Founders of workers organisation sent a letter to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on December 23, 2020, requesting the urgent need to implement an independent State Food Commission to implement the food security law and monitor the system, redress grievances that have worsened during coronavirus lockdown and appoint experts in this commission.

“It is expected that you will intervene as soon as possible in the State Food Commission and work to appoint the Chairman and members from the Implementation department in January 2021 for proper implementation of the National Food Security Act [NFSA] 2013,” said the letter.

Centre for Equity Studies Founder Harsh Mander said that the institution in association with the Delhi and Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan in Rajasthan and other organizations conducted a symbolic survey in October 2020 that revealed that hunger increased in the last nine months of lockdown.

The study also showed that many people do not have ration cards and are unable to become beneficiaries of NFSA. Few families received food grains under the self-sufficient India scheme.

The full report of the survey can be viewed below:

Consumption decreased compared to the pre-lockdown situation, nutritional status deteriorated. Many people are living and sleeping on an empty stomach Some even resorted to taking loans for food, said the report.

According to Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan Founder Aruna Roy activists and welfare groups were happy when the law was first introduced by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2013.

However, members of the concerned Food Commission were disappointed at the lack of attention given to the grievance redressal system in the last 7 years.

“Nominee District Grievance Redressal Officers (DGROs) were appointed under Section 15 of the law, that too were made to Additional District Collectors (ADMs) who already have a lot of work and no assessment of this arrangement,” she said.

For this reason, Roy and Mander demanded the creation of a State Food Commission independent of an Implementation Committee.

“The idea of this commission was that if the government does not implement this law, then there should be an independent commission which… [can hold the government] responsible for the deficiencies,” they said.

Accordingly, State Food Safety Commissions were formed in over 15 states with retired doctors or IAS officers or university professors or appointed food safety and nutritionists, social workers as members.

Yet, Rajasthan will be the first state to appoint all ex-officio government officials in the commission such as

Rajasthan State Agricultural Marketing Director Tara Chand Meena, Integrated Child Development Services Director Dr. Pratibha Singh, Social Justice and Empowerment Department Director Om Prakash Bunkar, Secondary Education Department Director Sorabh Swamy, State Health Assurance Agency Chief Executive Aruna Rajoria and Food Department Additional Commissioner Suresh Chand Gupta as the Member Secretary.

“According to the qualifications related to the selection, the government may be right, it may follow the letter of the law, but contrary to its hypothesis it is appointed. The work given in the law on the scale of transparency and accountability does not fit at all. The major functions of the Commission are to monitor and evaluate the implementation of this law, investigate complaints and the state government and all agencies have the right to this law. Our question is whether the executing department will evaluate its own works and advise itself. It can never be ethical,” they said.

The leaders also pointed out that the government failed to complete the procedure for the creation of the State Food Commission in the last seven years.

In 2016, the State Consumer Forum was given the responsibility of the State Food Commission momentarily before withdrawing it due to public criticism. In 2017, appointments were announced in the State Food Commission, but the process has remained incomplete.

Roy and Mander hoped that Gehlot who finally formed the Commission on December 15, 2020 would understand that the same set of people cannot be the judge and the accused at the same time.

“We believe that you will look at our letter and remove those who have been appointed in the current commission and will appoint independent experts in the public sector,” they said.

The complete letter can be viewed below:

Related:

Right to Food Campaign demands changes in Budget 2021-22 based on Hunger Watch survey

Delhi’s workforce voices their grievances at DRRAA’s Hunger Hearing

Malnutrition reduced in India: WCD Ministry

In Madhya Pradesh, eggs blur the line between religion and nutrition

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The coronavirus crisis lockdown has made one thing very clear, that food is the single most important thing that human beings need. Life can go on without internet connections or mobile phones but not without food. While the economy was totally shutdown, the only people who were allowed to freely move about were people dealing in food items. Lot of other category of daily earners started selling vegetables to ensure some income for themselves in this period. Community kitchens and food distribution activities were allowed by administrations even if safeguards like wearing masks and maintaining physical distances were thrown to the wind. 

India, where half the population is malnourished and is at the rock bottom in the list of nations around the world on this count, has a situation where more people could die of starvation than from Covid-19 due to the lockdown crisis. From poor to rich everybody was busy making food available to people facing shortage. Never have such massive level relief operations been carried out nationally. And never have people from diverse backgrounds felt so equal. Long time demands like universalisation of Public Distribution System and nationalisation of health services seem like a possibility now.

 An unusual phenomenon, which even caught the government unawares, was that of migrant workers walking back to their homes, sometimes more than thousand kilometres away. People wanted to be where they belong. The only thing that bound them to the cities to live in sub-human conditions, that is, livelihood, was snapped away in a day, enlarging the looming uncertainty over them.

 Given the above two facts let us look at a moot question – What would happen if by a set of policy changes agriculture was to be made the most remunerative activity of economy? The justification is simple. If agriculture is the most important activity for human survival why not accord it the highest value?

In any case more than half the Indian population is engaged in the agricultural sector. Once such a proposed policy change is introduced, the economy and society will witness major transformations. Most importantly farmers’ suicides will end. Second malnourishment situation would improve immensely.

On a precautionary note while making farming the most remunerative activity among all vocations, it should be kept in mind that the policy is graded and does not have blanket application, otherwise it will end up favouring only big land owners. The policy should be such that income is inversely proportional to the land size owned by the farmer in such a manner that roughly equal incomes are ensured for farmers. The landless labourers working on other people’s fields should also have an income not less than the income of the land owner. An alternative is that all wages be provided through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act where the word ‘guarantee’ should be interpreted to mean minimum 100 days as provided under the law and not maxiumum as the bureaucracy interprets it.

Another alternative is that all land should be pooled and people should collectively labour and the produce equitably divided among famlies according to the family size. Through this, we can also reduce the burden on extremely small patches of land for production as well as use agricultural technology efficiently. Land use reforms are therefore very crucial for greater and quality production. The cost of input would be borne by the Gram Panchyat in this case.

