India Is Home To One-third Of All Poor People In The World According to the World Bank

from Bernama

More on the World Bank statement from yesterday, and some specifics on India. - Kale

NEW DELHI -- India is home to roughly one-third of all poor people in the world and has a higher proportion of its population living on less than US$2 per day, according to the World Bank's latest estimates on global poverty.

The estimates also shows that the rate of decline of poverty in India was faster between 1981 and 1990 than between 1990 and 2005, the Times of India on Wednesday quoted the bank as saying.

This is likely to give fresh ammunition to those who maintain that economic reforms, which started in 1991, have failed to reduce poverty at a faster rate.

India, according to the estimates, had 456 million people or about 42 percent of the population living below the new international poverty line of US$1.25 per day. The number of Indian poor also constitute 33 percent of the global poor, which is pegged at 1.4 billion people.

India also had 828 million people, or 75.6 percent of the population living below US$2 a day. Sub-Saharan Africa, considered the world's poorest region, is better -- it has 72.2 percent of its population (551 million) live below the US$2 a day level.

While the full report has not been released yet, a briefing note sent by the Bank had some of the data and showed that the poverty rate -- those below US$1.25 per day -- for India had come down from 59.8 percent in 1981 to 51.3 percent by 1990 or 8.5 percentage points over nine years.

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Poverty still grips millions in India

from the BBC


A detailed report on the recent Unicef findings on India. - Kale

By Kumar Malhotra

Every now and then, India gets a stark reminder that the feel good factor created by high growth rates in recent years eludes millions of its people.

One came earlier this month when Unicef said that India had some of the worst rates of child survival in the world. In 2006, 2.5 million children under five died in India and China, of whom 2.1 million were in India.

When you talk to officials and experts in India, they say poverty in is in decline.

"In the decades of the 1980s, there was a very rapid reduction in poverty," according to Dr Pronab Sen, chief statistician for the Indian government.

"The decade of the nineties and the beginning of the two thousands - the last 15 years - has been a little slower, but there's still been a perceptible decline."



The most recent government figure is that about 26% of India's population are officially classed as poor - that is people getting less than the minimum number of calories regarded as necessary for survival .

Data from other sources such as the World Bank support the notion that absolute poverty is in decline, although there always seems to be some variation between different sets of figures.

But some experts like Jayati Ghosh, an economics professor at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, believe that the poor in India are far more numerous that these figures suggest.

"We are not including people who do not have access to running water, sanitation, schooling, health and education. They may well not have any of these things, yet still not be considered poor because they earn enough to have the minimum calorie requirement."

Impoverished farmers

This is the key part of being poor in today's India - a lack of access to basic services and infrastructure. It all points to the need for massive intervention by the state.

This does happen in India - and has done for many years through anti-poverty programmes and schemes to develop both rural and urban areas.

Quite how much difference they can make is often debated. In the budget this year, the government announced a plan to help out impoverished farmers by writing off huge debts they have no hope of repaying.

It was certainly headline grabbing, but critics argue that its impact is limited because it doesn't amount to fresh money being spent in rural areas - just banks writing off bad loans.

Generating more growth in the rural economy has to be a priority, if only because some 70% of the 1.1bn population lives there.

It has lagged behind the manufacturing and especially the service sector. The government is currently rolling out a huge rural employment scheme, guaranteeing some work for the poorest households.

But if the rural poor do manage to earn money, they don't want to rely on the state to provide the services they need. This is illustrated by education, where the poor take their children out of barely functioning public schools so they can educate them privately.

Blunted by corruption

"This is the tragedy of Indian policy: the government is sitting there paying its teachers and they don't turn up to school," says Surjit Bhalla, an investment manager and economic analyst in Delhi.

The same neglect can be seen in the health sector. The World Bank says that less than 10% of public spending on health goes to the poorest 20% of the population.

Poverty alleviation programmes can also be blunted by corruption, often colluded at by self-interested bureaucrats and unscrupulous politicians at various levels.

The result is that India now shows stark inequalities - often along caste, religious and gender lines. And in some ways, this has become a vicious circle.

"What is happening is that as the country prospers, the willingness of educated and skilled people to stay in the villages is going down," concedes Pronab Sen.

Does the current approach need to be rethought? Some would argue in favour of a greater focus on the small-scale sector in towns and villages across India to create more jobs.

This should be combined with a massive increase in spending on health and education as well as physical infrastructure like electrification, water supplies, irrigation, roads and so on.

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Bread for the World supports India in trade talks

from New Delhi News

This is the first that I have heard from a third party on the failed Doha free trade talks. The NGO Bread for the World sides with India. - Kale

'We need a global economy that works for everyone, rich and poor alike, and not just for a wealthy few,' David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a Christian organisation that strives to end hunger worldwide, said in a statement in Washington Monday.

Beckmann warned that the recent collapse of the Doha Round of talks in Geneva would adversely affect the world's hungry and poor people in more ways than the negotiators realise.

'The trading nations of the world put protectionism ahead of hungry and poor people, and it worsened their plight,' said Beckmann.

'That is the real tragedy of the collapse of the Doha Round during this global hunger crisis.'

The Doha Round talks reached an impasse after the US disagreed with the stance of India and China that developing countries can impose emergency tariffs on products like sugar, cotton and rice in case of a sudden rise in imports.

The US wanted to allow emergency tariffs when a country's imports rapidly increase by 40 percent, while China and India insisted that this threshold should be 10 percent. They offefred to settle for 15 percent.

'This latest Doha Round was a golden opportunity to reduce trade-distorting farm subsidies in wealthy nations, especially in light of soaring crop prices and record prosperity among European and American farmers,' Beckmann said.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 862 million people across the world go to bed hungry.

