9,000 kids starve to death in shining India

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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It is a joke to say that India is shining. Statistics are mind boggling…

9,000 kids starve to death in shining India

S BALAKRISHNAN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK MONDAY, JULY 05, 2004 10:57:50 PM ]

MUMBAI: One of India’s most prosperous states has revealed a horrifying underbelly. More than 9,000 tribal children below the age of six have died of malnourishment-related causes in 15 districts of Maharashtra in about a year.

Government statistics released on Monday acknowledged the deaths in these areas, some close to the country’s ritziest metropolis, Mumbai, occurred between April 2003 and May this year. Between April and May this year alone, 1,041 children have died. The toll until April was 7,970. The state’s top health official said, however, all the deaths were not related to malnutrition. “There are a variety of factors, including low birth weight, jaundice, convulsions, hypothermia and premature delivery,” said state’s director, health services, Dr Subhash Salunke.

These figures have emerged out of a survey conducted by the government to map the extent of the problem. In April-May '04, 807 children have died in the five districts of Thane, Nashik, Amravati, Nandurbar and Gadchiroli alone.

Dr Salunke sought to downplay the shocking statistics by observing the number who have died form less than 2% of the tribal child population. He said the government was tackling the “socio-economic component” of the problem by treating adolescent anaemia and other factors. According to Unicef figures, about 2.3 million children under the age of five die annually in India, half of these deaths due to malnutrition. A rough calculation shows Dr Salunke’s figure for Maharashtra’s tribal children is roughly seventeen times the national average.

Amar Jesani, trustee of a NGP Centre for Inquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), said malnourished children are bound to be vulnerable to diseases like jaundice. The government does not accept malnutrition to be the cause of these deaths since it becomes a “political liability.” The government should treat the basic cause of these deaths, instead of blaming them on communicable diseases which can be tackled in any way, he added.

The president of the Association for Consumer Action on Safety and Health, Dr Arun Bal, squarely blamed the government. "There is enough evidence to prove these deaths are because of malnutrition. But the government is attributing the deaths to the effects of malnutrition, not to malnutrition per se.

It is like saying a man has died of diabetes, whereas the real reason lies elsewhere. The situation is the same whichever party is in power," Dr Bal told TNN.

“The fact is the health bureaucracy is both apathetic and corrupt. Crores of rupees meant for tribal uplift are pocketed by the bureaucracy. Health activist Dr Abhay Bang (of tribal-dominated Gadchiroli district) has proved how these deaths can be prevented in a cost-effective manner. The government simply lacks the will to tackle the problem,” Dr Bal observed.

“It is sheer nonsense on the part of the government to say it is sending doctors to tribal hamlets. The problem is one of accessibility to food and affordability. But no party is interested in addressing this core issue,” he said.

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mr imran, it is not a joke, it is a problem. what solution do you suggest?

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Hey you have a flourishing Silicon Valley and big American companies like Microsoft, IBM and GE are opening up offices there for more customer service help desks. What else do you want? :rolleyes:

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precisely skhan, what more do indians want ?

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allah rahim karey

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Re: 9,000 kids starve to death in shining India

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by imran dhanji: *
It is a joke to say that India is shining. Statistics are mind boggling.......

9,000 kids starve to death in shining India

MUMBAI: One of India's most prosperous states has revealed a horrifying underbelly. More than 9,000 tribal children below the age of six have died

[/QUOTE]

If this is the most prosperous state then I don't want to know about the poor.

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Re: Re: 9,000 kids starve to death in shining India

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Abdali: *

If this is the most prosperous state then I don't want to know about the poor.
[/QUOTE]

well elections in India clearly send a message to all those who thought India is shining. Poor is getting more poorer and he has nothing to do with the “artificial shine” of the country. Fall of Andhra Pradesh’s strong IT-oriented Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu is so mind boggling but at the same time it is a lesson for all those politicians who thought they can ignore 80 percent of poor Janta by satisfying 20 percent of rich people.

But like they say, when you point out a finger towards anyone, watch out because 4 fingers are pointing back towards you. What about Pakistan. Shaukat aziz and whole government is so busy in making claims that we have revenues in excess of billions of dollars which may be true, but poor is simply getting more poorer.................it is a dilemma which south asian countries need to solve sooner than later..............