Any hike in food prices because of increased incomes of farmers and labourers should not worry us as Public Distribution System will continue to provide food security to people not able to afford the market price.

A policy change privileging agriculture will be followed by migration from urban to rural areas, boosting the Indian economy. Further, the quality of life will increase resulting in the process of ‘rurbanization’. Since most of the jobs in India are in the agricultural sector, the boost will act as a pull factor, as opposed to low remuneration, which has always acted as a push factor. The problems of higher rates of migrations from villages towards cities resulting in urban slums with poor standard of living can be tackled to a certain level.

Effective implementation will reduce the wage disparity currently prevailing in the country. While incomes are being decided Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia’s proposal of the difference between the incomes of poorest and the richest being restricted to ten times should be the guiding principle. Similar to the concept of minimum wage there should be a ceiling on maximum income to ensure this less than ten times difference. All income above this ceiling should go into a national pool which should be used for common good.

The uniform development in both rural and urban areas would also further the very idea of democracy as rural population will not feel discriminated against. Decentralization of development will be accompanied by that of democratic power as more educated people, the articulate class, will start living in villages. Gram Sabha, the only universal democratic forum, should be the most empowered body with most important decision taken there and less important decisions left to higher level governments, in accordance with the objective behind Part IX and Eleventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

When people will stop vying for coveted high salaried jobs in service sector, the cut throat competition and use of unfair means in education will come to an end. Education will then take its ideal form as a process of learning. Taking off the pressure of competitive examinations and coaching institutions would lead to more-at-peace-with-themselves human beings. The focus will shift from learning by rote to more practical learning needed for survival.

While some would argue that this would push India backwards in the race of development, it is important to note that the primary occupation in India has always been that of agriculture. Our standards of development, therefore, should not be motivated by the western ideas of development, but should be derived from a more sustainable and adapted version to the needs of our country and its people.

However, mere making the agricultural activity the most remunerative vocation is not enough. It has to be accompanied by other policy changes creating a synergy between the primary, and the secondary, with emphasis on cottage industry, and tertiary sectors guaranteeing equal social status to all. People in service sector should be ones willing to serve the society with no or little remuneration enough merely for survival. It is clear that career bureaucrats or professionals cannot solve our problems. Humanitarianism is to be the guiding principle and not some artificial parameters of performance. This would vastly improve the quality of governance.

Note: Varsha Sharma is a 4th year LLB student at National Law University, Delhi and Sandeep Pandey is a visiting faculty there for this semester.

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Food safety requirements

To acquire and maintain food licensing, the FSSAI requires that every food business operator (FBO) to plan and implement a Food Safety Management System (FSMS), in compliance with the 2011 Licensing & Registration of Food Businesses Regulations, and has prepared separate guidance documents for different sectors to assist compliance. The Regulatory Compliance Division works with State/UT Food Safety Commissioners to ensure these requirements are followed.

Designated Officers and Food Safety Officers are required to draw samples of licensed products from time-to-time to verify that they meet safety standards. Failing to meet the standards would imply that the FSMS has not been properly implemented by the business.

The data collected from sample testing and analysis is collated in an annual report on food safety enforcement released by the body.
 

The data from 2018-19

Out of the total 1,06,459 samples that were analysed by the Authority this year, 30,415 samples (28.5 per cent) were found to be non-conforming to the safety standards. 3,900 samples (3.7 per cent) were found to be unsafe, 16,870 (15.8 per cent) were found to be sub-standard, and 9645 (9 per cent) had labelling defects.

In their press release, while stating that there should be zero tolerance to unsafe food, the FSSAI said that reducing sub-standard products and labelling defects will more capacity building for food businesses, food standards as well as labelling requirements.

The Authority indicated that many of the poorly performing states have not been able to put in place full-time officers for food safety and do not have proper food testing laboratories, despite the food safety law coming into force over a decade ago.

Finding non-adherence to the safety requirements entails a revocation of the FBO’s food license. Depending on the gravity of the non-conformity, the FSSAI also pursues civil or criminal cases against them.

There has been a 36% increase in civil cases launched and a 67% increase in the number of cases where penalties were imposed. As far as criminal cases are concerned, there has been 86% increase in criminal cases launched – 701 convictions.
 

The importance of enforcement

FSSAI notes that food safety issues extend beyond food adulteration.

In 2015, the Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG) of the World Health Organization identified 31 foodborne hazards. It estimated that these 31 hazards would have likely resulted in 600 million illnesses and 420,000 deaths in 2010.

The group found that the global burden of food borne by two of these diseases (FBD) is comparable to those of the major infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

The most frequent causes of foodborne illness were diarrheal disease agents, particularly norovirus and Campylobacter spp. Diarrheal disease agents, especially non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica, were also responsible for the majority of deaths due to FBD. Other major causes of FBD deaths were Salmonella Typhi, Taenia solium and hepatitis A virus.
 

Hits and misses

CNBC reported that FSSAI is in the process of stepping up scrutiny on food-related advertisements across television, digital and print mediums by forming a committee of internal and external experts, consisting of members from the advertising and food and regulatory space. The objective of the screening process will be to check the credibility of claims by companies, said the sources, it noted.

The New Indian Times reported that With Aflatoxin-M1and antibiotic residues emerging as a major contaminant in milk, the FSSAI has proposed various preventive and corrective actions, including extensive capacity building at primary production levels in the milk sector after finding cancer-causing substance Aflatoxin M1 in 20 milk samples.

In December 2017, Quartz India reported on an audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) which raised several concerns over clearances and testing of food, the lack of equipment, and a shortage of staff across various testing labs affiliated with the FSSAI.

It also questioned the lack of guidelines and procedures to regulate the use of certain food items. “The audit revealed systemic inefficiencies, including delays and deficiencies in the framing of various regulations and standards,” the CAG report noted.

In response to the controversy, FSSAI acknowledged its shortcomings, but said, “CAG report should, however, be seen in the context of the huge and complex task at hand and the fact that FSSAI is a new and evolving organisation and it faces severe constraints of manpower and resources.