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UN criticizes India over high child death rate

from the International Herald Tribune

More than 2 million Indian children under the age of 5 are dying every year. The UN says it's because of lack of basic care. - Kale

The report by the U.N. Children's Fund focused on the Asia-Pacific region but singled out India — home to 20 percent of the world's children under 5. It also warned that rising inequality between the rich and poor risked undermining gains made in other countries of the region.

While India has made steady progress in recent years, it's "not nearly enough," said UNICEF regional director Daniel Toole, calling on the government to invest significantly more money on health services.

Officials from India's Health Ministry and the Women and Child Welfare Ministry were not immediately available for comment.

In 2006, the last year for which there are full figures, some 2.1 million children under 5, or 76 children per 1,000 live births, died in India, the report said.

Much of this was caused by rampant malnutrition among mothers and children and resources not reaching the poorest segments of the population, it said.

Basic solutions like providing trained midwives or doctors — currently only present at about 30 percent of births — or information on caring for newborn, like keeping them warm, could make a big difference, said Mario Babille, UNICEF's head of health care in India.

The situation was compounded by discrimination against women and lower castes, it said.

"When a young girl is born in India her chances of survival are significantly less," said Toole. Female children were less likely to receive medical care or even have their births registered and this deep discrimination was causing a vicious cycle, he said.

"An unhealthy girl child is likely to be an under-nutritioned mother with low birth weight children," he said.

In traditional Indian society girls are seen as a financial burden, needing huge dowries when they marry that can cripple a family financially. Boys typically remain at home after marrying, helping to care for aging parents. Hinduism also dictates preference, with only men being able to light their parents' funeral pyres.

While other nations in the region have made even less progress than India, India was highlighted because of its huge population, which affects U.N goals of bringing down child deaths by two-thirds by 2015.

The report also singled out Afghanistan, Myanmar and North Korea where violence and international isolation were hampering efforts to bring down mortality rates.

But the report praised China, Thailand, Malaysia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Nepal who had made great strides in reducing child deaths.

Still, it cautioned against rising financial inequality.

"The divide between rich and poor is rising at a troubling rate within subregions of Asia-Pacific, leaving vast numbers of mothers and children at risk of increasing relative poverty and continued exclusion from quality primary health care," the report said.

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India lags behind Ethiopia in child nourishment

from the Gulf Times

India has been booming, but children there are still hungry. A report from a top UN economist explains. - Kale

Four in every 10 children in India are malnourished despite the country’s economy growing at an average rate of 9% a year, one of the world’s leading development economists warned.

Kevin Watkins, who edited the UN’s human development report, said that despite growing prosperity brought on by a sustained boom, child malnourishment in India is higher than in Ethiopia and well above the African average of 28%.

“India dominates the world hunger league,” he said. “Economists like to debate the factors behind India’s spectacular take-off. Perhaps they should be asking how a country can grow so fast with such a limited impact on child hunger.”

Watkins’s warning follows comments by Finance Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, who said last week that he wanted the country to become an “economic superpower”.

“I have no hesitation in saying that I do not envy China,” he said. “I want to emulate China. I want India to become an economic power, an economic superpower.”

When it comes to economic growth, India is a long way ahead of Bangladesh but when it come to child survival rates, it lags behind.

According to Watkins, an Oxford academic, Bangladesh has been cutting child deaths at a rate some 50% higher than in India.

If India, where there are about 1.1bn people, had matched Bangladesh’s record on child mortality since 1990 there would be about 700,000 fewer child deaths this year.
“Both Bangladesh and Nepal are far poorer than India, but India has a higher child death rate than either,” said Watkins.

Poverty has also been falling far more slowly in India than in other high-growth developing countries, such as Vietnam and Brazil. Watkins believes that part of the problem is that the benefits of growth have been “highly skewed”.

“While wealth has been flooding into urban areas and middle-class suburbs, it has been trickling down in small doses to rural areas, poor states in the north of the country, rural labourers and low-caste groups,” he said.

Watkins also criticised India’s public health system. He said that India’s children did not receive the basic medication they so badly need such as immunisation, drugs for treating childhood diarrhoea and nutritional supplements. “Fewer than half of India’s children are fully immunised and the share has barely changed in a decade,” he added.

Gender inequalities are also still rife in India, with boys getting access to food and medicine before girls, according to Watkins. “Being born a girl carries high risks: it raises the chance of premature death between the ages of one and four by about one-third,” he said.

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More proof for India

from the Thaindian

A new government report show the strides India is making in meeting their MDG's. - Kale

By Rajeev Ranjan Roy

New Delhi, India is making impressive progress towards achieving the UN’s millennium development goals (MDGs) such as eradicating extreme poverty and ensuring universal primary education, says a government report. As per the alternative mixed recall period (MRP), India’s extremely poor population for whom making both ends meet is difficult, has come down to 21.8 percent in 2004-05 from 26.1 percent in 1999-00, says the government’s report on MDG 2007.

For the MRP, a yardstick to measure declining poverty, data on five non-food items - clothing, footwear, durable goods, education and institutional medical expenses - is collected over a year.

“India is on track with respect to the target of halving the proportion of people below the poverty,” says the MDG 2007 report of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

The thrust areas of MDGS are improving child mortality, maternal health, combating malaria, HIV-AIDS, promoting gender equality, environmental sustainability, and fostering global partnership of development.

These are some of the goals that more than 150 countries committed themselves to September 2000 at the United Nations Organisation (UN) to achieve by 2015, and are known as MDGs.

By 2015, India needs to halve the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar a day, and achieve universal primary education, a situation where all children complete a full course of primary schooling.

According to the report, the proportion of children studying up to Class V in primary schools after they are enrolled in Class I has increased to 71 percent from 59.3 percent in 2000-01.

