used electricity as the main source of energy grew from 31.9% in 2001 to 36.8% in 2011, according to census data, with a stark difference between urban and rural areas. While 81.4% of urban households used electricity as the main source of energy in 2011, as few as 23.7% did so in rural areas, data show.
 
By the end of 2016, in rural UP, 177,000 rural households were unelectrified, down from 185,900 households in March 2014, government data show.
 
But even households that have electricity face power cuts, the FourthLion-IndiaSpend survey shows. As many as 38% of those surveyed said they faced power cuts every day, while 16% said they faced power cuts every week but not every day. Women, who are likely to stay at home more, and rural voters, are more likely to face power cuts than men and urban voters respectively.
 

Source: FourthLion-IndiaSpend survey
 
“Power cuts are a more tangible issue,” and so voters might identify it as being a big problem compared to health or education, the quality of which is a more abstract issue, said Neelanjan Sircar, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based policy think tank.

Source: Census 2001 and 2011
 
The other big issue: jobs
 
Of the voters surveyed, 20% said that availability of jobs was the most important issue in UP.
 
The number of unemployed in UP per 1,000 of the working-age population decreased from 82 to 52 between 2009 and 2015, but it was higher than the Indian average in 2015-16 (37), labour ministry data show. Youth unemployment was much higher with 148 of those between the ages of 18 and 29 per 1,000 people unemployed in 2015-16.
 
Even those with a graduate degree face unemployment, pointing both at the lack of jobs and the poor quality of education in the state. For instance, in India, while 97% wanted jobs, either in software or core engineering, only 3% were good enough to be engineers in software jobs, and only 7% could handle core engineering tasks, as IndiaSpend reported in September 2014, based on a report by Aspiring Minds, a New-Delhi based employment consultancy.  
 
As many as 237 per 1,000 working age people (between the ages of 18 and 29 years) with graduate qualifications were unemployed in UP, according to labour ministry data from 2015-16.
 

Source: Ministry of Labour & Employment
 
What did voters say about environmental issues?
 
As many as 46% of urban voters surveyed thought the air they breathe was polluted compared to 26% of voters in rural areas. Kanpur, Firozabad, Allahabad, and Lucknow in UP are included in the world’s 25 most toxic towns, according to data between 2008 and 2015 from the World Health Organization.
 
A high percentage of voters said they would use public transport and solar energy, the survey found.
 
Low income voters were more likely to use solar energy and public transport than more affluent voters, survey data show, even though fewer low income voters (26%) said the air they breathe was polluted compared to richer voters (36%). As many as 90% of voters who owned no vehicle said they would use electricity generated from the sun if it reduced pollution in their community, compared to 73% of those voters who owned a car.
 
Similarly, 96% of those who did not own any vehicle said they would use public transport if better facilities were available, compared to 87% of those who owned a car.
 

Source: FourthLion-IndiaSpend survey
 
Sanjukta Nair contributed to this story.
 
Next: As Many As 40% of Uttar Pradesh Voters Undecided With 5 Days To Go
 
(Shah is a writer/editor with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: IndiaSpend
 

The post One Third Of UP Voters Polled Cite Power Cuts As Leading Election Issue appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
“Business as usual” will not solve the problem, submitted Pratham, an education nonprofit, in a pre-budget consultation with India’s finance ministry. “Unless major shifts are undertaken on an urgent basis to build children’s foundational skills, we are losing huge opportunities each year for improving the life chances of an entire generation of children and youth in this country,” the consultation note added.
 
IndiaSpend reached out to the education ministry for a comment on the 2017-18 budget, but we had not received a response at the time of publishing. (This story will be updated if and when the ministry responds.)
 
Higher education dominated last year’s education budget (with an increase of 13% over the 2015-16 budget) and the conversation about education–with policies for improving the quality and ranking of higher education, creation of a higher-education financing agency, and approval of new higher-education institutes–even though only 34.2 million enrolled in higher education institutions in 2014-15 or, a seventh or fewer than those enrolled in school.
 
In contrast, the school education and literacy budget increased 3.2% in 2016-17, compared to 2015-16 revised budget estimates, according to union budget data.
 
