The privileged citizens...

These two news headlines explains much.

1. MLAs' assets grow more than all other investments in India

According to analysis of affidavits done by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch, the percentage rise in assets of re-contesting MPs in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections was 289%. In the recent assembly elections, ADR's comparisons based on assets of 337 re-contesting candidates from four states and one Union territory indicated an average increase of 71% to 195%. This is the increase recorded in the MLAs asset compared to the declaration in previous election.

Tamil Nadu topped the list with its 97 re-contesting MLAs having almost tripled their assets in the past five years, an increase of 195%. Assam was just a little behind with the average increase being 187% and Kerala another step back at 175%. Puducherry with an average of 136% growth in assets and West Bengal with 71% brought up the rear.

Article copied from IIK - Read more at http://www.indiansinkuwait.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=10840&SECTION=0#ixzz1MnN39E4q

The above is from the declared assets while one is still in the dark about those stashed abroad. And then we also have those on the "privileged" list who live on these elected representatives.

Do have a check on your MLA/MP and maybe you can keep a track of his/her "development" before the next election is due. The following site can help you in this.

http://myneta.info/


2. 59% of PDS grains do not reach households: World Bank



Despite India spending over two per cent of GDP in social protection schemes, returns in terms of poverty reduction are yet to reach full potential, a World Bank report has said, pointing to "high leakages" in PDS and "uneven implementation" of MNREGA across states.

According to the report "Social Protection for a Changing India", the effect of PDS on poverty reduction is low due to "high leakages to non-poor" and weak administrative features.



The following are excerpts from Global Monitoring Report 2011 by the World Bank:

Service delivery often fails the poor

A recent study reports results from surveys in which enumerators made unannounced visits to primary schools and health clinics in Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda. They recorded whether they found teachers and health workers in the facilities.On average, about 19 percent of teachers and 35 percent of health workers were absent, and many teachers and health workers in their facilities were not working. Across Indian government-run schools, only 45 percent of teachers assigned to a school were engaged in teaching at any given time.

In India, even though most children of primary-school age were enrolled in school, 35 percent of them could not read a simple paragraph and 41 percent could not do a simple subtraction.

Another dimension of information for accountability, tested in two studies in India,yielded mixed results. In both studies, villagers were provided with information about their rights and responsibilities for education, provision and oversight. One part of the country showed no impact from providing information alone, and a different part of the country showed some impact on student learning through improved service provision by teachers. It seems clear that, although providing information for accountability to citizens may be important, it is ineffective to simply give communities information on school quality without also increasing their ability to take action.

The following shows the estimates of poverty reduction on a poverty line of $1.25 and $2.00 a day, by region:

Food

The other day I was watching a Food & Travel show hosted by the famous Padma Lakshmi. She was in Udipi and inside a 400 year old kitchen. I googled to know more about this temple which gives free food for all devotees irrespective of caste, color, religion or whatever divisions the world has given to the human being over the years. I could not get more information and the closest find was the Dharmashala and the Krishna temple. Upon searching for Dharmashala, I was delighted to land on GVK’s blog and a blog post that I had missed reading. He has given an account of his visit to the Dharmashala and put up some pictures too for the readers.


To many, Udupi brings to mind the lovely vegetarian “thali”.

We have these restaurants here in Kuwait too, though I am not sure if they are indeed serving authentic “Udipi” meal . But it is only when you eat such a meal do you realize how vegetables can be cooked in a variety of ways and how delicious it is to eat them. I read the following on the Udipi cuisine: This cuisine was developed by Shivalli Madhwa Brahmins who cooked food for Lord Krishna, and at Krishna Matha in Udupi, the food is provided free. I was much intrigued to know that it was the pujaris themselves who cooked these meals and that these meals are given to all and sundry free of cost. Normally none is allowed inside this kitchen but I do know how Padma was given an entry. But it provided a good look inside one of the oldest functioning kitchen in the world and one could see big pots and pans and the poojaris in various stages of cooking. The meal was also served by them and it was done so efficiently. The speed at which the rice and accompaniments were served on the banana leaf to the waiting devotees is awesome. I hear that more than 1000 are fed thus daily. ( I could not get more information on this anywhere and hence I am assuming that this is a daily affair)