In July 2018, the Centre for Science Environment (India’s leading research organisation) released a study in which they found that more than 20 packaged food products which have been illegally genetically modified (GM) are being sold openly in the market to unsuspecting consumers.

Related:

Illegal GM foods allowed to flood Indian markets while authorities keep mum
Only 8 states use the Institutional Support for Tribal Produce scheme
Sonbhadra: 1L of milk given to 81 students as part of their mid-day meal!

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An absurd issue regarding a food aggregator app is doing rounds on Indian social media since last week, raking up debates as old as the country’s history. It all began when Amit Shukla, an online customer, cancelled his order on the zomato website, citing that the person who was delivering his order, was Muslim, whereas he preferred a Hindu. Many celebrated Zomato’s response in favour of the employee, but like most controversies on social media, by now the issue has grown and acquired multiple dimensions. This isn’t new. Last year, an agitated Abhishek Mishra tweeted that he cancelled a cab because the driver turned out to be a Muslim. All of this seems to indicate that we are rushing towards an increasingly divided society, with debates around food constituting a major part of it.

Ever since the right-wing attained power, discussions on food – who can eat what – have dominated our socio-cultural psyche. Strangely, these impositions seem to be powerful enough to lead our society into ghettoisation and warning us of an impending apartheid-like situation. As a people, concepts of untouchability and purity-pollution aren’t alien to us, however, what makes this issue an absurd one, is how flawed ideas regarding the “authenticity” and “purity” of Indian food itself is brought in our midst.
How “purely” Indian is the Indian cuisine? In fact, what does it even mean when one calls it “Indian”? A subcontinent with centuries-long history of trade and commercial exchange with cultures and civilisations overseas, India’s cuisine has for the longest time been subjected to constant cultural give-and-take and modifications. Indian cuisine is a potpourri of all the civilisations that it has come in contact with, for it has accumulated the multiple tastes, flavours and cooking methods from a variety of sources and regions.

Kerala Beef Fry

Curry, the most common and generic Indian dish is defined as one that uses a variety of different flavours, spices, and herbs – representative of the very amalgam that Indian cuisine is. Lizzie Collingham in her work Curry: A Biography, explains how the country’s cuisine is in a constant state of evolution or transformation as it keeps picking flavours from various parts of the world. Ranging from Arabic, Syrian, and English to Portuguese, South American, and Dutch, it is a repository of elements from varied cuisines – from cooking methods, ingredients to dishes themselves.
Get some freshly cut, succulent little chunks of chicken. Generously rub on some ginger-garlic paste, tandoori masala, yoghurt, lemon and other spices onto the chunks. Let them marinate in this magnificent mixture for around 30 minutes. Once the half hour is up, thread the pieces onto a skewer and char grill in a hot “tandoor” (clay oven) – and out of it flows an aroma that’s heavenly. This is “tandoori chicken”, one of the most popular chicken dishes across the country, proudly savoured by Indians almost everywhere. Evidence about tandoori chicken’s origins however, flies in the face of our fantasies regarding our cuisine’s purity and authenticity, for history has it that this glorious cooking method was first brought to the subcontinent by the Mughals via Egypt.

Chicken Tandoori; Courtesy: Mumbai Street Food Compilation

Similar to northern India’s Egypt-influenced Mughlai tandoor, but predating the Mughals, is Malabar’s beloved “mandi” – a dish distantly related to biryani. Not quite known outside Kerala, mandi is cooked in a pit made in the ground, and tiled with clay bricks. It is also called the “kuzhi-mandi” (or pit-mandi), with a Malayali twist given to it. A Yemeni dish brought to the region by West Asian traders, Kuzhi-mandi is now an inseparable part of Malabar cuisine. The allure of Kerala’s spices — pepper, for instance — invited traders and seafarers from different regions like Syria and West Asia. The result of the consequent cultural exchange is the region’s celebrated “Suriyani” (local Malayali term for Syrian) style dishes – of which Malayali’s beloved beef fry is a part.

Soon it was the Europeans’ turn. The Portuguese arrived in India in the 15th century and what they brought with themselves were some vegetables that have become indispensable to us today. Potatoes, tomatoes and chillies have become such an integral part of our diets that we forget that we were clueless about their existence half a millennium ago, until the Europeans introduced these to us. North Indian cuisine would be unrecognisable without potatoes today, but the crop itself was brought to us by the Portuguese, all the way from the “New World”, following Christopher Columbus’s expeditions into the Americas.

Later in the 19th century, the British, in an effort to popularise “superior” variety crops amongst Indians, began a campaign to cultivate South American plants – giving a push to its overall consumption. This was also when the middle classes began consuming the crop in abundance, settling it as a staple item in Indian diet. Similarly, tomatoes also arrived with the Portuguese as late as the 16th century from tropical America. Indian cuisine, known as one of the spiciest in the world, gets its flavour from chillies, a Mexican-origin crop.

Globalisation creates new tastes and interests around the world. Consequently, therefore, this was a multi-way street. For instance, Goa’s own Pork Vindaloo is an Indian modification of Carne de Vinha d’Alhos of the Portuguese; or the Pork Sorpotel of Mangalore, further south of the Konkan coast, also a Portugal native. Indian-origin pepper, clove, and other spices have made it big in places like Europe and elsewhere. European dishes with Indian spices and cooking styles and South American staples (like potato) have made their way to Europe and stays popular even now. Likewise, none of their lip-smacking desserts would taste the same without a dash of cinnamon, that has travelled all the way from our midst to Europe.

Tony Joseph, in one of his articles about the civilisation’s origins, poignantly mentions how we’re all always migrants. He argues that we are a multi-source civilisation, with practices and “traditions” drawn from multiple cultures and civilisations – undercutting our fantasies about being a “pure” and uninfluenced civilisation. Food is a significant part of this cultural exchange, and what makes us “Indian”, inescapably, is all of these multiplicities combined. Food is intimate and personal, is related to one’s own body. This makes food inherently linked to one’s identity,  which ultimately also makes food extremely political.