Over the financial year 2016-17, the central government allocated Rs 43,554 crore to school education and literacy, and Rs 28,840 crore to higher education.
 

 
Low school outcomes result in a less-productive workforce
 
In 2014, though the government implemented a programme, ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat (If India learns, India advances)’, to improve early grade reading, writing and math, data on learning outcomes do not show improvements in rural schools. For instance, elementary school education in public and private schools is plagued with low outcomes–46.1% of grade I rural children couldn’t read letters in 2016, while 39.9% couldn’t recognise numbers 1 to 9, according to the Annual Status of Education Report.
 
If children do not have basic education–reading, writing, comprehension and math skills–India will have a workforce that is unproductive, not fit to be hired, and unprepared for higher education or skill development.
 

 
“It is clear that for quality and outcomes to improve in higher education, much more focus and investment is needed in elementary education,” wrote Rukmini Banerji, chief executive officer of Pratham, in an email to IndiaSpend.
 
The low level of education is also reflected in a drop in secondary school enrolments. In 2015-16, 88.94% of primary school-age students enrolled in primary school, compared to 51.26% of secondary-age students in secondary school, according to data from the Unified District Information System for Education.
 
2017-18 budget should focus on improving school outcomes
 
Along with increasing the amount spent on education, the budget also needs to be restructured to focus on learning outcomes, and monitoring of quality.
 
“There is a significantly low proportion spent on learning enhancement,” while more attention is paid to inputs such as schools and books, said Avani Kapur, senior researcher at Accountability Initiative, a New-Delhi based nonprofit. She explained that the NITI Aayog, the government think-tank, plans to start ranking states, using the school education quality index, one indicator of which would be school learning outcomes. “Orienting the budget more towards learning outcomes could move this agenda forward,” she added.
 
Further, delays in decision-making and fund-flows have led to major delays in programme implementation, according to Pratham’s note to the finance ministry. Even though the school year begins in April in most schools, learning enhancement programmes often get implemented between September and November, wasting much of the school year.
 
The government does not monitor learning outcomes regularly. For instance, the annual report on schools includes information on enrolment, and number of teachers, but not on the quality of education.
 
The government started a school standards and evaluation programme, called ‘Shala Siddhi’, in 2013, which is primarily based on self-assessment by schools and school examinations. Until now, no report has been published as the government is collecting information from the states, according to a person who works with the programme.
 
One government measure of learning, the National Achievement Survey will now be conducted every year, instead of every three years, according to press release from the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
 
But the education ministry should ensure states know how to conduct measurements well, and that available data are used to improve learning, according to Pratham’s pre-budget submission to the finance ministry.
 
The ministry of human resource development prepared an outcome budget for 2016-17, outlining activities and effects on enrolment, gender equality and more. But there was no clear outcome on learning levels. The budget outlined one outcome as “enhanced learning levels and retention” with no specific measures for the outcome.
 
One way of improving learning outcomes through the budget could be through outcome-linked financing, suggested Kapur, the researcher at Accountability Initiative. For instance, the central government could provide 10% of aid to the states only if they reach certain pre-decided outcomes, such as learning goals.
 
India’s education spending lower than other BRICS countries
 
Total central government education spending in 2016-17 on school education made up 2.68% of India’s gross domestic product, according to calculations by the New Delhi-based Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), a budget research and advocacy organisation.
 
In 2015-16, Indian central government spending on school and higher education was less than other BRICS countries–India spent 3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education, compared to 3.8% in Russia, 4.2% in China, 5.2% in Brazil, and 6.9% in South Africa, according to 2016 data from India’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
 
“There is an urgent need to increase financial resources” for school education, said Protiva Kundu, lead researcher at CBGA. Based on an analysis of 10 state education budgets, she said education is not a priority for all states.
 
This 2017-18 central education budget might be 10%-12% more than last year’s budget, according to a January 2017 report in Livemint.
 
This is the first of Indiaspend’s budget primers. We will also be fact-checking the statements made during the budget on February 1, 2017, on our Twitter timeline here.
 
