People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

Cushion Removed, Nature Takes Its Toll

AS we go to press, over a thousand people have lost their lives due to the intense heat wave sweeping across the country (to be precise, 1094 deaths officially reported as of June 3, 2003). The worse is yet to come.  The meteorological department has warned that the onset of the south-west monsoon would be delayed. Whether this will lead to yet another year of drought is to be seen.  However, for the moment any respite from this  heat does not appear imminent.  Following the failure of the monsoon last year, Andhra Pradesh, TamilNadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh continue to be officially considered as drought-hit. For crores of people, in rural India particularly, the misery seems to be mounting. 

Many, especially the overzealous liberalisation pundits, explain away this misery as a consequence of nature's fury.  This is a superficial reasoning.  As we have shown in our columns (People's Democracy, May 18 and 25), the intensity of the rural distress has eliminated the natural and traditional cushion that people had in the past to face such a wrath of nature.  India had seen such high temperatures in the past as well. But, this year, the people succumbing to this intense heat has been much higher. This can only be explained by the fact that during the last decade or so, the cushion of resources and the reservoir of energies in rural India has virtually dried up.

Of these deaths this year, the bulk have come from Andhra Pradesh where the toll so far is 1045.  The reasons are not far to seek.  Growth in agriculture in the state last year was a miserable minus 17.06 per cent.  Reports show  the degree of rural distress is so intense in Andhra Pradesh  that not only has the state reported the largest number of distress suicides and starvation deaths, but a large-scale migration from rural areas in search of livelihood has begun ("The Bus to Mumbai,” P Sainath, The Hindu magazine, June 1, 2003). 

The scarcity of food, water, employment and livelihood has been the major reason that has virtually exhausted the inherent strength of the people in rural India to withstand such natural abnormalities. 

The per capita availability of foodgrains in the country declined from 177 kg in 1991-92 to 141.5 kg in 2002-03. The net availability does not automatically mean net consumption. With over 60 crore tonnes of foodgrains lying in the godowns, the consumption is obviously much lower than the availability figures suggest.  In absolute terms, the per capita availability in 2002-03 is lower than during the years of the second world war which saw the savage Bengal famine. This has resulted in a sharp decline in the average total calorie intake --- both in urban and rural India. In rural India, the index fell from 100 in 1983 to 87 in 1998. Given the decline in the availability of foodgrains, this calorie  intake would have fallen much more.  This can be understood by the fact that the employment growth in rural India between 1993-94 to 1999-2000 was a mere 0.58 per cent compared this to a growth rate of 2.03 per cent between 1987-88 and 1993-94.

The drought that had hit India last year had come in top of this accumulating rural distress that has wreaked havoc over the last  decade.  Another possible drought this year will virtually break the backbone of rural India.

Still worse is the case with cattle and livestock. With such a large number of human life as the casualty, one can imagine the loss of livestock. It is, indeed, an irony that those who, clamour for  protection of cow for their political benefit, pursue policies that results in the large-scale death of the cattle!

The alleviation of such rural distress can only be possible on the basis of a large-scale intervention by the government.  Necessary resource allocations, combined with employment generation schemes, will have to be undertaken on an urgent was footing.  This is something that this Vajpayee government is loath to do. Pre-occupied as it is with sordid political manoeuvring to cling on  to power  whose only priority is that of looting the country through sleaze and corruption, this Vajpayee government has no time at its disposal to be concerned about the plight of its citizens.