· 2019. 10. 30. · significant percentage of its assets as loans to Ketan Parekh, not unlike the...

Housing crisis, untouched 2

Co-operative banks: Is dual regulation the problem? 5

Making political parties accountable 9

Toilet targets: On ending open defecation 12

Making amends 14

Miles to go before becoming open defecation-free 15

A sound review: On Supreme Court recalling its verdict diluting SC/ST anti-atrocities law 18

We may need a whole new approach to data protection 20

For a happy childhood 22

Map on regional foods proposed to fight malnutrition 24

New ‘Aarogyasri’ health cards from December 21 26

‘Education of mothers directly linked to better nutrition for children’ 28

With nine cases a day, Mizoram becomes State with highest HIV prevalence rate 30

Agents of change: On investing in women’s education 32

Malnutrition behind 69% deaths among children below 5 in India: UNICEF report 34

The gender digital divide 37

TB cases see decrease in India 38

Reform, not compliance 40

Nutrition is no puzzle 42

Chipping away RTI 43

India’s rank in the Global Hunger Index must sound alarm bells in government 44

Difficult to obtain certificates, say persons with disabilities 46

Liver transplant registry off to a good start 48

Where the underfed don’t know they are 50

Safe, but not entirely: On milk safety survey 52

Recording crimes: On NCRB report 54

One in every six missing children from Bengal: NCRB 56

Minding the gaps in India’s data infrastructure 58

2 out of 3 wild poliovirus strains have been eradicated, says WHO 61

Cutting risk: On India’s anti-polio drive 63

Novel method found to kill dormant TB bacteria in stem cells 65

National dishonour 68

Vaping is injurious to health 70

73

Index

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Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2019-10-01

HOUSING CRISIS, UNTOUCHEDRelevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Government policies & interventions for development in various

Sectors and issues arising out of their design & implementation incl. Housing

Image for representational purposes only | Photo Credit: S.RAMBABU

After several years in the making, a draft of the Model Tenancy Act, 2019, was released by theMinistry of Housing and Urban Affairs in July. Among other things, the Act aims to promoterental housing and ‘balance the interests’ of landowners and tenants. It covers residential andnon-residential properties, but it is apparent from the framing that it is largely aimed at the urbanresidential sector.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated in her Budget 2019 speech that the rental laws inIndia are archaic and do not address “the relationship between the Lessor and the Lesseerealistically and fairly”. The Model Tenancy Act, however, has a limited understanding of thisdynamic as it fails to take into account that a majority of tenancies in India are informal — thereis not even a written agreement, let alone a registered one. These agreements are based ontrust, word of mouth, and social kinship networks. The model Act could therefore have one oftwo consequences: either a majority of the rental agreements will continue to be unregisteredthus nullifying the legislative intent of the Act, or the Act might formalise existing arrangementsand lead to gentrification and, consequently, an increase in rents, which is the opposite of what itsought to achieve.

The Act is laudable insofar as it provides for the constitution of Rent Courts and Tribunals.Thousands of rent cases clog the lower judiciary and the process is lengthy and time-consuming. The Act provides for a time-bound process with dedicated courts for tenants andlandlords. But the problem is that the jurisdiction or power of these courts to hear cases islimited to the tenancy agreement submitted to the Rent Authority. On the one hand, this impliesthat all future tenancies that have been submitted to the Rent Authority shall be eligible toapproach these courts. On the other hand, older tenancies and informal tenancies will still notfall under its jurisdiction. Thus, the twin problems of resolving older disputes and informalarrangements will continue.

So, how can the Act be made more effective? Put simply, the Act needs to respond in a realisticmanner to actual housing market practices in our cities. First, counter-intuitive as it may sound,the Act needs to focus on the upper end of the housing market in order to make a difference inthe lower end of the market. It is known that vacancy — i.e., housing kept vacant for variousreasons — is higher in the upper segments of the housing market. For instance, across urbanIndia, vacancy rates in urban areas is 10.1% while in slums it is 7.3%. We see several emptyapartment projects in our cities, but rarely an unoccupied slum or low-income colony. Thus, aneffective implementation of the Act in the upper segments of the housing market will allow someof these vacant houses to enter the rental market and serve to relieve the massive amount ofpressure and demand on the lower segments.

Second, even in letter the Act needs to differentiate between commercial tenancies that attract alot more institutional investment and residential tenancies that are largely held betweenindividuals and households. The two markets are very different from each other. Even indevelopment policy, the outcomes required of the two sectors are entirely different — whilecommercial real estate underpins economic development, residential arrangements in urbanareas offer security of tenure and access to livelihoods, health and education. The two cannotbe dealt with in a similar manner as it would be under this Act. One cannot piggyback on another

https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/S-RAMBABU/

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judicially.

A last but critical move will be to increase the supply of formal affordable rental housing —housing that can actually fall under the purview of the model Act. This requires investment onthe part of the Central and State governments. Additionally, prior experience has shown thatpublicly provided rental housing will need structured efforts in management, planning and designin order to achieve its inclusive agenda. Thus there is a case for the Central and Stategovernments to develop schemes for the supply of formal affordable rental housing. As per theexperience of various countries, this could be in the form of housing built to rent for migrants,low-wage informal and formal workers, and students; rent-to-own housing for unsteady low-wage households; and even rental housing allowances/vouchers for the most marginalised inthe housing market. To address the housing crisis and to ensure secure tenures for low-incomehouseholds, the Act needs a wider ambit along with renewed efforts and investments.