(Shah is a writer/editor with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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Keshu Singh Patel, a flower and vegetable farmer from Mirjapur, Madhya Pradesh, selling his produce to a retailer at the flower market in Indore, on December 7, 2016. Patel earned 70% less this harvest season because of demonetisation. 

“I don’t know if I will recover the cost of growing chrysanthemums this season,” Patel said.
 
Over the harvesting season from October to January, Patel’s income has fallen by 70%. “Four days before and even after notebandi (demonetisation), I was selling sevanti (chrysanthemums) flowers between Rs 30 and Rs 40 a kg; now they sell between Rs 4 and Rs 6 a kg,” he told IndiaSpend.  
 
Patel is one of 118.6 million Indian farmers, as the Census recorded in 2011–equivalent to the population of the Philippines. As many as 9.8 million farmers live and work in Madhya Pradesh, one of India’s poorest states. Patel is a “small farmer”, as he has about 2.5 acres of land, less than the average land held by an Indian farmer (2.84 acres), according to the agricultural census of 2010-11.
 
At midnight on November 8, 2016, Rs 14 lakh crore–or 86% by value of Indian currency in circulation–became defunct after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would no longer be considered legal tender. The largest impact appears to be on the informal economy, which employs 82% of India’s 500-million-strong workforce and generates half of India’s gross domestic product (GDP). Businesses ranging from tourism, retail and infrastructure are also adversely affected, according to the this December 7, 2016, story in LiveMint.
 
The government has pushed for digital payments to counter the lack of notes in the economy, but challenges of cell phone connectivity and low Internet usage, especially in rural areas–where less than 15% use the Internet–abound, as IndiaSpend reported on December 10, 2016. Many farmers said they did not know how to use the Internet for banking or had too little in their bank accounts to use for everyday transactions.
 
It is the wedding season, but Patel earns Rs 543 a day instead of Rs 2,600
 
To grow chrysanthemums on one bigha–about 0.4 acres of land–cost Patel Rs 3,000 in seeds, Rs 15,000 in fertiliser and pesticides, and Rs 7,800 for labour, over three months. About 0.4 acres of land should produce 10-12 quintals of flowers. Patel’s family–his wife, son, daughter and daughter-in-law–work from 9 am to 6 pm on the farm.
 
If the crop is good, and flowers sell well during the wedding season–November 15 to December 15–Patel could have made about 2,600 a day. On, December 7, 2016, when IndiaSpend followed Patel, he earned Rs 543. The plant is sowed before the monsoon and flowers between October and January.

 
Over the season, the Patel family would have earned Rs 100,000, a profit more than Rs 74,000. This year, they’ve earned about Rs 30,000, a profit of Rs 4,000 or 94.5% lower. In the month after notes were banned, he earned only Rs 7,000.
 
Patel is forced to sell at a lower rate because flowers wither fast, and their rate reduces with time. “I had to throw 35 kg of flowers because there were no buyers yesterday,” he said.
 
Farmers report income losses of 50% to 80%
 
Patel reached the bustling flower market in Indore–considered Madhya Pradesh’s commercial capital–by 7 am. He entered the flower-strewn arena–there are 51 license shops in this government market–on his motorcycle laden with flowers tied in makeshift bags of bright yellow, green and red cloth.
 

Keshu Singh Patel and his son, Kantilal, fill flowers into make-shift cloth bags at his farm in Mirjapur, Madhya Pradesh. The flowers sold at lower prices because of demonetisation.
 
In the market, because of a lack of notes, other farmers have lost between 50% and 80% of their income in the last 25 days.
 
Anil Dawli, 39, sells potatoes, chana (chickpeas), methi (fenugreek) and eggplant in the market. He said he had been earning between Rs 80 and Rs 100 a day, compared to Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 a day before the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
 
“Methi is selling for Rs 2 to Rs 5 a kg, down from Rs 10 a kg,” he said, sitting in the midst of heaps of green leaves. He had no choice but to sell, as the leaves would soon rot.
 