---

 Mukulika is a member of Indian Writers’ Forum’s Editorial Collective

First published on https://indianculturalforum.in

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Image for representational use only.Image Courtesy : Scroll

The Afghan students, part of the Study Abroad Programme under the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Educational Consultants India Limited (EdCIL) scholarships, have been annoyed since last September when they were shifted far from the campus due to their “eating habits and culture”.

Some students claimed they do not eat non-vegetarian food, while some others said they were even ready to abandon their habit if they are shifted to a location close to the campus.

In September last year, the Gujarat University had shifted several Afghan students to a Muslim-dominated locality Lal Darwaja, 10 km away from the campus.

The latest directive stated,”engagement with any outer agency like media or police without prior permission of Gujarat University authorities shall invite immediate expulsion for violating the code of conduct from university/colleges and deportment to their country”.

Neerja Gupta, coordinator for the programme, reportedly said that all students were Muslims and were relocated after other students and neighbours complained about their eating habits. “The (Afghan) students staying at the Lal Darwaja facility are mostly, in fact, all are Muslims. So, looking at their eating habits, community and culture they are put up there. There were attempts to provide a hostel facility in the western parts of the city but we received complaints from both students and neighbours about their habits of eating non-vegetarian food. The students also complained that they do not get non-vegetarian food easily. So, these facilities were shut down,” The Indian Express quoted Neerja as saying.

When contacted by Newsclick, Gupta denied shifting the Afghan students on the basis of food habits. She said that all 35 students were part of undergraduate programme for which there is a hostel facility outside the campus. She said, “While P.G. hostels are in the campus, the U.G, hostels are outside the campus at the centre of the city.Thirty five is the number of students who are admitted this year in under-graduate courses, hence all 35, are staying in UG hostel. Other new students who are admitted to PG courses are staying in campus hostels.The location too is defined looking into the proximity of the college/ institution so that they can save time and money in travel.”

Gupta, however, side-stepped questions regarding the gag order issued by the administration, saying that “There is no such directive exclusively only for foreign students.”

However, the students of the university have a different story about the living conditions at the hostels. Talking to Newsclick, Nitish Mohan, a student of B.A Economics, said living conditions in Gujarat University hostels are deplorable and need to be addressed immediately.

He said,” the DRI Hostel is one of the examples which needs immediate attention. Its building is crumbling and it can collapse if the region is hit by any earthquake. Similarly, 12-14 students are compelled to live in one room and it has two toilets, with no door, for 100 students. The hostel is housed by Scheduled Tribe students who hail from different parts of the state.” He added, Despite being costly, the students rely on water tankers for their daily needs. Do not even think about taking a bath.”

 First published in Newsclick.
 

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Indian Railways Kitchen Coach
 
However, around 80% of Indian men and 70% of women consume eggs, fish, chicken or meat occasionally, if not weekly, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of national health data. But their daily diet tends to be vegetarian, consisting of milk or curd, pulses or beans and dark green and leafy vegetables,
 
Overall, 42.8% Indian women and 48.9% men consumed fish, chicken or meat weekly, according to the National Family Health Survey, 2015-16 (NFHS-4).
 
It is important to assess the average diet of an Indian because both malnutrition and obesity are a problem: 53.7% women and 22.7% men are anaemic and 22.9% of women and 20.2% of men are thin (with body mass index of less than 18.5) while 20.7% of women and 18.9% men are overweight or obese, according to the same data.
 

The ministry of health and family welfare had recently courted controversy when it tweeted an image that grouped non-vegetarian foods such as eggs and meat with junk food, implying that both cause obesity. The image was subsequently deleted.
 
In 2015, Madhya Pradesh government had banned eggs from meals served in anganwadis or day-care centres allegedly due to pressure from Jain groups.
 
These moves come despite the recommendations of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad which advocate the consumption of protein-rich animal foods such as milk, meat, fish and eggs–and plant foods such as pulses and legumes.
 
“Animal proteins are of high quality as they provide all the essential amino acids in right proportions, while plant or vegetable proteins are not of the same quality because of their low content of some of the essential amino acids” said NIN’s dietary guidelines.
 
The Indian Railways are now planning to celebrate the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, a vegetarian, as ‘vegetarian day’. It plans to serve only vegetarian food on its premises and appeal to all its employees to abjure meat that day, reported Times of India on May 21, 2018.
 
Dietary risk including poor diet–low in fruits, vegetables, whole grain but high in salt, fats–is the third biggest risk factor for death and disability in India after air pollution and malnutrition, IndiaSpend reported in November, 2017.
 
In women, 37.4% have eggs, 36% fish, chicken or meat weekly
 
More men than women eat non-vegetarian food in India; almost three in ten women do not consume eggs (29.3%) and chicken, fish or meat (29.9%) compared to two in ten men who do not consume eggs (19.6%) and chicken, fish or meat (21.6%)
 
Among women between 15-45 years of age, 45% have milk and curd, 44.8% have pulses or beans and 47.2% have dark green, leafy vegetables daily while 37.4% eat eggs and 36.6% eat fish, chicken or meat weekly. Almost half–51.8%–of them have fruits occasionally.
 

Source: National Family Health Survey, 2015-16
 
Among men between 15 to 45 years of age, 46.2% have milk and curd, 46.5% have pulses or beans, 46.6% have dark green, leafy vegetables daily while 44.7% eat eggs, 43.3% eat fish, chicken or meat weekly and 47.6% have fruits occasionally.

 
Source: National Family Health Survey 2015-16
 
Age, marital status, geography, wealth and caste are factors
 
Weekly consumption of food items is not the same for all groups and follows different trends. But those over 19 years tend to eat more eggs and any kind of meat every week.
 