Such a decline in dropout rate in primary education is mainly because of India’s ambitious campaign on education for all, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, launched in 2000.

There is a significant reduction in the mortality rate of children under the age five, which has to be reduced by two-thirds by 2015.

It has come down to 91.2 per 1,000 male children in 1999-2003 in against 118.8 in 1988-92.

Mortality rate among girls under five has gone down to 108.9 per 1000 in 1999-2003 to 131.9 percent in 1988-92.

Although there is a decline in the maternal mortality rate (MMR) from 398 in 1997-98 to 301 per 100,000 in 2001-03, the report has doubts to achieve the MDG goal of 109 MMR by 2015.

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BIMSTEC to focus on poverty alleviation

from the Hindu, India

Haroon Habib

DHAKA: Members of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectorial Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) have reached a consensus to devise an action plan for poverty alleviation and commitment to establish a food bank in the region.

The ministerial meeting decided that their second meeting would be held in Kathmandu in 2009. Bangladesh’s finance adviser, Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam, said the two issues would be taken up at the next meeting after further review.

BIMSTEC’s seven members - Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal - decided that Nepal would take the lead in preparing the plan.

They also agreed that each member would organise seminars and conferences based on the Millennium Development Goals to evolve recommendations. The countries would also examine and share their experiences to find the best means for poverty alleviation.

“Considering the current global scenario, the meeting has renewed our commitment to poverty alleviation and recognised the need for regional cooperation,” said Mr. Islam. He said member-countries understood national-level initiatives would be inadequate to tackle the current global crisis.

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Fight against poverty, climate change through forest: Experts

from the Hindu

Mumbai (PTI): Calling for a new kind of forest partnership, experts have said that a real breakthrough in the World Bank-nurtured idea of global forest partnership is possible only if it reflected the views and needs of local stakeholders including forest dwellers.

An emerging initiative could pave the way for fundamental change in forest management, boosting efforts to fight both poverty and climate change, according to research published today by the U K-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) said.

The World Bank-nurtured idea is of a global forest partnership that links local and global processes and promotes decision-making on the international stage that reflects the view and needs of local stakeholders such as forest dwellers.

IIED consulted widely on the WB's idea and the 72 page report is based on responses from more than 600 forest experts to IIED's survey or those participated in focus groups in Brazil, China, Ghana, Guyana, India, Russia and Mozambique, as well as at international meetings.

A majority agreed a new partnership was needed to protect forests and forest-based livelihoods, but pointed out ways that should diverge from the bank's initial idea if it is to really serve local needs on an equitable basis with the rapidly changing global forestry agenda.

IIED also reviewed more than 50 existing initiatives to identify the proposed alliance's potential partners and the gaps it could fill. The consultation identified key features that would make a global partnership and truly progressive way for international forestry to work. It should focus on empowering primary 'stakeholders' including forest dwellers so that their rights, knowledge and needs are centre-stage.

"It should greatly improve flows of finance to activities that support local needs alongside global public goods such as carbon storage. It should interact effectively with other sectors such as water and agriculture, where the underlying causes of forest problems and the seeds of sustainable solutions are often lodged," the report said.

Bass, one of the authors of the study, said: "Without these building blocks, the ambitious partnership idea is unlikely to succeed. This is a new opportunity to develop an empowering stakeholder-focused partnership that can attract real investent to manage forests sustainably. It has potential to harness an enormous groundswell of energy to manage forests so they can help address local poverty and global climate change."

"Right now, Western governments are planning large climate and forest funds. The partnership could identify the best ways to invest these funds for long-term good," he said. Existing efforts to make forestry work for the poor have not generated the results expected, he said, adding the desire to create a new global forest partnership that connects local and global processes and people is an ambitious break from tradition that could create new ways to do business in the forest sector.

Another author Mayers, who is also head of IIED's Natural Resources Group, said, "World Bank should be praised for breaking with normal practice and supporting the independent scrutiny of its plans through engagement with a broad range of stakeholders."

"What the bank must now avoid is trying to drive the partnership from the top down. Instead it must act as the facilitator, providing financial and other support in a hands-off way to enable an independent alliance to be built from the bottom up, bringing together local and regional partners with global organisations."

The report urges the formation of a 'development group' of forest, environment and development leaders, mainly from the South and credible to government, civil society and the private sector, who can come together and contribute to the development of the initiative.

They would be supported by a small group of progressive international institutions in their efforts to forge a new kind of local-global partnership. Welcoming the report, World Bank's Forest Advisor, Gerhard Dieterle said, "World Bank is happy to hear there is consensus on a new approach from a broad variety of forest stakeholders from around the world."

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Making homes affordable in Mumbai

from the Toronto Star

Marc and Craig Kielburger

Walking through the slums of Mumbai is never easy. Rows on rows of corrugated tin shacks line the narrow streets, most of them rusted and seemingly on the verge of collapse.

Outside, upwards of a million other people too poor even for a shack live on the street among piles of garbage. There are so many of them that the sidewalks are nearly impassable.

They exist in the shadows of the Mumbai's apartment buildings, some glitzy enough to rival the famous addresses of Manhattan both in luxury and price. Others are more run-of-the-mill but still cost thousands of dollars a month just to rent.

Such is life in India's financial capital, where skyrocketing real estate prices have created two worlds in this city of 14 million people. Space now goes for a premium there as villagers continue to pour into a city that struggles to fit them all, making Mumbai among the most expensive places in the world to live.

But many in the city remain desperately poor, unable to afford a decent place to call home. Half the city's population still lives in slums, without proper access to water, health care or sanitation. They continue to live in squalor, untouched by India's economic success.

Housing prices there are usually directly quoted by size and can range anywhere from $25 to $2,000 a square foot, with even the most basic accommodation costing around $15,000. That's a hefty pricetag in a country where 80 per cent of people live on less than a dollar a day.

