{"id":153071,"date":"2021-12-13T20:24:03","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T14:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=153071"},"modified":"2021-12-13T20:27:35","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T14:57:35","slug":"poverty-and-hunger-stalk-indias-countryside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/poverty-and-hunger-stalk-indias-countryside\/","title":{"rendered":"Poverty and Hunger stalk Indias countryside"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Intro<\/span><\/b>duction<\/span><\/b>– Although Macroeconomic Indicators are showing an improvement but\u00a0<\/span>rural India shows a different reality. Pandemic has only heightened the problems faced by people\u00a0of hinterland.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are\u00a0the issues\u00a0facing\u00a0rural India as an effect of pandemic and what\u00a0are\u00a0their implications?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0<\/span>Declining rural wages<\/span><\/b>:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Real wages in Rural areas are declining along with<\/span>\u00a0rising input prices of fertilizer and\u00a0diesel.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Workers are struggling to get work even for 15 days a month and even if they find\u00a0<\/span>some,\u00a0the\u00a0wage paid is\u00a0significantly lower\u00a0than the minimum wages for informal\u00a0workers.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unavailability of work under MGNREGA<\/span><\/b>:\u00a0Funds allocated to MGNREGA have been even lower than last year.<\/span>\u00a0People were\u00a0already\u00a0facing\u00a0<\/span>problem in getting work under MGNREGA\u00a0<\/span><\/b>due to heightened demand after pandemic and involvement of local politics which show bias for some beneficiaries.\u00a0Less allocation of funds only compounds the problem.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Implications<\/span><\/b>–\u00a0Due to declining real wages\u00a0and farm income, demand in rural areas is\u00a0collapsing.\u00a0This fall in income forces\u00a0<\/span>f<\/span>amilies to sell\u00a0ration they get under scheme to buy other necessary consumables like oil, spices,\u00a0etc.<\/span>\u00a0to meet their other essential demands<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2)<\/span>\u00a0Food Security<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Non-Functioning\u00a0anganwadis\u00a0<\/span><\/b>– Many\u00a0anganwadis\u00a0are shut since pandemic and\u00a0many of opened\u00a0anganwadis\u00a0have no proper clean spaces, no\u00a0well-maintained\u00a0toilets,\u00a0no water connection and\u00a0they also\u00a0don\u2019t provide cooked\u00a0meals (which is a violation of ICDS which mandates providing cooked meals to all children in the age group of 0-6 years).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beneficiaries left out of the NFSA<\/span><\/b>–<\/span>\u00a0Some beneficiaries\u00a0<\/span>(some of whom are landless\u00a0and are\u00a0daily\u00a0wagers) complain of being left out of the NFSA Beneficiaries list.\u00a0It\u00a0deprived them of the\u00a0additional 5 kg of free grains supplied per person per month towards pandemic assistance.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Implications\u00a0<\/span><\/b>– This often translated into lack of nutritious\u00a0food,\u00a0recently released National Family Health Survey (2019-21) show that more than a third of children in rural India continue to be underweight (low weight for age).\u00a0This is also impacting the nutrition status of poor households.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3)Education-<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Government schools are seeing increased enrollment recently but they\u00a0face some challenges like lack of funds for\u00a0mid-day\u00a0meals,\u00a0etc.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Implications<\/span><\/b>– This may widen the knowledge gap that has arisen in the pandemic due\u00a0to\u00a0Prolonged shutdown\u00a0of schools.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/span><\/b>–<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a d<\/span>irect consequence of the\u00a0<\/span>inadequate safety net<\/span><\/b>\u00a0amid\u00a0<\/span>pandemic-induced joblessness and pitifully low wages<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0This\u00a0can\u00a0lead to a\u00a0<\/span>vicious cycle: low demand leading to lower wages, which, in turn, leads to lower incomes and a further slide in demand<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/b>–\u00a0This post is based on the article \u201c<\/span>Poverty and Hunger stalk Indias countryside\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/b>published in\u00a0Live\u00a0mint\u00a0on<\/span>\u00a012th\u00a0Dec 2021<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction– Although Macroeconomic Indicators are showing an improvement but\u00a0rural India shows a different reality. Pandemic has only heightened the problems faced by people\u00a0of hinterland.\u00a0\u00a0 What are\u00a0the issues\u00a0facing\u00a0rural India as an effect of pandemic and what\u00a0are\u00a0their implications?\u00a0 1)\u00a0Declining rural wages:\u00a0\u00a0 Real wages in Rural areas are declining along with\u00a0rising input prices of fertilizer and\u00a0diesel.\u00a0Workers are struggling… Continue reading Poverty and Hunger stalk Indias countryside<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10501],"class_list":["post-153071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-live-mint","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}