Among men, the highest consumption of eggs and meat was among those who were never married (50.5% for eggs and 49.2% for fish, chicken or meat). Also, urban men (53.8% for eggs, 52.8% for fish, chicken or meat) eat more non-vegetarian food than rural men (47.1% for eggs, 46.5% for fish, chicken or meat).
 
Among women, the highest consumption of eggs and meat was among those who were widowed or divorced or deserted (41.5% for eggs and 47.4% for fish, chicken or meat).
 
Education appears to decide the choice of vegetarian/non-vegetarian foods. Those who have studied up to five years eat the highest amount of eggs and meat–men (54.2% and 57.6%) and women (48.2% and 51.8%).
 
Among religions, Christians consume eggs and meat the most–men (71.5% and 75.6%) and women (64.7% and 74.2%). This is followed by Muslim men (66.5% and 73.1%) and women (59.7% and 67.3%).
 
The highest consumption of eggs and fish, chicken or meat is among those who said they did not know their caste–men (49.2% and 51.6%). This holds true for women as well for eggs; for fish, chicken and meat it is highest in ‘other’ caste.
 
And while the consumption of eggs and meat increases with household wealth, a lower percentage of men and women among the richest 20% Indians consume eggs and meat.
 

Source: National Family Health Survey 2015-16
 
Most meat eaters in Kerala, fewest in Punjab
 
Data on women show that Kerala (92.8%), Goa (85.7%) and Assam (80.4%) have the highest weekly consumers of fish, chicken or meat while Punjab (4%), Rajasthan (6%) and Haryana (7.8%) rank the lowest.
 
Figures for men show that Tripura (94.8%), Kerala (90.1%) and Goa (88%) are the highest weekly consumers of fish, chicken or meat while Punjab (10%), Rajasthan (10.2%) and Haryana (13%) are the lowest.
 
The consumption of meat on a weekly basis is high in the northeast and south India. It is the lowest in the north for both sexes.
 

Source: National Family Health Survey, 2015-16  
 
(Yadavar is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.)
 
We welcome feedback. Please write to respond@indiaspend.org. We reserve the right to edit responses for language and grammar.
 

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In the absence of clear regulations, most poultry farms keep chickens in confined areas lacking proper sanitation and mix small doses of antibiotics with the animal feed to prevent disease. Whereas, at Kansal & Kansal Agro Farms, Haryana, the feed is sourced from pesticide-free farms and mixed with herbs, and the chickens are kept in a partially temperature controlled environment.

 
Source: Reducing antimicrobial use in food animals, published in the journal Science
 
If regulatory authorities do not step in, 4,796 tons of antibiotics will be fed to animals reared for food by 2030, up 82%, as per the report published in the journal Science. Animals reared for food were fed 2,633 tons of antibiotics in 2013.
 
However, two basic interventions could change that: A cap on the amount of antibiotics that can be administered to a food animal and a price hike in veterinary antibiotics to dissuade excessive use.
 
These steps could result in India using 61% less antibiotics in food animals. It could also avert the health disaster expected from the widespread malpractice of using antibiotics as growth promoters.
 
“The [expected] hike [in antibiotic use] reflects the growing consumption of meat in India, and in particular, meat from animals administered antibiotics as growth promoters,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CCDEP) and co-author of the study.
 
In rural India, the consumption of mutton, beef, pork and chicken has more than doubled between 2004 and 2011. It has gone up from 0.13 kg per capita per month to 0.27 kg, according to the 61st and 68th rounds of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data. Urban India has seen a spike from 0.22 kg to 0.39 kg in the same period.
 
Food animals are given small doses of antibiotics mixed with their feed to promote growth and prevent disease. This allows farmers to save on nutrition and hygiene but has serious long term consequences for human health.
 
Why this antibiotic shouldn’t become the poultry farm favourite
 
In Punjab, two-thirds of farmers of poultry–the most commonly consumed meat in India–use antibiotics for growth promotion, according to another recent study by Laxminarayan and others, as IndiaSpend reported in August 2017.
 
Tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones–antibiotics commonly used to treat cholera, malaria, respiratory and urinary tract infections in humans–were found to be the most commonly used antimicrobials.
 
Of all the medicines used in livestock in India, quinolones are projected to see the biggest increase in use, 243% through to 2030, according to the new study.
 

Source: Reducing antimicrobial use in food animals, published in the journal Science
 
“That an antibiotic commonly used in humans is projected to see the biggest increase in animal use is of great concern,” said Laxminarayan. “The use in animals of ciprofloxacin, a valuable oral broad-spectrum antibiotic, should be stopped at the earliest. Such use (of ciprofloxacin) has been discontinued in the US.”
 
The inappropriate use of antimicrobials in food animals has been cited as a leading cause of rising antimicrobial resistance at a 2016 United Nations General Assembly meeting on ways to tackle the problem.
 
In India, the impact of the practice is already visible. Poultry farms in Punjab that participated in the earlier CCDEP study reported high levels of multidrug-resistant bacteria that can easily escape into the environment, said Laxminarayan.
 
“Levels of multidrug-resistance were close to 90% in biological samples obtained from animals on those farms,” he said. “The spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria would mean that many more people could die from common infectious diseases.”
 
Indian food authorities are slow to respond to the threat
 
Antibiotics are freely and cheaply available in India. This is the biggest reason for the reckless use of antimicrobials as growth promoters in poultry farms.
 
How can this be changed?
 
“Agencies with the regulatory authority—such as the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India—should move quickly in this direction to avoid further degradation of antibiotic effectiveness,” said Laxminarayan.
 
In June 2017, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) brought out a draft notification prescribing residual limits for antibiotics, veterinary drugs and pharmacologically active substances in meat, poultry, eggs and milk. This came six years after the authority prescribed antibiotic residual limits for fish and fishery products and honey.
 
“Antimicrobial resistance is an evolving area, we have been studying the implications of the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in food animals in India and are willing to address this concern,” Pawan Kumar Agarwal, CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, told IndiaSpend.
 
“But improving practices is a gradual process,” he said. “Bringing out the draft notification is a first step towards creating a safer food ecosystem.”
 