The money for this is from the devotees themselves. I am also not sure if there are many such temples which provide free meals. The idea itself is very heart warming. Since India has a long way to go on hunger and poverty, I am hoping that more places of worship catch up on this idea. The closest to this that I have come across in a Church is during special days like Easter, Good Friday etc. But then the food is served only to the devotees.

While thinking about the money that the faithful puts into the coffers of famous pilgrimage centers, would it not do wonders if it was used to feed the needy! After all, isn’t the need of food the most basic and the most important, unless of course you have acquired the skills of the Swamis who claim to eat nothing. And I believe it would be only a few who would continue depending on this since most would eventually stand on their own feet. And it is also a fact that believers of all religion give happily to a Temple/Church/Mosque more readily than to a real person in need. And the sad fact is that we seldom care what happens to this money. Some of us believe ardently that building a Church worth crores is more important than giving the same money to the poor.

But then isn’t it only a wishful thinking? And my dreams of seeing for example the Christian priests cook and serve food to strangers needs to be squashed right away before I am accused of mental illness :)

Source: Wikepedia

Still a long way to go...

Continued from previous post...



STATE-WISE INFANT MORTALITY RATE (per1000) -
Year 1961, 2003 & 2005

(please click to enlarge)

As you can see, some states in India have come a long way but as a whole India is yet to tackle hunger and poverty.

The following are the states which are showing an upward trend and it seems to continue in year 2008 too.

The following are the 2008 figures for India:

The performance is not good while compared to other countries and China seems to be doing better even here.

The infant deaths can be due to hunger as well as the poor health of the mother. The healthier the mother, the more chance there would be for an infant to survive.

Four diseases-pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and AIDS-accounted for 43 per cent of all deaths in children under five worldwide in 2008. Pneumonia and diarrhoea together account for a third of all under-five deaths. Most of these lives could have been saved through low-cost prevention and treatment measures, including antibiotics for acute respiratory infections, oral rehydration for diarrhoea, immunization, and the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and appropriate drugs for malaria. The need to refocus attention on pneumonia and diarrhoea—two of the three leading killers of children—is urgent.


Worldwide mortality in children younger than 5 years has dropped from 11•9 million deaths in 1990 to
7•7 million deaths in 2010, consisting of 3•1 million neonatal deaths, 2•3 million postneonatal deaths, and 2•3 million childhood deaths (deaths in children aged 1–4 years). 33•0% of deaths in children younger than 5 years occur in south Asia and 49•6% occur in sub-Saharan Africa, with less than 1% of deaths occurring in high-income countries. Across 21 regions of the world, rates of neonatal, postneonatal, and childhood mortality are declining. The global decline from 1990 to 2010 is 2•1% per year for neonatal mortality, 2•3% for postneonatal mortality, and 2•2% for childhood mortality. In 13 regions of the world, including all regions in sub-Saharan Africa, there is evidence of accelerating declines from 2000 to 2010 compared with 1990 to 2000. Within sub-Saharan Africa, rates of decline have increased by more than 1% in Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, and The Gambia.


Source:
Neonatal, postneonatal, childhood, and under-5 mortality for 187 countries, 1970–2010: a systematic analysis of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 4 www. thelancet.com
http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2006-07/chapt2007/tab95.pdf
http://www.foodjustice.net/report/ngo-reports/india/India_Hunger_Index_2008.pdf/view
http://www.childinfo.org/mortality.html

The news that we would rather not read...

Kerala seems to be treating it's children comparatively better, but since I cannot find the data for previous years, I am not sure if the figures have risen or are falling.

Edited to add the following:

 
Source: Hindustan Times, Wikipedia: NFHS-3 Nutritional Status of Children".