Drought Hits India, 74 Districts Declared Drought-affected
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| Kashmiri women praying for rain |
By
Md. Zeyaul Haque, Special to IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, August 1 (IslamOnline) - A severe drought has hit much of the
north, central and parts of south India, forcing villagers to move to
nearby cities in search of livelihood.
On
Wednesday, July 31, Delhi state declared itself drought-hit and sought
an aid of 300 million rupees from the central government. The northern
state of Uttar Pradesh has demanded seven billion rupees to deal with
the drought.
Finance
Minister Jaswant Singh on July 30 set up a special task force to carry
relief work in the drought-affected areas on a war footing.
After
praying all through July to an assortment of gods and goddesses for
rains, people in 12 states of India have finally realized that the
monsoon has failed. Even if rain comes, for most drought-hit villages
it is too late.
Peasants,
short of food for themselves and their families, have begun to sell
off cattle for which they don’t have enough fodder.
A
buffalo bought earlier this year for Rs 15,000 is fetching only Rs
800-1000 in distress sales. Farmers have no option.
All
32 districts of Rajasthan state in north India boarding Delhi are
drought-hit, while Karnataka in South India has declared drought in 24
of its 27 districts.
The
most severely affected states are Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Punjab, Haryana, Maharastra and Karnataka.
Central Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh called a meeting of relief and
agriculture ministers of 12 states last week to discuss measures to
help farmers grow alternative crops.
A
food-for-work program is already underway in most of the states to
ward off starvation. This is a government-run program responsible for
generating employment for hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men and
women in the countryside.
Already
ministers and bureaucrats from affected states are queuing up before
the central government for special assistance. Most of the time,
however, it is not economics but politics that decides the quantum of
central aid to any affected region.
Last
year, the perennially drought-prone Rajasthan state got no central
drought relief assistance despite three successive years of rainfall
shortage, while Andhra Pradesh with only 6 percent rainfall deficit
walked away with Rs 1.5 billion and 300,000 tons of food grains.
An
obvious reason for the Center’s preferential treatment to Andhra
Pradesh is that the ruling party in the state, Telugu Desam, is part
of the NDA coalition that rules the Center. The party that rules in
Rajasthan, Congress Party, is in the opposition at Center. No wonder,
Rajasthan has refrained from asking for Central assistance this year.
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| Drought in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh |
Government
help often comes rather late, and is inadequate in most natural
calamities. For example, we have the case of Madhya Pradesh state in
Central India. Of the 45 districts here only three had normal
rainfall, and seven had no rain at all.
The
state government issued an advisory to farmers not to sow soyabean and
maize. However, by the time the advisory came, 60 percent of the
sowing had already been done.
Because
of regular monsoon over most of India during the last 12 years, a huge
surplus of food grains has been stored in the government-owned godowns
all over the country. Theoretically, a part of this stocked food would
be released in the food-scarce areas.
In
practice, however, it does not work out that way. In the recent past,
the government had to throw large quantities of rotting grains in the
sea in one area as starvation reports poured in from other areas. It
is more a question of effective food distribution than availability of
stocks.
That
is why the central agriculture minister told agriculture ministers
from 12 states last week that the real challenge was to ensure that
food delivery systems worked, prices were stable and employment was
generated to sustain the purchasing power of the poor.
The
Nobel-winning Indian economist Amartya Sen, whose ground-breaking work
on famines is frequently quoted, argues that famine is not necessarily
due to food shortage. “People starve to death while food rots in
godowns,” he says.
The
solution, Sen says, lies in effective food delivery and enhancing the
purchasing power of the poor (to buy food and other essentials).
India’s agriculture minister grasps this point.
Despite
the minister’s noble intentions, there is no guarantee, however,
that people will not starve to death. Only two years ago, severe
drought struck the eastern state of Orissa. The Center announced
substantial relief measures, but even food grains were not made
available to the people in time. At least 25 people died after eating
useless mango kernel in desperation.
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