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Pak guppies are happy to find a solid point against India, my congratulations!
In fact the figure of 9000 starving is not correct.
Actual figure is much higher.
In India population is 100 crore, out of this hundred crore, 2 % are infiltrators from Bangladesh, let us kick them out, at least 2 % of the problem will be solved.

What is the solution? India is shinning. Shall we adopt socialist norms, and automatically give up the growth rate?
No friends, we have to accustom to this problem.
Or may be Pak guppies will offer us some formula to resolve poverty issue, I am sure they have solved this problem, and many other problems in their own State.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by anjjan: *
Pak guppies are happy to find a solid point against India, my congratulations!
In fact the figure of 9000 starving is not correct.
Actual figure is much higher.
In India population is 100 crore, out of this hundred crore, 2 % are infiltrators from Bangladesh, let us kick them out, at least 2 % of the problem will be solved.

What is the solution? India is shinning. Shall we adopt socialist norms, and automatically give up the growth rate?
No friends, we have to accustom to this problem.
Or may be Pak guppies will offer us some formula to resolve poverty issue, I am sure they have solved this problem, and many other problems in their own State.
[/QUOTE]

I am not sure if there is any easy solution to this problem but at least we can discuss it with out pin-pointing any particular nation. In my opinion, Pakistan and India face same kind of dilemma when it comes to addressing the problem of “Artificial Shine”. Here are some of my thoughts.

First, are u suggesting that by adapting to the socialist norms, the growth rate will stop or in other words a nation’s economy cannot grow by following socialist norms? Well how about China? The reason I would like to emphasize on China because in my opinion a partial solution to the aforementioned problem may be found by following the policy adopted by the Chinese communist party in last 15 years or so.

To begin with, a lot of people may argue that today’s china is not a 100 percent socialist state. For its Russian counterparts, it was never a 100 percent socialist state to start with. And I guess it was because from the very beginning, Chairman Mao’s, in comparison to Lenin, always had a different ideological interpretation of what an ideal socialist state should be. To many Chairman Mao’s interpretation of a socialist state was more practical whereas Lenin’s interpretation was more of an ideological one. But it is a totally different topic and I do not want to get into it. But in my opinion China was always and even today is a pure socialist state.

However, in early eighties Chinese leadership realized that it is impossible to take the country to the next economic level without altering some of the basic principles laid down by chairman Mao. One of them was of course to introduce open market concept in china on a gradual basis. Multi-national firms were allowed to come into china and invest on a small basis with a healthy portion for the Chinese government. Nothing was done in haste and the Chinese communist party took every step after a careful thought. Today, almost every major international firm has its sub office in china and the level of foreign investment has grown by almost 1000 percent in last 15 years. The concept of having private business or some sort of private property was impossible to envision back in fifties and sixties but now it is a reality of modern china. In the meantime, Chinese government did not deviate from the basic principles of a socialist state. What I am trying to say that on the economic front, China adopted the capitalist system to some extent and full credit goes to Chinese leadership for being flexible and innovative. But at the same time, on the domestic front, Chinese communist party made sure that the inflow of the foreign money and the revenues generated by it should not cause any sort of social injustice. There is a still a cap to the amount you can own as a private entity. Education, medicine and food are still responsibility of government and no private lavish style is allowed at any level.

I believe that the steps taken by Dr. mun mohan singh back in mid 90s were absolutely crucial to the then “close Indian economy”. It transfused the new blood into the dying Indian economy. Unfortunately, in the mean time, Indian governments totally gave up on old Nehruvian-led socialist principles, which were the backbone of India’s ideological frame work for almost 50 years. In my opinion, at the crucial juncture of old and new ideologies, Indian leadership failed to keep the balance as their Chinese counterparts did so well. As it always happens in any capitalist society, the money generated by the result of this flourishing Indian economy was stuck in few hands and a common person never got the full or any benefit out of it. I guess, that is where China example is at least worth to be discussed. All I am suggesting how about if we adopt a system somewhere in the middle of a pure capitalist system ( Like USA) and a pure socialist system ( Old China). Whether it is practical or not given the indo-pak mind set ups is a tough question but it is definitely worthwhile.