Despite this widespread poverty, huge real estate deals continue to make headlines. Last month Bollywood star Vinod Khanna set a national record by purchasing a three-bedroom apartment in South Mumbai for a staggering $25,000 per square foot. In other words, each floor tile cost him more than a mid-sized car.

Even the national government, which usually downplays India's economic disparity, acknowledges the housing shortfall and admits the entire country is in need of 25 million more homes. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty has vowed to act, but progress is slow.

That is why the private sector is stepping up. The Monitor Group, a global management consulting firm, is leading the push for affordable housing. They've discovered that even with Mumbai's real estate boom, inexpensive housing can still be made appealing for investors if done properly.

"We started looking at development and realized there is an opportunity for market-based solutions for social change," explains Ashish Karamchandani, CEO of Monitor's India office.

Banks and developers have long been wary of investing in low-income housing, worried they would not be able to sell many units. But by encouraging Indian companies to allow stable payroll deductions from their employees, while helping to finance loans through microcredit institutions, Monitor has found a way to ensure that even much of the city's poor can afford to buy a property.

Craig and Marc Kielburger are children's rights activists and co-founded Free The Children, which is active in the developing world. Online: Craig and Marc Kielburger discuss global issues every Monday in the World & Comment section. Take part in the discussion online at thestar.com/globalvoices.

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Full bellies, hungry minds

from ODE Magazine

In India, a group of monks feeds nearly a million kids a day, proving there is such a thing as a free lunch.
Tijn Touber

He’s in the Netherlands fundraising for new trucks and food processors, but in no time—and who could blame him?—finds himself addicted to the typically Dutch cookie treat stroopwafels. Chitranga Chaitanya Das—better known as CC Das—has already mastered the pronunciation (STROHP-wah-fuls) and will travel today to Gouda, the birthplace of this sugary treat, to place an order. Then it will simply be a matter of time before many thousands of Indian schoolchildren can enjoy stroopwafels as a dessert after their daily meal of soup, rice, three vegetables, chapatis and yogurt.

This is the constant occupation of the Hindu Hare Krishna monk: ensuring all those hungry children from his native India are fed. He and his Akshaya Patra Foundation now deliver 850,000 free meals to some 5,000 schools six days a week. Insiders at the United Nations World Food Programme consider his work among the most successful projects, and students of the prestigious Harvard Business School were full of praise for his organization in a study they conducted. The foundation’s annual accounts are audited (free) by KPMG, which concluded that for every dollar that comes in, an impressive 90 cents is used to buy food. The rest goes to overhead, including truck drivers and gasoline, but excluding management salaries—since these don’t exist.

It all started in the Bangalore Hare Krishna temple in southern India, explains Das as he sits—a dish of stroopwafels within reach—to explain how he unleashed a small revolution eight years ago. Das, part of the local monk community, looks back: “One day we were sitting with a couple of monks talking about how wonderful it is that we can give something tasty to the thousands of people who come to the temple each week, as is the tradition in India. But, we said, what about all those people who aren’t able to come to the temple? Can we give them something too?”

That question stirred up a variety of responses. The monks wanted to give food to the local people, but if they were to distribute it on the street, they were concerned people would become lazy and dependent, which would only serve to sustain poverty. One of the monks had read in a UN report that some 45 million Indian children rarely go to school because their parents would rather keep them at home to work on the land or beg on the street. In certain parts of India, poverty is considered a fate simply to be endured. “The children who do go to school,” Das explains, “must often leave at noon because they are so hungry they cannot concentrate. Poor children rarely eat breakfast.”

Then the monks came up with the idea. It occurred to them that they could double the impact if they brought food to the schools: Children would become stronger, smarter and healthier, and the schools would no longer be deserted, enabling India to develop.

They started their first experiment in 2000. Fifteen hundred children from schools around the temple were provided with fresh lunches, prepared by 30 monks in the temple using vegetables from their own garden. The agreement: Anyone at school gets a free lunch. The result: Children who had never gone to school suddenly started to come. The news spread like wildfire and it wasn’t long before other schools came knocking at the monks’ door.

“We were working like crazy,” Das remembers. Within the Hare Krishna movement, he’d already raised considerable funds for a cultural centre; this time, he collected private donations both in India and abroad and looked for sponsors from the business community. And he was successful. In the second year, the number of daily lunches reached 30,000. An impressive figure, but Das clearly remembers, “That meant we had to cut over 5,000 kilos (11,000 pounds) of vegetables a day. It got to the point that we had to start cutting vegetables the day before. But that wasn’t prudent given the high temperatures in our state. When you prepare food in India, you can’t be careful enough.”

At that point, many others would have decided enough was enough, but Das persisted. Thus began his search for the most efficient kitchen. He bought new machines for cutting vegetables, cleaning rice and processing enormous amounts of food quickly and hygienically. The foundation now runs three industrial kitchens in India valued at some $2 million each. The kitchens were designed to be as automated as possible to minimize the need for human involvement. The pans are so big they can easily accommodate a sack of rice.

“Now we can cook enough rice for 1,000 children in 15 minutes,” Das says, bursting with pride. “In an hour, we can make 10,000 chapatis. In six hours, we can prepare 250,000 meals. We process 100,000 kilos (220,000 pounds) of rice and lentils a day. That’s unheard of in India.”

The scope of his work continues to expand. This summer Das expects to be preparing a million meals a day. With a mischievous look he says, “We really want to get into The Guinness Book of Records.”

The impact of the monks’ work hasn’t gone unnoticed. There’s been a considerable increase in the number of children sent to school in the areas where Akshaya Patra is active. And in a 2006 study, U.S. research bureau ACNielsen showed the health of children improves at schools where the kids get a free, fresh meal. Their grades shoot up: boys’ results increased by 14 percent and girls’ by as much as 34 percent.

