Volume 4, No. 9, September 2003

 — Sunil Mitra

Suicide deaths, starvation-deaths, acute poverty and chronic malnutrition — all these have become a common feature in the lives of the rural people in India. Most of these people toil hard to produce crops but do not have rights to their fruits of labour. The ever-increasing cost of cultivation, decreasing price of agricultural products, scarcity of institutional credit, exorbitant rate of interest of the private money-lender, lack of employment opportunities, want of ensured irrigation facilities, more and more exposure of agricultural products to theworld market, gradual dismantling of the public distribution system — all these have been pressing hard and compelling the landless and poor peasants, the middle peasants and even a section of the rich peasants to live in most distressed conditions. Natural calamities like drought and flood further accentuate this deplorable plight of the peasants. Amidst these appalling conditions the stock of foodgrain with the F.C.I has been burgeoning and becoming more and more unmanageable.

At regular intervals, the media have been reporting the tragic death of peasants—suicide deaths, starvation deaths, deaths due to chronic under-nourishment, which pervade all parts of rural India. H.S. Sidhu in his article "Crisis in Agrarian Economy in Punjab" has stated that during the last five years more than one thousand farmers have committed suicide as they were unable to pay their loans. (E.P.W July 27, 2002). The SATHI team conducted an investigation selecting three villages of Barwani district in Madhya Pradesh and reported that, in those villages in one cluster 70 persons died during 2002 and commented that "the actual number of deaths is actually likely to be higher than what we could document" (EPW, May 3, 2003). In Sahabad tahsil of Baran district in Rajasthan more than 43 peasants died due to starvation (MK Jha, EPW, Dec. 28, 2002). In 2001, "a minimum of 35 peasants from Vidarbha committed suicide", because of their inability to return loans. The Times of India, Oct. 24, 2002, published a report which exposed the severity of the situation "while the Maharashtra government continues to adopt an ostrich-like attitude towards the death of 26 tribal children in Thane district during April-August this year, a recent survey by the city-based Tribal Training and Research Institute (TTRI) has confirmed that 69 percent of the deaths were due to malnutrition". It further reported "starvation and grass-eating habits have been identified as the main reason for the death of 20 persons including 12 children in Rajasthan in a span of one month, according to a report of an independent organisation... The team found that people in these villages were consuming wild grass seeds, as they had no access to foodgrains. Now the grass has dried up as well". These are only a few of those sordid events, that have been flashed in the media.

While suicide deaths are conspicuous mostly in the region of the "Green Revolution" such as Punjab, Haryana, some pockets of Karnataka, Maharastra, UP, and in those states where HYV cultivation has been introduced without having the necessary infrastructure, eg. W Bengal, AP; starvation deaths and chronic poverty pervade Kalahandi and Kashipur (Orissa), Baran in Rajasthan, Bastar in Chhatishgarh, Shivpuri and Vidisha in MP and the North East region of the country. The above cited examples cover only a very small part of the devastating situation of entire rural India.

This deplorable plight of the rural people has not been recognised by any of the state governments. Whenever the media persons have drawn their attention to these sordid events, the ministers and govt. officials have denied the facts and expressed their doubt about the authenticity of the events. The mindless statements of these ‘representatives of the people’ have only exposed their anti-people character. These people have been trying to suppress this heart-breaking reality even by putting forward some myths. They like to state the suicide deaths as some individual psychological problem and starvation deaths as either wrong information or results of taking poisonous foods. Some examples may be helpful to realise their callous attitude. When the tribal people, being deprived of their right to foodgrain, are compelled to have "ghas-ki-roti", the chief minister of Rajasthan shamelessly utters that "ghas-ki-roti is a popular tribal food. (EPW, Dec. 28, 2002). When, due to non-availability of food and severe hunger the tribal people had to eat toxic mango kernel that resulted in the death of a good number of people, Patnaik, the chief minister of Orissa, did not hesitate to describe toxic mango kernels as "tribal delicacies". These heartless statements exposed their class attitude only!

Both central and state governments have been implementing one after another anti-people policies which have been intensifying exploitation and in turn depriving people of their food. This gradually leads to malnutrition, sickness, mental aberration and death. The NSS surveys recorded a decline in average per capita consumption of cereals, which was 13.17 kg per month in 1987-88 declined to 12.13 kg in 1999-2000. It is obviously more in case of the very poor category. According to UNICEF, 24 lakh children below the age of five died in 2000 in India. It is more than one fifth of the world’s child mortality. It has also reported that 47 per cent of children below the age of three have been malnourished due to chronic hunger. According to NIN (National Institution of Nutrition), about 90 per cent of children in rural India are undernourished and 20.4 per cent people in tribal areas of MP have been suffering from severe malnutrition. Whereas NNMB (National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau) reports on the basis of data collected by them, that in the tribal areas of MP in general 49 percent of the adults are under-nourished. "According to the official NSS (National Sample Survey) data, if one takes 2,400 K calories (i.e. Rs. 325 or $ 6.6 per capita in come per month) in the rural areas and 2,100 K calories (ie. Rs. 381or $ 7.8 per capita per month in the urban areas), the poverty figures come to 75% of the population in the rural area and 54.4% of the population in the urban areas. That means, a massive 700 million is living below the proverty line today!!"(Arvind, Globalisation) These are perhaps enough to realise the dreadful condition of the people at large and of rural people particularly. It is a great tragedy that most of these people are primarily engaged in food production but do not have access to food. Inspite of huge excess of food stocks with the FCI, millions of people have been suffering from starvation, chronic malnutrition and gradually heading towards death, whatever may be its form. This is no wonder! This is the natural outcome of the present system!!