It is also extremely interesting to see Indian communist parties in command with Dr man mohan singh led congress. That is kind of combination of I am talking about. Though, Indian communist party is too rigid and still wants to follow old USSR ideological guidelines.

Please provide your comments. Once again, please dont pick on any particular nation and keep the discussion productive. A different interpretation of a proven concept, regardless of how controversial it is, is always welcome so far it is not intended to harm anyone’s emotions intentionally. Thanks a lot..

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Dear phoenix,
, let us be practical! What are the reasons for this problem? The base reason is population. There is no way.
Do these people, the poor desire a change in the situation? Or they do something for progress? Frankly speaking, they do nothing.
In India there are govt run free schools. These schools are in a very bad condition, but at least they exist. Do these people, the poor take advantage of it, at least for a little change?
No, they are habitual to a slum culture and look at the Govt only for all possible change. Off course Govt is no God, and moreover our Govts are corrupt.
If the poor do not wish to come over the situation, they have no chance.

Now, the socialist set up. Russia, the USSR had to go thru a great repression period from 1924 to 1954, and a lazy repression continued till 1980. There is no record of people vanished during the Stalin repression years, they are in lacks, an appr idea is 2 million.
The USSR State progressed all over this period, only in military might and Cosmos division, the State was bound to protect itself, and so the people of USSR remained poor, and today Russia is one of the poorest country in Europe.

China, the Cultural Revolution of China swallowed millions. Is it an answer to poverty? Today if you go just 10 kilometers out of Beijing, you will find the poorest generations of the world. China Communist party was a littler smarter than its counterpart in Russia. It gave an economy freedom to the people, while freedom of speech kept behind bars. This way it could come out of the trauma it had to face in eighties. But sooner or later the Communist system of China will have to give up.
And I think there is no use to talk of Cuba, Vietnam, Mongolia and rest.

Socialism is a failed system.
In the most forward capitalist block the State depends on the people. The people have created the system, not in one day or thru an established theory, but it is a phenomenon developed in a natural course of history. Whereas India, Pakistan and many other poor countries are hanging somewhere in between.

A friend from USA told me,
In an accident in USA and the victim at least has one percent chance to survive, all possibilities are there that he will recover, whereas in India if the victim in the accident has only one percent chance to die, be sure that he will die.

Be practical and accept the truth. Just very recently we Indians have given up the habit of blaming the colonial rules for all misery, and I think that it is a right step.

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Thanks for a sensible response phoenixdesi…

It is true that India has to do a lot lot more than what it has done to reduce its poverty levels.

Your note on China is interesting. But is it possible that we hear only the good news from China? Until the election results hit them hard, many Indians, going by the macro indicators, did think that the economy was doing well. China’s macro indicators are a lot more brilliant, but, fortunately for them, they do not have elections!

George Fernandes was a radical socialist in the past. (In his hearts, he still is). When he was the industry minister during 1977 to 1980, he threw out Coca Cola and IBM. Many others stayed back only because they bowed to his dictats.

Listen to what he says about his conversation with the Chinese Prime Minister in April 2003. The unironed irony of Socialist George - The Times of India He asked prime minister Wen Jiabao about Beijing’s problems with economic reform. Jiabao listed three: colossal unemployment, then about 40 million among the educated; regional disparities between the high-growth east and inland areas; and the backwardness of rural China where 70% of people lived. Mr. Fernandes told him, “Mr Jiabao, what you’ve just described could be the mirror image of India”.

I suppose much of all these problems are inevitable - your old sins visiting you - whether you are India or China.

Chandrababu Naidu takes a lot of stick because of his supposed focus only on cities and IT. Is it even conceivable that a politician of his experience and stature will forget where a government’s support comes the villages?

His state had drought for 5 of the 8 years that he was in power. When rains fail, what can he, or for that matter, anybody, can realistically do? Even if he had all the money in the world, getting up an irrigation project up and running will take, what 5-7 years at least?

We should remember that tourism and IT have the biggest bang for the buck. What do you need to offer? Clean roads and power, which in any case a government should provide, and a bit of hype. And you get export dollars. Should one ignore this opportunity just becaue the rains have failed and the farmers are having a tough time?