He estimated that it would take another 90 to 120 days for the regulation to be introduced.
 
Antibiotics used to cut costs on sanitation, diet
 
By specifying the limits of permissible antibiotic residue in food animals, the FSSAI regulation, when it is framed, will indirectly make it unlawful to use the drugs beyond a certain limit.
 
The new study proposes clearly capping the use of antibiotics in food animals to a specified limit and increasing the prices of veterinary antibiotics to dissuade use.
 
Both these moves are critical, said Laxminarayan, “because animal feed is practically being used as an industrial input, to avoid the costs that farmers would incur to raise the animals in hygienic conditions on a healthy diet”.
 
In the 18 farms that Laxminarayan’s team visited during the first study, it was found that large flocks, more than 50,000 birds, were kept in confined areas lacking proper sanitation.
 
Organic nurturing results in higher costs, price
 
To understand why poultry farmers use antibiotics as cheap and easily accessible growth boosters, consider the case of an agro enterprise that has adopted organic practices.
 
At Kansal & Kansal Agro Farms in Haryana, chicken feed is sourced only from pesticide-free farms and then mixed with herbs. The chickens are kept in a partially temperature controlled environment. The farm also invests in research to improve farming practices.
 
These practices keep the animals healthy but also result in higher production costs to “about double the cost of farms using antibiotics”, said Mohan Lal Kansal, founder and director of the farm and a former professor of animal science at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
 
How to cut antibiotic misuse by more than half
 
High-income countries with highly productive livestock sectors—such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands—use antibiotics sparingly. The limit is less than 50 milligrams of antibiotics per population corrective unit (mg/PCU), a measurement unit developed by the European Medicines Agency to monitor antibiotic use and sales across Europe.
 
The new study suggests capping the use of antibiotics in farm animals at 50 mg/PCU globally. If India were to adopt this limit, antibiotic use in food animals in the country would decline by 15%, or 736 tons through to 2030.
 
A second regulatory recommendation–a 50% user fee on the price of veterinary antibiotics–would reduce antibiotic use in food animals in India by 46%, or 2,185 tons by 2030.
 
If both of these regulations were introduced, the use of antibiotics in food animals in India would reduce by 61%.
 
Limiting meat intake may not help
 
Limiting meat intake to the equivalent of one fast-food burger, roughly 40 grams per person per day globally—or 14.6 kg per person per annum—is the third intervention proposed by the new study.
 
Globally, limited meat intake could help reduce the global consumption of antibiotics for food animals by 66%. However, this intervention is not needed in India, where the per capita consumption of meat is below 5 kg per capita per annum.
 
For comparison, the per capita annual consumption of meat in China is 50 kg, well above the recommended 14.6 kg.
 
Although a higher consumption of animal proteins is considered useful in protein deprived populations, increasing meat consumption beyond this daily recommended allowance of 40 grams has no health advantages, said Laxminarayan.
 
“On the contrary, it imposes a cost on the environment as well as on antibiotic effectiveness,” he said.
 

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
 
The need for greater consumer and farmer awareness
 
One reason why many European nations adopted ethical and organic practices in its animal products industry is the high level of consumer awareness in its markets. In India, consumers of animal products have yet to become demanding.
 
When Kansal started out in business, he travelled to Hyderabad and Bengaluru to talk about his decision to adhere to organic poultry farming. He found southern consumers more understanding of the impact of antibiotics misuse and the benefits of organic product, he said.
 
“Customers in the south were willing to pay double the price of an ordinary egg for an organic egg, plus 40% more to cover the cost of transportation,” he said. “Less aware consumers are usually more price conscious and that fuels the use of antibiotics in food.”
 
Low farmer awareness is also a concern.
 
In the absence of regulation, most of the poultry feed available in the market is medicated. But the majority of poultry farmers in Punjab that Laxminarayan’s team surveyed said they didn’t know this.
 
(Bahri is a freelance writer and editor based in Mount Abu, Rajasthan.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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Nearly one in three transactions fail.

Sixty kilometres from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, in a village called Hebatpur in Dholera, 78-year-old Gaguben Zala made five unsuccessful attempts to enrol in Aadhaar, the biometrics-based database that assigns a unique 12-digit number to every resident of India.
“Each time I tried, the machine would fail to capture my fingerprints and the staff sent me back home,” recalled the gaunt and feisty Dalit woman, with deep wrinkles running through the dry skin of her hands that had hardened from years of farm work.

The sixth time, one of the boys working at the enrolment camp came to her help.

“He rubbed my dry fingertips against the hair-oil on his scalp for a few minutes,” she said. “After this, the scanner captured my fingerprints.”

India is introducing Aadhaar in ration shops. The fingerprints of people like Zala will be matched against their biometric data stored in the Aadhaar database before they are given subsidised foodgrains. This process is called ‘authentication’.

The public distribution system, which provides subsidised wheat and rice to 67% of India’s population, is one of the first social welfare delivery systems to use Aadhaar-based authentication. The Centre has asked states to move to the new system by March 2017.
In the government’s view, this will ensure only real beneficiaries are able to access the foodgrains, bringing an end to theft and pilferage in the system.

But evidence from an earlier experiment in Gujarat shows fingerprint authentication does not work for lakhs of people, particularly manual workers and the elderly like Zala.

Gaguben Zala enrolled in Aadhaar with difficulty because of fingerprint problems. Image credit: Anumeha Yadav

One in three transactions fails

Well before the Aadhaar database was created, in 2010, Gujarat introduced fingerprint authentication in the public distribution system. For this, the demographic details and biometrics of existing ration card-holders were collected and each was allotted a unique number.

Since then, anyone wanting to pick up monthly food rations must submit this unique number and provide her fingerprints at the village computer services centre called ‘e-gram’, which is connected through a statewide area network.

Once the fingerprints match, an “e-coupon” or a slip of paper bearing the person’s name and quantity of ration is issued. Beneficiaries can use the coupon to get their quota of foodgrains at the fair price shop.