As a result of lobbying efforts by Das—who as program director handles planning, management and financing—a law has been introduced requiring schools in India to provide lunch. A few states, including Orissa, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, have chosen to give money to the monks to provide the meals. The kitchens have been equipped to allow for local differences in taste; vegetables and dairy products are purchased at local markets.

Although most of the attention and resources go to the mammoth kitchens, Akshaya Patra has also set up smaller kitchens in the poorest areas that are primarily home to tribal communities. Five hundred school lunches a day are made there. “In those areas, no one was going to school, not even the teachers,” says Das. “Most people had no idea what day of the week it was. That’s changing now.”

In these regions, the place of women in society has increased since they started working in the kitchens. “It is not unusual for women to be physically abused by their husbands,” Das explains, frowning. “Because the 700 women we have working for us feed 1,000 children, their status and self-esteem have increased.”

The organization as a whole currently numbers 86 monks and more than 2,500 paid staff. “But the entire process is supervised by the monks,” Das emphasizes as he munches the last stroopwafel. “Which makes sense. After all, who else would be crazy enough to get up every day at 2:30 a.m. to work in the kitchen?”

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'India won't cut greenhouse gas emission against development'

from India E News

India will not reduce greenhouse gas emission at the cost of development and poverty alleviation, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena said Thursday.

India will not reduce greenhouse gas emission at the cost of development and poverty alleviation, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena said Thursday.

'India is struggling to bring millions of people out of poverty. We cannot accept binding commitments to cut down greenhouse gas emission,' Meena said at a function to mark the World Environment Day.

Though India has no commitment to reduce the global warming gases under the Kyoto Protocol, in recent climate change conferences many developed countries have said India needs to reduce the greenhouse burden.

Meena, however, said climate change was becoming a crucial issue, and needed immediate action. He added that consumptive lifestyle was putting severe pressure on biological resources. 'Each of us has to become a saviour of the environment.'

'Each of us can help curb the adverse impact of climate change,' he said adding that afforestation will go a long way in reducing the carbon level in the atmosphere as 'forest is the natural sink for CO2'.

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DRIVING INDIA FORWARDS: Poverty and inequality.

from Fund Strategy

Despite the strong growth in India's economy, a large proportion of its 1.1 billion population still lives in poverty. If this poverty line is measured on the basis of earning less than $1 a day, the World Bank's definition, 34.3% of India's population live beneath it, according to the 2007-08 Human Development Report (HDR). More than 80% of the population still lives on less than $2 a day.

The national poverty line, meanwhile, is defined as earning 450Rs (Indian rupees) a person a month. The HDR shows 28.6% of India's population lives below this threshold. The percentage in poverty, according to this definition, has declined from 55% in 1974 but the gap between the nation's richest and poorest continues to widen. The real debate is about whether poverty is declining despite this widening inequality.

TN Srinivasan, professor of economics at Yale, says consumption-based data suggests that inequality is rising across both regions and states in India. However, he says this is what would be expected when a relatively closed economy is opened to the world markets.

"When you open up an economy not all companies and regions can all take immediate advantage," he says. "Some develop faster than others, so regional inequality is to be suspected. The real question is are there processes in place to allow the laggards to catch up? This is where the political dimension comes in. Different states have more autonomy in the economic arena than was the case 30 years ago and these states watch each other and debate with each other as to how they can catch up."

The bigger problem according to Srinivasan is social inequality. This he says is a different matter altogether as it is a socially entrenched issue. "Groups in the lower end of the social ladder do find it harder to catch up," he says. "Changing this requires social and political policy. Yes, the lower-end groups will gain in terms of income on an absolute basis because of India's growth. In a relative sense they are not gaining so the inequality gaps continues to widen."

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Poverty, starvation stalk Bengal tea garden workers

from the Thaidian

By Aparajita Gupta

Kolkata, The cup that cheers is bringing woes to the thousands who work in West Bengal’s tea gardens, with poverty, malnutrition and starvation deaths making life a living hell for plantation workers in the state’s northern parts.

Trade union sources estimate that abject poverty has driven 1,800 tea garden workers in north Bengal to death in the last three to four years. Aloke Chakraborty, general secretary of the central committee of the National Union of Plantation Workers, says 50 percent of the 318 gardens in the Terai and Dooars region in the state were sick, with 14 even closing down.

Even in the so-called healthy estates, the condition of workers is miserable, he adds.

“The problems in the tea estates of north Bengal have been brewing for a long time. Around 1,800 people died during the last three-four years,” Chakraborty told IANS.

There are altogether 8,709 tea gardens in north Bengal, but only 311 are spread over an area of 10 hectares or more. All others are small. The districts that have tea gardens are Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and North Dinajpur.

“People are dying of starvation. The effects of malnutrition have made worker communities vulnerable to anaemia, tuberculosis, anthrax and severe dysentery,” Chakraborty said.

Chandra Kumar Dhanuka, chairman and managing director of Dhunseri Tea and Industries, also painted a bleak picture for the industry.

“Labour prices have shot up in the last few years. The fertiliser cost has gone up by 25-30 percent. The tea industry is bleeding,” he said.

“In the last 10 years, prices of commodities like wheat and rice have doubled, whereas tea (auction) prices decreased 10 percent,” he said.Chakraborty accused the owners of redirecting profits from the gardens into other businesses.

“Tea garden owners don’t reinvest the profit they earn from tea gardens into the same business or ancillary businesses. They take that profit and invest in some other business at some other place,” he said.

During the past few years, several tea estate owners have abandoned their gardens abruptly without even paying the salaries and provident fund dues of the employees, he said.

“Again, the owners of many running tea gardens don’t pay the gratuity money in one go. Workers get their gratuity sum in paltry instalments,” he said.