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by cscraja: *

His state had drought for 5 of the 8 years that he was in power. When rains fail, what can he, or for that matter, anybody, can realistically do? Even if he had all the money in the world, getting up an irrigation project up and running will take, what 5-7 years at least?

We should remember that tourism and IT have the biggest bang for the buck. What do you need to offer? Clean roads and power, which in any case a government should provide, and a bit of hype. And you get export dollars. Should one ignore this opportunity just becaue the rains have failed and the farmers are having a tough time?
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for respondig to my post.

No one is questioning the need and legitimacy of providing facilities as well as better infrastructure to promote IT and Travel industry. Actually in my last post, I was extremely appreciative of Dr Mohan’s modern economic reforms. I was also extremely happy the way Chinese communist party has opened its market to the rest of the world. Off course, I am supportive of Chandrababu Naidu’s policies to promote foreign investment as well as making the Andhra Pradesh business culture conducive to the foreign investors.

Nevertheless, I do not agree the way he handled the poor farmers and agricultural problems in his state. You were very quick to blame most of the agricultural problems in his state a result of ‘Nature’s Mishap” but you failed to point out Mr. Naidu’s continuous denial of the need to establish a link between a relatively rich IT- based urban community and the poor agriculture-based rural community. That is question we are trying to answer. How to bridge up the gap between poor and rich in India and Pakistan? If rain was failed to deliver on time, how about if Mr. Naidu would have made a better use of those billions of dollars generated by foreign investment by providing loans without interest to the poor farmers? How about improving the water collection system through out the state to address the water shortage problems? How about drilling more ground wells? How about improving the quality of existing irrigation system on emergency basis to avoid the leakage of million of cusecs of water through existing irrigation system? These are some of the short-term and immediate solutions to address the water problem. Moreover, you do not need Newton IQ to prescribe these solutions. All you need is sincerity. But Naidu did not do any thing like that because there was no legitimate feeling among the money-minded upper circles to help poor. So we are back to square one with the same question. What is point of having great economic growth when its benefits are not infiltrating to poor Janta?

India is an interesting case study to address this problem. Because in India there were at least some sort of policies in place all the time. Whereas in Pakistan there was no system, no policy and no results either.

Post-Independence, Indian economic policy was founded on the Nehruvian model in which the public sector formed the core. Private enterprise was not allowed to flourish. Industry operated within closed doors and lost its competitive edge. However, this model did provide India a strong manufacturing base. Then comes the “open market and open economy” time-period but those policies were geared towards helping rich without keeping a check balance.

In essence, the rejection of Chandrababu Naidu and S. M. Krishna by the electorate are pointers that successful economic policies with a largely urban and hi-tech focus cannot be a substitute for grassroots-level development. Successive governments have failed to implement promises towards agrarian development. Industry forums and State and local governments have overlooked the vast agricultural potential of the nation and focused on an economic model that is loaded towards the urban elite. I still believe in a system, which can balance both extremes. Aggressive open market policies (close to capitalist system) to generate enough revenue and a strict domestic system (close to socialist system) to make sure that money generated by foreign investment is not stuck in few hands and every one is getting benefit out of it.

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AS Phoenixdesi point out, don't try to make it out like its is only India's problem. This problem exists in not only India, not only south asia but all the developing world. It boils down to unequal distribution of wealth. Ultimately India shining and India's IT exports (over $12.5 billion US last year) will help India's poor too but just not fast enough or even enough. For far too long India has concentrated on It exports and the best minds (IIT grads, unfortunately me being one of them) have dumped engineering and gone to IT in droves.

And for those Pak guppies dumpimg on India for its IT concentration, Pakistan is trying to do just that with same ferocity. So don't prtend guys you have some solutions even for your own country let alone for India.

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Arvindji, it is not a justification that all developing countries are equally poor.
Why so much blame to unequal distribution of wealth? India is definitely developing very fast, and the contribution goes to the people and a proper mind set, to the people who have worked hard and did not look at the Govt machinery for all around support. If needed, they have molded the Govt machinery.
Why our people are so poor. They have to be, because they are the most ideal people, good for nothing. I do not want parroting of any socialist ideology, because the day we accept the truth, there will be some progress in the habitually poor mentality.