In places with sufficient network connectivity, the beneficiary can provide their fingerprints directly at the ration shop, receive a coupon with details of their entitlements, and collect the foodgrains.

But Gujarat government data shows the system is not functioning smoothly.

Of the 1.2 crore ration cards linked with the state biometrics database, only 83.7 lakh cards recorded transactions in October 2016. Of these 83.7 lakh cards, fingerprint authentication failed for 24.6 lakh cards – nearly one in three families.

In the villages of Koli Adivasis in Panchmahal district, 125 kms east from Ahmedabad, such failures are common. Nearly 85% of the district’s population is rural. Infrastructure is weak in the area.

“On Tuesdays, there is a full-day power cut, and electricity is irregular on other days as well,” said Gangaben Fatesi, a Koli Adivasi. “When the power goes, the computer too stops working.” The residents had to make repeated trips to get their rations, she said.
Data shows that fingerprint authentication in Panchmahal did not work for 74,131 of the 234,702 ration beneficiaries who attempted it – a failure rate of nearly 32%.

In the state capital of Gandhinagar, officials gave two reasons for the failures. “One, there are network connectivity issues,” said Ronak Mehta, deputy secretary in the state department of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs. “Two, fingerprint authentication often does not work for those who do hard work with their hands, like farm workers, construction workers.”

Sumi Kapadia, an official in the project management unit of the department, said nearly 15%- 20% of all transactions failed solely because fingerprints did not match on account of skin abrasions, and in the case of the elderly, because of unclear fingerprints.
“The fingerprint problems magnify in winter months as the skin becomes rough and dry,” she said. “But the villagers are impatient. They are not willing to wait even an hour to get their fingerprints authenticated.”

For those whose fingerprints do not match, the state has asked ration shop owners to dispense foodgrains by noting down their details in a register. Called “open” transactions, such cases amount to more than 40% in some districts, showing the new biometrics-based system is not working.

District-wise data for October 2016.

Mehta, deputy secretary in the food and civil supplies department said they provide an additional check through a one-time password sent on mobile phones of beneficiaries, so that they know if their transaction went through or not, and do not depend on this for the ration dealer’s whims. He said the department has tried to reduce the fingerprint failures to “5 to 10%.” But as shown above, government data show in October, more than 29% of the fingerprint transactions failed. No transactions were recorded under the “with mobile” category in October.
 

An old experiment

Despite its problems with the use of fingerprints, Gujarat’s food department is introducing Aadhaar-based authentication in all ration shops, with just a few exceptions. “At 200 spots in Dangs, Panchmahal and forest villages where there is no connectivity at all at the ration shops, we will use an alternative method of authenticating,” said Kapadia.

Reetika Khera, a professor of economics at IIT-Delhi who has researched social schemes such as the public distribution system, questioned the use of fingerprint authentication despite such high rates of failure.

“There has been no rigorous study of Aadhaar’s feasibility and suitability before its use in welfare systems,” she said. “The Gujarat biometrics schemes in food rations could have shown crucial evidence on the use of biometrics authentication in welfare schemes. Then why did the government not study this or take it into account?”

After the introduction of Aadhaar in the public distribution system, similar figures of failure in fingerprint authentication have been recorded in states such as Rajasthan and Jharkhand, she pointed out.

In Rajasthan, which is the second state to adopt Aadhaar in ration shops, only about 63.5 lakh of 99.7 lakh people were able to get their foodgrains in August through the use of biometrics.

The state food department records show Aadhaar authentication does not work for 20%-30% beneficiaries in most districts, even 11 months after Rajasthan government introduced the new system.

Said Nikhil Dey of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, a grassroots campaign in Rajasthan, “Despite such a high failure rate, the Government of Rajasthan continues to deny the extraordinary rates of exclusion by stating that this was “weeding out” of bogus beneficiaries from the system.”
 

Frequent data entry errors

In Dholera’s Hebatpura, for Gaguben Zala, the prospect of using her fingerprints to collect food rations remains a distant one. “The dealer said I do not have clear fingerprints, so my name cannot be linked for grains,” she said, as she sat in the courtyard examining her chapped thumbs.

The state food department needs to link people’s Aadhaar data to the ration database – a process called “seeding” – before fingerprint authentication can take place.

In Zala’s family of seven, only the Aadhaar data of her son, Gobarbhai Zala, has been linked or “seeded” to the ration database. The family gets 25 kg of wheat and 10 kg of rice every month under the Antodyaya category for the poorest of poor families. Earlier, anyone from the family could pick up the monthly rations. Now, only Gobarbhai can.

In Panchmahal, several families are worse off – their details were incorrectly entered in the ration database which has now been linked to the Aadhaar database.

Jayniben who lives in Sanyal village, Ghoghamba block, is wrongly recorded as a resident of “Ranipada, Ghoghamba village”. Madhu Bhopat, another resident, is wrongly recorded as Madhu “Dalphat.” Balliben, a local worker complained that her daughter in law’s name is recorded as “Labita”, when actually it is Lalita.

Fair price shop owner Ashwinbhai Patel said though he appreciated the computerisation of records, but in the biometrics-based ration system, there were frequent data errors. “Of over 800 ration cards, there is hardly one card which does not contain errors,” he said for the neighbouring villages of Shaniada and Vangarva, that are registered at his ration shop.
 

Ganpatbhai Narsi, whose wife Madhu Bhopat’s name had been entered incorrectly as Madhu “Dalphat”, travelled four times to the block office in Ghoghamba, 40 km away. Each trip costs Rs 100 and led to the loss of a day’s wages.

Officials in Ghoghamba said the block had just two data-entry operators and nearly 100 to 150 people came to the office for data entry corrections every day. “At first, we had designated Wednesday as the day for corrections,” said KP Parmar, a block official. “But the numbers were so high, we had to open it on all days of the week.”