Jai Prakash Lodhwar, manager of Pandam Tea Estate and Rangaroon Tea Estate rejected the claim, saying: “Provident fund dues are being cleared. Development work is being carried out by the Tea Board in this region.”

He, however, rued the shortage of manpower in the plucking season when companies generally hire casual workers.

S. Patra, joint-secretary, Indian Tea Association, tried to sound upbeat. “We recorded an all time high tea production in 2006. It was 956 million kg, but declined to 945 million kg in 2007 due to erratic climate,” Patra said.

The year 2006 was good for India’s tea industry as it exported 219 million kg. But the export figure plummeted in 2007 due to competition from Kenya. But a good showing by the tea industry doesn’t guarantee better times for its workers.

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Abu Dhabi fund unveils poverty alleviation strategy

from The Economic Times

ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) has announced a five-year aid strategy to support poverty eradication initiatives in developing countries, WAM news agency reported Wednesday.

Under the new strategy, which is to run till 2012, the fund has allocated 750 million United Arab dirhams (about $204 million) as soft loans to finance infrastructure projects such as electricity, roads and water sectors in developing countries.

Addressing a meeting of the fund's board of directors, member Fawziya Al Mubarak underlined ADFD's efforts to further Abu Dhabi's general policy in providing help to developing countries, and supporting their efforts to achieve economic and social development.

Adel Al Hosni, legal advisor to the fund, said: "The priorities of the fund in this stage can be summarised in providing help to underdeveloped countries in the form of soft loans, supporting the capitals and enhancing the capabilities of these countries."

The ADFD was established July 1971 with its head office in Abu Dhabi, with the aim of providing assistance to the developing countries in form of confessional loans, grants or contributions to projects capitals.

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India Helps Burma, China in Wake of Disasters

from the Voice of America

By Anjana Pasricha

India has sent relief and pledged assistance to two neighboring countries recently struck by natural disasters: Burma and China. Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi on India's efforts to project itself as a responsible regional power.

When a cyclone devastated Burma, earlier this month, Indian navy ships and aircraft began ferrying relief supplies to its neighbor in less than 24 hours.

The foreign ministry says two Indian medical teams are treating 1,500 patients a day in the disaster area.

Commerce Minister Jairam Ramesh assured a recent pledging conference in Rangoon that India will assist the country in reconstruction work.

India has also reached out to another neighbor, China, which is coping with the aftermath of a massive earthquake. New Delhi has pledged $5 million in assistance and sent transport aircraft with relief material such as tents.

Unlike many countries, India has diplomatic relations with Burma's military rulers. Bilateral ties with China have vastly improved in recent years.

But analysts say India's efforts to help its neighbors are more than just friendly gestures.

A foreign policy analyst with New Delhi's Center for Policy Research, Brahma Chellaney, says India wants to demonstrate that it can play a responsible regional role.

"In recent weeks, India has rushed large amounts of aid both to impoverished Burma as well as to booming China," he said. "It did not make a distinction between China and Burma. It is an effort to reach out and help people in one's neighborhood -- of course with the hope that this will improve the diplomatic environment and help improve bilateral relations and also help increase India's role in the region."

Analysts say New Delhi has stepped up "aid diplomacy" in recent years, in a bid to raise its global profile.

India's efforts to project itself as an aid-giver rather than an aid recipient were first noticed after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck several countries in the region. Within hours, Indian warships had ferried supplies to Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia -- even though the disaster had struck its own southern shores. India declined foreign aid, saying the money should go to countries in greater need.

Former Indian Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh says New Delhi wants to emphasize that it is an emerging power.

"I think now India is giving a message that 'yes we have reached a state of development where we are in a position to help others, and that is why we are doing it'. There is a feeling that our capabilities have increased, and we can do it. We feel we have reached the stage where other countries deserve it [aid] more than we do," he said.

Last year, as a growing economy raised its confidence, New Delhi set aside $1 billion for international aid, saying this was in step with India's growing stature in global affairs.

It is a much smaller amount, compared to what other Asian countries such as Japan or China disburse as aid. But it is a far cry from the time when India was, itself, reliant on massive aid from foreign donors.

Saumitra Chaudhuri, an economist on the prime minister's economic advisory council, says India has virtually phased out relying on external aid, in recent years.

"There was a time, maybe till about the middle 80's, when bilateral and multilateral assistance used to comprise a very large segment of capital flows into India. Now, they comprise a very, very small segment -- such a small segment that it is barely noticeable."

India's large navy and air force make it easy for New Delhi to extend a helping hand when disasters strike. India has the world's fourth largest military and its fleet of warships in the Indian Ocean and large air force can ferry disaster relief material quickly to neighboring countries.

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‘Lack of proper distribution causes food crisis’

from the Financial Express

ASHOK B SHARMA

The present food crisis is due to lack of proper distribution and the trading system impeding free flow of food, according to the vice chairman of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Victor Fung.

He said that as a short-term measure it was essential to address the problem of distribution and as a long-term strategy the global community should take up measures for raising the productivity of food crops to feed the rising population. “There is also a need to review the bio-fuel programme which uses food crops for fuel and displaces food crops for cultivation of non-food crops for fuel,” he said.

He also said that the world has to work out strategies for efficient use of energy.

Fung who is the chairman, of the Li & Fung group of Companies, which includes major subsidiaries in trading, distribution and retailing, also addressed the industry at a meeting organised by Ficci on Monday He also is the chairman of the Greater Pearl River Delta Business Council, Hong Kong Airport Authority and Hong Kong University Council.

Fung also said that China was also facing the challenges of rising prices, growing disparity in incomes, environmental problems and weak infrastructure. “There is a debate in China on how to address these challenges. That the Chinese government cares for its people is evident from its rapid response following the earthquake in Sichuan,” he said.