In front of the pale eyes of hundreds of millions of starving people, the excess stock of foodgrains has been rotting in godowns. The department of food and civil supplies informs that it is one million tonnes per year. It can well be said that the quantity is larger than that. This large quantity of foodgrain is partly deformed and partly consumed by rats to improve the health of the economy! The "govt. of the people" knows, as it was stated in the Supreme Court, that the minimum basic requirement is 75 kg. of food per month for a family of five members. Nevertheless, a mere 10 kg is provided through the Public Distribution System (PDS)! The health of the food sector has really improved at the cost of the more and more miserable plight of the poor people. Due to this improved health of the food sector the govt. has to spend Rs. 6,000 corers per year for its maintenance which is almost half of the total foodgrain subsidy amounting to Rs. 13,500 crore in 2001-02 (Outlook, Sept. 17, 2001).

The excess stock of foodgrains has been burgeoning and becomes unmanageable. The stock of foodgrains was at 21.4 million tonnes on July 1, 1997 and thereafter it reached to 65 million tonnes of which 60 percent was wheat and 40 percent was rice. This constitutes a huge excess, which is many times higher than that necessary for the country’s national food security. The Expenditure Reform Committee (ERC) has recommended 10 million tonnes buffer stock as sufficient to maintain national food security. The increase in procurement of rice and wheat does not indicate that the growth rates of rice and wheat have been improving, rather those have been declining. In the 1980s production of rice increased at a rate of 3.48 percent per annum and in the 1990s it increased by 1.87 percent per annum. The growth rates of wheat were 4.38 and 3.21 respectively during the same periods. Along with this decline in growth rates the distribution through the PDS has also been decreasing. In the year ’96-’97 the distribution of foodgrains through the PDS was more than 26 million tonnes. Since the next year, when the Targeted Public Distribution System (TRDS) was introduced, it began to decline and reduced to only 11.3 million tonnes in 2001-2002. (Raghavan, EPW, March 1, 2003). With the help of the present stock of foodgrains it is possible to provide 450g foodgrain per day per person, whereas for BPL cardholders only 166g per day per person has been allotted. The stock of foodgrains is increasing when the dark shadow of death overcasts millions of hungry people!

The govt. cannot provide food to starving people due to "lack of arrangement" where as there is no lack of arrangements to follow the dictates of World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and their associated organisations to help intensify exploitation of the imperialist forces and their subservient classes of this country. The present conditions of rural India is the culmination of these policies.

According to the dictates of the World Bank, the govt. reduced budgetary expenditure on food subsidies and has planned for dismantling the PDS. As a first step to its unstated plan the govt. introduced the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) in 1997. This was done in the name of managing the problem of rising cost, supporting the low-income group and effectively targeting subsidies to the poor. So PDS card-holders were divided into two categories—above poverty line (APL) and below poverty line (BPL). About 60% of the total card-holders was categorised as APL and others as BPL. Then, to downsize food subsidies, the govt. enhanced issue process of food grains to balance evenly the economic cost of FCI. The issue price for APL include the economic cost of FCI, ie. "100 percent cost of procurement, storage, transportation and administration" (Outlook, Sept. 17, 2001). Thus the issue prices for APL households were doubled within a period of 15 months (ie. from July ’99 to Oct. 2000) and those for BPL households were increased by 80%. The issue prices for APL households became more than the open market prices, which meant that 60% housholds were excluded from the PDS, while even after 3 years of introduction of TPDS most of the state govts could not identify BPL families. So a good number of BPL families (about 17 crore people—Arvind/ Globalisation) are still outside the TPDS. Even those who have the BPL cards cannot purchase foodgrains from the TPDS as the increased issue prices are beyond their reach. While poor people are starving due to lack of purchasing power, the traders can manage to divert PDS foodgrain to the black market with the help of the FCI-politician nexus. According to the Planning Commission, 31% of rice, 36% of wheat and 23% of sugar were diverted to the black market (Outlook, Sept. 17, 2001). The PDS market covers only 8 percent of the total central market and this too are not available to the poor hungry people! Further, one can hardly trace the role of the PDS in state/ regions with high levels of destitution and impoverishment.

All these steps — ie. excluding 60% card-holders categorising them as APL, failing to identify BPL families and keeping large number of poor families outside the PDS by increasing issue prices — has virtually led to an abandonment of the PDS. Thus the govt. has fulfilled its unstated plan to satisfy the imperialist forces.