“My guldavri (local name for chrysanthemums) sold for Rs 7 a kg. This is the season of weddings. It should have sold for at least Rs 35 to Rs 40 a kg,” said 36-year-old Mukesh Mukatil, who had brought about 90 kg of flowers to the market.  
 
Bundles of locally-grown red gladiola flowers were selling for half the price, down from Rs 225 for 10 sticks to Rs 120, farmers said.
 


Note: Prices based on farmer estimates in Indore mandi, December 5 and December 11, 2016.
 
Patel cuts chrysanthemum stalks; they are too expensive to maintain
 
Around 12:30 pm, Patel returned to the farm, as three labourers were cutting down the stalks of the chrysanthemums planted on about 0.2 acres of his farm. His family spent the day plucking flowers off the other plants so Patel would have enough to sell the next day.
 
Of his 2.5 acres, about a fourth of an acre lies fallow, as their isn’t enough water for the crops.
 
After selling one crop of flowers, Patel would have waited for the plants to regrow and sold another batch. “But because prices are low, it is more expensive to maintain the plants,” Patel explained. In a regular year, the plants would have been cut in the end of January or February.
 
“To add to it, there is a higher quantity of flowers coming into the market which has reduced prices further,” said Sharad Kusumakar, 61, who owns a shop in the flower market.
 
When IndiaSpend spoke to Patel’s son, Kantilal, on December 13, 2016, he said the market had picked up a little, with chrysanthemums selling between Rs 10 and Rs 20 a kg. “But we’ve already cut down the stalks,” he said, adding that the recovery of prices wouldn’t benefit them.  
 
Patel can no longer get state handouts. His saviour: Credit
 
Patel and his family moved above the rural poverty line of Rs 816 per person per month some years ago, and so can’t access the lower-priced wheat, rice, sugar and oil, families below the poverty line receive from the government’s public distribution system.
 
Fortunately for Patel, he is well known in the village and the flower market. The local village shop is willing to give him oil, sugar and even seeds on credit, and the shop owner in the flower market is willing to give an advance payment for the flowers that will sell, Patel said.
 
Why it is difficult for Patel to go digital and cashless
 
Since demonetisation, the government has been pushing digital payments but most transactions still take place in cash.
 
Most farmers and traders IndiaSpend spoke to had bank accounts, but used cash. They said they either had too little money to put in a bank account or did not use debit or credit cards regularly. All transactions Patel made during the day were in cash: He filled petrol worth Rs 50 in his motorcycle in the morning, and bought a dozen bananas for Rs 40 in the afternoon.
 
Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
 
“Before depositing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes after notebandi, I had used my bank account about two years ago,” Patel said, as his two-year-old granddaughter played in the field. His son, Kantilal, has an ATM card, but used it only once in 5-6 months to withdraw cash, as he had little money in his bank account. The nearest ATM and their bank branch is a 15-minute ride from their village.
 
The family has one basic cell phone they use to call relatives. Though Kantilal has used the Internet in the past, neither father nor son currently has access to the Internet as a smartphone was too expensive to afford.
 
For four months last year, the family used a Samsung smartphone, which they bought for Rs 8,000. “But someone stole the phone,” Kantilal said. He had used Internet on the phone only to access Facebook, he said, adding that they wouldn’t buy a new phone because it was too expensive–equivalent to almost all of their profit this season.
 
Patel’s family spends about Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 on household items every month.
 
Not everyone has a bank account. Jagganath Mahadeo Bhuyyer, 66, a trader in the market, said he had no plans to open a bank account. “I earn enough to eat twice a day, what’s the point of all this jhamela (rigmarole),” he said, when asked why he doesn’t have a bank account. “If I had a bigger business, I would have opened an account.”
 
For Patel, low flower prices mean he has to dip into his savings to pay Rs 130 a day to two labourers who help his family pluck flowers.
 
“We always face problems of water and electricity shortage,” said Patel “This year notebandi has spoiled the year for us.”
 
For our continuing coverage of #notebandi see Currency Chaos.
 
(Shah is a reporter/editor with IndiaSpend.)
 
We welcome feedback. Please write to respond@indiaspend.org. We reserve the right to edit responses for language and grammar.

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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