He called for a free and fair multilateral trade for addressing the problems of global poverty. He said that bilateral trade and free trade agreements between countries and trading blocks cannot be a substitute for a meaningful free and fair multilateral trade. He said that there was a need to see that anti-dumping measures under WTO do not lead to protectionism.

He proposed that Indian Companies can invest in IT sector in China. He said that Chinese production will continue to move offshore in Asian, African and Latin American countries.

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Orissa shining: State lifts 3 mn out of poverty

from the Business Standard

Orissa has lifted around 3 million people out of poverty and has made the strongest fiscal turnaround among all states six years between 2000 and 2006. Over 45 per cent of Orissa's population is, however, still living below poverty line.

Stating this, a forthcoming World Bank study on Orissa whose main findings were released today, lauded the efforts of the state government to achieve its goal to bring down the poverty level to below 10 per cent by 2020.

The study "Orissa in Transition: From Fiscal Turnaround to Rapid and Inclusive Growth" was conducted by the World Bank in 2007.

The study found that the poverty headcount ratio for the state, after rising during 1993-99, declined during 2000-2005 by more than 8 percentage points in rural Orissa and 2.5 percentage points in urban Orissa.

This is better than the all-India average decline of 5 percentage points for urban India and 2 percentage points for rural India.

Among the factors that helped the turnaround, the study highlights adoption of a consultative approach to fiscal correction and a strong government resolve to accelerate projects in the face of a resource crunch.

"What is most heartening about Orissa's economic transition is that growth has been most rapid in the southern region, which was one of the poorest parts of India. This turnaround carries important lessons for the rest of India as it seeks to ensure inclusive growth for all," says VJ Ravishankar, lead economist and principal author of the study.

Significantly, over the past seven years, the state's primary fiscal balance has been converted from a deficit of 5.9 per cent of gross state domestic product (GSDP) to a surplus of 2.8 per cent, a correction of 8.7 percentage points. However, according to the study, if the state can consolidate the gains of its fiscal turnaround and devote more public resources to development, it may be able to address these challenges effectively. To ensure inclusive growth, the study further suggests that the state government should unleash the potential of agriculture, fishery and forestry, on which most of the poor people depend.

The study also highlights the need for meeting the huge infrastructure gap, which is hindering growth. The state has $125-billion portfolio of 470 ongoing investment projects that are projected to generate an additional GSDP (gross state domestic product) of $35 billion. This is twice the size of Orissa's GSDP of 2006. This level of investments suggests that Orissa may experience a period of even more rapid growth in the future, the study says.

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Bureaucrats should take up job of fighting poverty: Mitra

from The Hindu

New Delhi (PTI): Noted economist Ashok Mitra expressed concerns over the country's abysmally low human development index and said senior bureaucrats should be deputed in poverty-prone districts of the country to implement various development programmes.

Delivering his speech on 'Growth for Whom: Choice or Dilemma?' at the Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture, Mitra, former West Bengal Finance Minister, said India's low HDI position is apparently of no concern to our politicians and policy makers.

He also said that India's growth story is being driven only by the services sector.

The services sector is growing at a fast rate and industries at a slower pace, while agriculture is lagging behind and the growing sectors are unable to accommodate the displacement of labour in various areas, including construction work, he said.

Stating that growth was uneven across sectors, Mitra said the services sector provided employment to only about 20 per cent of the workforce whereas agriculture and allied services accounted for two-fifth of the total workforce.

Former RBI governor Bimal Jalan, who is a Member of Parliament, however, did not completely agree with Mitra's lecture and said "it is was just one side of the story".

At the function, Nirupama Subramaniam, The Hindu's correspondent in Pakistan, was presented the Prem Bhatia Memorial Award for best political reporting in 2008.

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3 weeks in India: 'I will never be the same'

from the Ventura County Star

By Clair Tenney

For three-and-a-half weeks over winter break, I embarked on a journey that changed me and my entire outlook on life. Along with 13 other California Lutheran University students, I went for a trip to India led by professors Dr. Paul Hanson and Dr. Druann Pagliassoti. The previous semester of studying the country and seeing slides could never have prepared me for what was to come.

My first week in India was a long one. I frequently cried over the sights I was shocked by — sights that I wanted to run away from at the time, sights now that I miss.

Roads are complete chaos. I have never been somewhere with so much noise. New York City does not even compare. People use horns to communicate everything. Not one single car, motorcycle, bike, bus or rickshaw stays on the correct side of the road. Vehicles whiz head on and, just when it looks like they will collide, one moves just ever so slightly.

Animals roam the streets just as if they were cars or people. The people feed hundreds of stray dogs. Cows, considered holy in the country, walk along the street beside you. Sometimes, they stand in the middle of the road and cars just honk and drive around them. Peacocks are in the trees and the sidewalk, camels carry carts of goods or people, and monkeys swing from the buildings and come within inches of you.

Every time we stepped off the bus, sellers of tourist-type items would surround us. They will follow a group for blocks, pushing their items in front of your face, touching you and moving from person to person.

Starving, barely clothed babies

The poverty in this country was unbelievable to my American eyes. Seventy percent of India's population lives in poverty.

Beggars are everywhere. But, unlike most in America, who stand stoically waiting for you to drop coins in their cup, in India, they come up and pull on your clothes, tug on your arms and stand in front of your face for up to 10 minutes. We were taught never to make eye contact with them or speak to them. Mothers bring their starving, barely clothed, crying babies right up to you. It took all my willpower not to cry in front of them and give them all my money.

India is the most dirty and smelly place I have ever visited. Bathrooms are regularly soaked in water or urine. You can't drink water unless it is bottled. The only fruits and vegetables you can eat are those that can be peeled.

