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Journalism of Courage
It is only when tragedy strikes in such a manifest way that the administration and the general public sit up and take notice. The deaths of nearly a thousand pre-school children (according to one estimate), within a single month, in Maharashtra’s tribal areas has shocked the authorities into action. Both the PMO and the Bombay High Court have ordered an inquiry into the situation. The Maharashtra government, on its part, denies that the deaths are due to malnutrition and cites other causes like low birth weights, premature deliveries, jaundice and the like. The state government may fight shy of admitting to the existence of malnutrition but the fact is that most of the causes cited are themselves rooted in prolonged malnutrition, if not directly of the child, then certainly that of the mother. It is an accepted fact that maternal malnutrition is one of the major factors responsible for the low birth weight of infants. Low birth weights, coupled with undernourishment, render infants particular susceptible to infection.
There is always a pattern in these deaths. They generally occur within the short span of one mid-summer month. This indicates that, unlike other large-scale disasters, this is no chance occurrence. A closer look at the tribal areas — not just in Maharashtra but all over the country — reveals a picture of persistent food shortages on a regular basis throughout the summer and monsoons. Small land holdings, obsolete technology and poor yields result in household grain stocks running out in just a few months. The empty grain bins coincide with the peak of summer and monsoons, when local job opportunities are few. Even the benefit of government-run food for work schemes is denied to these communities during this period, as construction works cannot be undertaken during the rains. In some tribal areas of Rajasthan and Orissa, this season of scarce food supplies extends to nine months of the year, but even in the best of locations, two to three months of food scarcity are accepted as inevitable.
A rapid participatory survey conducted by the UN in 12 tribal villages in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan, revealed that one common thread running through the tribal areas of these diverse states is the extent of seasonal food insecurity. Periods of acute food distress ranged between two months in Kabri village of Madhya Pradesh to as long as four months in all three sample villages of Chhattisgarh. The scenario is generally the worst for landless households, but in MP it was observed that marginal farmers are even worse off than the landless, their landed assets tying them down and preventing them from migrating and availing of other employment opportunities.
The season of scarcity begins at different times of the year depending on geographical location, but always coincides with the summer and extends through the monsoons. When food begins to run short, the first to suffer are the women, who resort to cutting down the number of meals taken as well as the amount consumed. As the season progresses, the entire family, including children, have to make do with fewer meals. By the end of the monsoons, it is usually reduced to just one per day. There are days when no food is available at all. The impact of this sharp reduction in intake over months, on already undernourished children, pregnant women, mothers who are breast-feeding their infants, and the infants themselves needs no explanation.
While government food assistance schemes like the PDS, providing subsidised food, and the ICDS, issuing nutritional supplements for women and pre-school children, do function even if indifferently, the survey revealed that the villagers do not access the fair price shop if it is located at a distance of more than 3 km. While, seven of the 12 surveyed villages did have functioning anganwadis (ICDS centres) within the village, in the case of Orissa, these centres were located at distances of 2-5 km from the surveyed villages, rendering them quite inaccessible to mothers and young children.
What can be done to prevent this cyclical starvation and its repercussions? The answer lies in hunger-proofing these villages through the provision of adequate food supplies and purchasing power during the starvation period. This, of course, is easier said than done. It must be remembered that tribal areas are generally inaccessible and certainly not conducive to outside aid in inclement weather. Solutions then have to be sought through self-help strategies and community mobilisation. Successful models do exist in the tribal areas of several states and could be replicated on a larger scale.
One such self-help model, centred on grain banks, has been successfully implemented by the Agragamee in Orissa. Set up with a initial corpus of foodgrain (often as little as 10 to 12 quintals) raised by the villagers, supplemented by a matching grant of grain by the NGO and managed by a local committee, these banks have soon taken off and encouraged a host of related community activities bringing in prosperity and relegating starvation to the past. Repayments are made in grain with affordable interest rates, which help replenish and build up the stocks. Many such grain banks have been running successfully for several years in the districts of Rayagada, Mayurbhanj, Koraput and Nawrangpur. In the village of Mankadamundi, Koraput district, comprising of 32 tribal families, a grain bank was set up in 1993 with 16 quintals of grain collected by the villagers and a matching grant from the organisation. Today, the bank has 90 quintals of grain stored in a bamboo mat bin. Again, in Talagudi village, Nowrangpur district, a grain bank was set up with a initial capital of only 6 quintals. Today, it has grown to 129 quintals and has sparked off other achievements, including an active mahila mandal and eight tribal children attending ashram schools, improved foodgrain and vegetable cultivation and a fish pond.
Similar experiments have been conducted, with varying degrees of success, in MP, Jharkhand and some other states. The Tenth Plan also proposes the setting up of community grain banks on a large scale. One way of fighting food scarcity is for the UPA government to implement such programmes on a war footing.
