The hungry nation (IE)

The hungry nation (IE)

Context

Global Hunger Index offers a needed reality check for India’s big power aspirations.

Backdrop

• India’s international financial rating was recently upgraded by Moody’s recognising the reforms and structural changes initiated by the present government
• A recent survey of the Pew Research Center refers to the immense popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi within the country — clearly indicating the high expectations citizens have of him

Effect: Both pieces of news have been rightly welcomed in the country

However, the nation can’t pick and choose

It can’t say that all favourable reports are true, but deny the existence of unfavourable reports

The unfavorable Sides

For instance, the Pew Research Center, some time back, had concluded that Indian school standards are among the worst in the world

Global Hunger Index (GHI)

• The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) released the 2017 Global Hunger Index (GHI), in which India ranks 100 among the 119 countries studied
• The country’s rank, in fact, had fallen by three places compared to 2016
• In the 2017 Hunger Index, India falls behind war-ravaged Iraq, and the international “outcast”, North Korea
• Only two countries in Asia — Afghanistan and Pakistan — are below India in the ranking. India is now ahead of only countries such as Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Chad and Yemen, all “one-party” democracies otherwise seen as dictatorships

Other Reports

A World Bank report referred to the illiteracy rates in India

ASER has consistently referred to abysmal primary and secondary schooling standards; repeated studies on nutrition, and child mortality in India establish the critical situation in this regard

The nation should stop fooling itself

The countries at the top of every economic and social index in the world are closely identified with high-quality education, public health and nutrition.

Critical Situation: Reasons

These are the wages of a corrupt political system, where the spoils were appropriated by a select few who ran the country during the past five decades, pursuing disastrous policies, deliberately with poor implementation to suit the needs of the ruling classes

Steps Taken

• Major economic policies have been ushered in in the recent past
• Demonetisation symbolises the formal recognition of black money — no country can afford to have a parallel economy eating its vitals
• The GST, with all its teething problems, can transform the economy within five years
• The Digital India programme, despite its current tardy implementation, can turn the administration efficient.

Can’t ignore the common man

• Even a superpower will not remain stable if the bottom 25 per cent of its population lives in penury
• There is not enough recognition of the power of the informal sector, currently numbering six crore, as a change agent, and the critical importance of making resources available to them at non-usurious rates
• There is no awareness that primary and secondary education can be a major change agent in 10 years, if there is genuine reform. In short, with the technology available today, the country can be transformed in ten years — but this can’t be done just by speeches, and with good intentions alone.

Conclusion

It is the social sectors — education, public health, nutrition etc — which need the direct attention of the highest manager of the country. Policies concerning these sectors need to be reformed and necessary resources have to be provisioned to usher in change