A similar rush prevailed in Godhra district. At the office of the mamltadar, Navinbhai Marwari stood waiting to get the names of four of his family members corrected in the records. He was weighed down with anxiety and a thick application containing the photocopies of each family member’s Aadhaar card, the family’s new ration card, a copy of the bank account passbook of the head of the household, and an attested proof of their address from the patwari, a local revenue official.

After putting in all the effort – first to get an Aadhaar card made, then to link it with the ration card, and finally, to get the database errors corrected – a villager still had no guarantee of fingerprints matching at the ration shop.

But Gujarat officials emphasised that the system had benefits.

“Most people are able to get corrections done in two visits,” said a block official in Godhra. “But the main thing is that we are very strict on corruption in the ration system.”

Has fingerprint authentication in Gujarat reduced leakages in the public distribution system, as officials claim?

The next story in this series finds out.

Courtesy: Scroll.in

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महापंजीयक और जनगणना आयुक्त के कार्यालय के सर्वेक्षण से खुलासा हुआ है कि भले ही भारत को दुनिया में सबसे बड़े शाकाहारी देश के रूप में प्रचारित किया जाता हो, लेकिन दरअसल यहाँ देश की बहुत बड़ी आबादी अपनी धार्मिक मान्यताओं के बावजूद माँसाहार अपना चुकी है।

सैंपल रजिस्ट्रेशन सिस्टम के 2014 के सर्वेक्षण के अनुसार, भारत में 15 साल से ऊपर के लोगों में करीब 71 प्रतिशत मांसाहार करते हैं। यह संकेत भी मिला है कि 2004 की तुलना में मांसाहारियों की संख्या में कुछ गिरावट आई है। 2004 में मांसाहारियों का प्रतिशत 75 तक पहुँच गया था।
 
नवरात्रि, मंगलवार और अन्य हिंदू त्यौहारों पर माँस, मछली और अंडों की बिक्री में आने वाली भारी गिरावट भी इसी बात का प्रमाण है कि देश की हिंदू आबादी बड़े पैमाने पर मांसाहार करती है।
 
आँकड़ों के अनुसार तेलंगाना में मांसाहारियों की संख्या सबसे ज्यादा है। वहाँ पर 98.8 प्रतिशत पुरुष और 98.6 प्रतिशत महिलाएँ अंडा, माँस-मछली का सेवन करती हैं।

अन्य राज्यों में मांसाहारियों की सर्वाधिक संख्या पश्चिम बंगाल में है, जिसके बाद आंध्रप्रदेश, ओडीशा और केरल का नंबर है। पश्चिम बंगाल में माँसाहारियों का प्रतिशत 98.55, आंधप्रदेश में 98.25, ओडीशा में 97.35 और केरल में 97% लोग मांसाहारी हो चुके हैं।

शाकाहारियों की सबसे ज्यादा संख्या राजस्थान में है, जहाँ अब भी 73.2 प्रतिशत पुरुष और 76.6 प्रतिशत महिलाएँ शाकाहार अपनाए हैं। इसके बाद 68.5 प्रतिशत शाकाहारी पुरुष और 70 प्रतिशत शाकाहारी महिलाओं के साथ राजस्थान का नंबर है। पंजाब में 65.5 प्रतिशत पुरुष और 68 प्रतिशत महिलाएँ शाकाहारी हैं।

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नवरात्रि के दौरान माँसाहारी व्यंजनों की बिक्री कम होने से चिंतित डोमिनोज़ पिज्जा ने केवल वेज फूड प्रोडक्ट बेचने का फैसला किया है। अगले महीने से शुरू होने वाले नवरात्रि के त्यौहार के लिए अमेरिकी पिज्जा कंपनी डोमिनोज़ ने यह रणनीति अपनाई है। पिछले दो सालों से कंपनी ने पाया था कि नवरात्रि के दौरान उसके खाद्य उत्पादों की बिक्री काफी कम हो जाती है क्योंकि इस अवधि में लोग मांसाहार त्याग देते हैं।

कंपनी इसके लिए उत्तर, मध्य और पश्चिम भारत के कुछ इलाकों में अपने करीब 500 केंद्रों में नवरात्रि के दौरान मांसाहारी खाद्य उत्पाद नहीं परोसेगी। नवरात्रि के दौरान मेन्यू में सिंघाड़े के आटा के पिज्जा होंगे। प्याज, लहसुन और अदरक भी इसमें नहीं रहेंगे। पिज्जा बनाने में साबूदाना और खड़े नमक का इस्तेमाल किया जाएगा।

​​​​​​​कंपनी चाहती है कि नवरात्रि के दिनों में भी उसके ग्राहकों की संख्या में कमी न आए, और इसके लिए वह ग्राहकों की प्रवृत्ति के अनुसार अपने मैन्यू में तब्दीली करने को तैयार हो गई है। हालाँकि, इससे उन ग्राहकों को दिक्कत हो सकती है, जो नवरात्रि पर भी मांसाहार करना पसंद करते हैं।

​​​​​​​डोमिनोज पिज्जा इंडिया के अध्य्क्ष देव अमृतेश इस बात को मानते है कि कि नवरात्रि के दौरान नॉन वेज फूड की माँग घट जाती है। उनका कहना है कि ग्लोबल ब्रांड डोमिनोज पिज्जा को भी इस बात का अहसास हो गया है और वह ग्राहकों की सांस्कृतिक जरूरतों को लेकर सजग है, इसलिए कंपनी अब वेज मैन्यू तैयार कर रही है और यह संभव भी है क्योंकि पिज्जा में कई तरह के बदलाव किए जा सकते हैं।

हालाँकि, डोमिनोज़ के स्टोरों को शुद्ध शाकाहारी बना पाना बहुत कठिन है और कंपनी को इसलिए काफी मेहनत करनी पड़ेगी, लेकिन सांस्कृतिक स्वीकार्यता बढ़ाने के चक्कर में वह ये सब कवायद करने को तैयार है। कंपनी के अधिकारियों को उम्मीद है कि शाकाहारी मैन्यू पेश करने से उनकी बिक्री पूरे वर्ष भर समान रह सकेगी।

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