This is bad news for consumers and the majority of farmers as well. Without PDS, large procurement of foodgrains from the farmers will become unnecessary and the minimum support price scheme cannot be sustained without large procurement. As a consequence, small and middle farmers and even a section of rich farmers who have been facing acute problems due to ever-increasing prices of inputs, declining rate of growth, and continuing low prices of output, will suffer as the minimum support price scheme will also be abandoned. This will further intensify their crisis. But this is not all.

India is now becoming a dumping ground for the surplus agricultural commodities of the imperialist countries. To shift their burden of crisis on to the people of countries like India, the WTO (World Trade Organisation) serves this purpose on behalf of the imperialist countries. Totally disregarding the devastating conditions of the agrarian sector, the Govt. of India, following the dictates of the WTO, completely opened up agricultural trade to world markets. In April 2001, quantitative restrictions on imports of all agricultural and agro-based commodities were also removed. Moreover tariff on imports have been reduced continuously. This policy is being introduced when depressed demand for agricultural products in the world market has been persisting due to an acute crisis of the world economy, entailing low prices of agri-commodities. Another factor responsible for a fall in prices is that the imperialist governments have been providing huge amounts of subsidies to their farmers. "The OECD countries spent a huge 327 billion dollar on agricultural subsidies and for a commodity like rice, the support is 80% of the gross price in the OECD countries. In the USA total amount of subsidies was 4, 18, 400 cores." (Aspects of Indian Economy, No. 32, Jan 2002). Thus the govt. policy of opening up the domestic agricultural commodity market to international markets has compelled the farmers of the country to compete with the imported agricultural and agro-based commodities which are cheaper, when the cost of production has been increasing due to higher prices of inputs — fuel costs, fertiliser and pesticide prices and in some areas higher charges of electricity and water. Thus the fall in prices of agricultural commodities in the domestic market, due to cheaper prices in international markets, have affected all the marketed agricultural commodities and the cultivators most adversely, resulting in distress sale, indebtedness and joblessness. Its devastating effect has been very much conspicuous in cultivation of cotton, sugarcane, oilseed, wheat, chilli etc. The devastation was so intense that hundreds of peasants have committed suicide and this is continuing till today.

These policies have further accentuated the crisis of the agrarian economy and the plight of the peasants has become unbearable. The govt. has widened the scope for more and more penetration of MNCs at the cost of the country’s interest. In fact, MNCs have been at work. The govt. has also expressed its intention to invite MNCs for managing the huge excess stock of foodgrains. It simply means, in the near future, the fruits of labour of the peasants will be controlled by the imperialist forces and they will exploit the peasants and consumers as well, resulting in further impoverishment, starvation and indebtedness.

Following the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), both central and state govts. have been reducing their budgetary provisions for the agricultural sector and non-farm employment schemes throughout the last decade. So the govt. investment in agriculture declined. It is now less than 50% of the investments that were made in the 80s. In 1990-91, govt. and private investments in agriculture were 0.6 and 1.6 percent of GDP. In 1998-99 those reduced to 0.3 and 1.1 percent of GDP (Globalisation, Arvind) The decline in private investment was due to non-availability of credit for investment as during the ’90s, the organised rural credit system almost collapsed and decline in surplus in agricultural production declined. Due to government expenditure in the rural areas the employment opportunities in non-farm sector increased during the ’70s and the ’80s. Since ’89 employment opportunities in the non-form sector have been declining. During the last 7 years of the ’90s the official rate was only 0.7%. As a result of reduction in investment irrigation facilities have not been expanded and even the maintenance of existing facilities has been neglected, though more than 66% of agricultural land has no assured irrigation facilities. This policy ensures that the agrarian sector of the country will depend on nature and become more and more vulnerable to the vagaries of nature.

The ugly face of this exploitative politico-economic system have been intensifying more and more with the further penetration of imperialist forces and pruning of the rural welfare programmes which were continuing during the ’70s and the ’80s. Those programmes were introduced to give a human face on this brutal exploitative system and to keep the resentment of the deprived peasants within limits. But at present, the crisis of the political-economic system is too deep to continue those programmes. Thus the peasants are being deprived of their fruits of their toil due to lack of ownership rights to the land. It means, they are being deprived of their right to food, right to life. Even the landless peasants do not have enough opportunities to sell their ability to work, the only property that they own, for earning at least minimum necessary purchasing power for their survival. Denial of these fundamental rights leads to deprivation of other rights causing destitution, indebtedness, impoverishment and death. Thus death of the peasants and rural people, whatever form it may be, is the natural outcome of this exploitative system. At present this has only further intensified. Without abolishing the existing system and re-distribution of rural assets, particularly land to begin with; it is meaningless to say—right to life, ie. right to food is a fundamental right. Article-21 of the constitution upholds this right, but this has also turned into a hoax, like all other fundamental rights. This system kills the people and this will continue as long as it persists.

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