Despite all of the craziness, India holds so much beauty and spirituality.

I have experienced the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a sight that literally took my breath away. I will forever remember how I felt and the sounds of the beautiful Sikh people worshiping God. I went to Mother Teresa's orphanage and played with children for hours, falling in love with one little boy so much that I cried when I left him and made the decision to one day adopt a child from this wonderful country. I visited the Taj Mahal, a sight that symbolizes India.

Camels, elephants, temples

I took a boat ride down the holy Ganges River, where hundreds of men and women bathe, and I watched as a group of men prepared their relative's dead body to be cremated and thrown in the water. I went on a camel ride through the desert and small villages where the children followed us around like we were celebrities. I smoked Indian tobacco with the village men and learned Indian dances. I rode an elephant to the top of a castle and received an elephant blessing in a temple. I climbed 417 steps to the top of a temple in Trichy, where I looked out upon the city and I felt I could see the world curve.

I strongly encourage everyone to visit this magnificent country. After living in India for only a few weeks, it is hard for me to be back in the United States where people have everything, but see none of it, only striving for more. It makes me think that material possessions only make us unhappy, after seeing children overjoyed by their simple toys — a rock with a string tied around it — and adults worshiping God because they have a pair of clothes to wear.

I will never forget seeing people with leprosy beg on the sides of the road. I will never be the same after seeing at least 100 people with decapitated limbs drag their bodies along the dirty ground. I will never forget the sounds of the call of prayer to Muslims ringing out across the cities. I will never be the same after seeing people get down on their hands and knees thanking and worshiping God for the little things they have.

Even with the little that Indians have, it is hard to feel sorry for them because, in reality, they have everything. I even feel jealous of them. They have simplicity and they have true happiness. Mother Teresa said of the Indian people: "The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them."

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Discontent, poverty fueling Naxalite rebels

from the Christian Science Monitor

A government-appointed committee says violence by the Maoist insurgency is growing and urges the government to talk with rebels.
By Mian Ridge

Amid increasing violence sparked by India's Maoist insurgency, politicians and observers have called for leaders to tackle the causes of the rebel movement: poverty, landlessness, and unemployment.

India's Maoist revolt, or Naxalism, is thought to have killed thousands since it began in the 1960s. Some 13 of India's 29 states have been affected by the insurgency. India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has previously described the movement as the biggest domestic security threat facing the country. Since surprise Maoist wins in Nepal's general elections last month, there have been fears in India that the Naxalites would be emboldened by that victory.

New government figures also show that Naxalite violence is on the rise, reports the website of Zee News, an Indian TV channel. Some 698 deaths were reported in 2007, compared with 678 the previous year. The rise was attributed to a greater use of improvised explosive devices and land mines by the rebels and more attacks.

On Monday, the Times of India reported that a high-level committee appointed by the central government had urged the government to focus on the discontentment that fuels Naxalism. The report was written by members of the Planning Commission, an Indian policy think tank. It also urged the government to seek peace talks with Naxalite leaders.

On growth of Naxalism, the report said that while policy documents admitted direct correlation between extremism and poverty, in practice, the government treated it as a law and order problem. "It is necessary to change this mindset and bring about congruence between policy and implementation," the panel said.

The report has exhaustive details about social, political, economic, and cultural discrimination faced by [Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who are among India's poorest people] and how that resulted in discontented people finding succor in immediate justice provided by the Naxalites.

To buttress its point, the committee did a survey of four districts affected by Naxalism and compared it with four comparatively more developed areas [in eastern India, including] Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Orissa.

It was found that the districts where Naxalism had grown were different from developed ones in 10 ways: [a higher percentage of poor], low literacy, high infant mortality, low level of urbanization, high forest cover, high share of agricultural labour, low per capita foodgrain production, low level of road length, high share of rural households without bank accounts, and high share of rural households without specified assets.

Naxalites have found willing recruits among some rural poor, who feel left behind as India rushes to modernize. Forest-dwelling tribal people, in particular, have suffered displacement by large development projects – including dams – and a government failure to ensure food security.

Last week, the chief minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, said that efforts should be made to dissuade young men from joining the Naxalites, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI), a domestic news wire.

"Do they lack education? If be so, what is the reason? Economic conditions? If that is the propelling factor, then we should take steps to improve the conditions," he said....

And over the weekend, Rahul Gandhi, heir of India's Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and a probable future leader of the ruling Congress Party, toured insurgency-hit areas of the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, where Naxalism is especially prevalent. Security was tight, says the News Post India, an online newspaper, which also reported that Mr. Gandhi had wanted to spend a night with a tribal family but was cautioned against it.

Gandhi asked why Maoism was on the rise in the area, reports the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

Congress sources said that [nongovernmental organizations] and party local tribal youths informed Gandhi that "decades of total neglect of local tribal masses by various governments in welfare schemes and the government's failure to work out a proper plan for the social and economic development of tribals have nurtured Maoism".

In the meantime, the violence continues. Over the weekend, Naxalites murdered three policemen in the eastern state of Jharkhand, reported the Telegraph, a paper published in Calcutta . A rebel and a villager were also killed in the crossfire.

Last week, a group of armed Naxalites attacked an iron ore plant in Chhattisgarh and set fire to 53 trucks, reported the Business Standard, India's leading business newspaper. Sources suggested that the attack was a protest against the exportation of iron ore outside the state.

And while some urge the government to address the causes of Naxalism, others call for might to fight the "Maoist menace" as Indian reporters have dubbed the rebels' armed struggle.

The Khaleej Times reported last week that a senior Maoist leader told journalists the rebels would never back down from their armed struggle. The rebel leader said that unlike Nepal's Maoists, who triumphed in last month's general election, the Naxalites would continue to believe "in capturing power through armed struggle."

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