Swastik Harish is senior lead, Urban Practitioners' Programme and the Design Lab, and EklavyaVasudev is senior associate Legal, Indian Institute for Human Settlements

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CO-OPERATIVE BANKS: IS DUAL REGULATION THEPROBLEM?Relevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Role of NGOs, SHGs, Donors & Charities, and Institutional & other

Stakeholders in Development Process

In late September, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed restrictions on withdrawals from thePunjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, one of the largest urban cooperativelenders. Over the past week, bank customers have been in a state of panic and the central bankhas sought to assuage concerns about the banking sector’s health. Usha Thorat, former RBIDeputy Governor, and S. Mahendra Dev, Director, Indira Gandhi Institute for DevelopmentResearch, discuss the measures needed to restore confidence among customers in aconversation moderated by Vikas Dhoot. Edited excerpts:

Usha Thorat: One needs to go back to history. Cooperative banks came directly under theRBI’s radar in 1966 but faced the problem of dual regulation. The Registrar of CooperativeSocieties (RCS) is in control of management elections and many administrative issues as wellas auditing. And the RBI brought them under the Banking Regulation Act as applicable tocooperative societies, which included all the regulatory aspects, namely, the granting of thelicence, maintaining cash reserve, statutory liquidity and capital adequacy ratios, and inspectionof these banks. So, in a sense, urban cooperative banks have been under the radar of the RBI,but because of dual regulation, one always had a feeling that one did not have as much controlover these banks in terms of supercession of boards or removal of directors, as the RBI hasover private sector banks.

The Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank issue turned out to be huge because it had asignificant percentage of its assets as loans to Ketan Parekh, not unlike the case we are seeingnow. And because it was an active bank in liquidity and money markets, Madhavpura used toprovide liquidity to many other banks, so a huge number of cooperative banks had deposits withMadhavpura. So, a closure of that bank would have meant the closure of several other bankstoo. There was a lot of talk between the RBI, and the Central and Gujarat governments and apackage was put together for Madhavpura. It was challenged, but finally it did go through with astaggered repayment of deposits and infusion of funds from the Deposit Insurance and CreditGuarantee Corporation (DICGC). I don’t recall whether the legal challenge was finally disposedof.

Why I am talking of Madhavpura is that maybe some parts of its resolution can be examinedtoday. After this episode, RBI decided to squarely deal with the problems of cooperative banks.It issued a vision document in 2004-05 and stopped all licences of new branches and new bankentities. There was a proliferation of licences issued between 1991 and 1998. Under the visiondocument, a Memorandum of Agreement was entered into by the RBI with each of the States,where the State accepted an audit by professional auditors, and constituted a Task Force forurban cooperative banks. The TAFCUB was co-chaired by the RCS and the RBI RegionalDirector and was required to provide a bank-by-bank solution to those banks that were notmaintaining minimum capital ratios. Not giving any new licences or new branches also pushedexisting cooperative banks to come forth to take over the weak ones. This worked very well anda number of cooperative banks were delicensed, merged or liquidated. By 2017-18, as stated inthe RBI Financial Stability Report, there were only four urban cooperative banks with capitaladequacy ratios below the regulated threshold.

How to restore confidence in India’s cooperative banking sector? | The Hindu Parley podcast

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UT: I don’t think so. As I said, there was a forum for the RBI and the RCS to work together.Moreover, since 2004, a number of banks have been brought under all-inclusive directionswhere there have been significant weaknesses. So, the RBI has been taking action when it isclear that a bank is not able to carry on its operations in a manner that protects the interests ofthe depositors. But in PMC’s case, it is a fraud, total hiding [of the problem] — a huge exposureto a single entity in the real estate sector was camouflaged under a whole lot of dummyaccounts. Reporting to RBI and probably the auditors too was false. So, primarily, the CEO andthe Board are responsible. It is not due to dual regulation.

How could this happen? Does this throw up fresh challenges on the kind of information the RBIshould be looking for? Should it be doing a forensic audit? Is it possible to do this for more than1,400 urban cooperative banks? How do you realise there is a problem brewing? I think there isa serious need to understand how the exposure was camouflaged, how did this not get reflectedin other returns filed, etc.

S. Mahendra Dev: Cooperative institutions play a significant role in credit delivery to unbankedsegments and financial inclusion. But their role has declined with the expansion of scheduledcommercial banks and adoption of technology. Even urban cooperative lenders are facingcompetition from payment banks, small finance banks, and NBFCs (non-banking financecompanies). We have about 1,500 urban cooperatives, but there are nearly 96,000 rural banks,including primary agriculture credit societies. Long-term credit extended by them is declining, butthere is still a role in agriculture for rural cooperative societies. On the urban front, however,there is a need for change partly because of some of these scams that Ms. Thorat mentioned.

In the case of PMC Bank, as per RBI, there are three problems — major financial irregularities,failure of internal control and systems, and underreporting of exposures. It is well known thatPMC Bank has extended 73% of its assets to HDIL, which has created a panicky situation fordepositors. The RBI has had to clarify that Indian banking is safe. The problem is, of course,dual control by the RBI and the RCS, with the State government also playing a role and politicssometimes entering the space. The management, Board and auditors are responsible. It’s agovernance and transparency issue that also affects public sector banks, private banks, andNBFCs.

So, what should be done? I am in favour of merging and converting some of the cooperativebanks to small finance banks. The RBI has announced a scheme for voluntary transition ofurban cooperative banks into small finance banks, in line with the recommendations of a high-powered committee chaired by former Deputy Governor of the RBI, R. Gandhi. This wouldenable them to have most of the products available with commercial banks, and help get a pan-India presence. But there are many conditions on share capital, loan sizes and loans to prioritysector. So, you can’t convert all of them but there can be a gradual move towards that.

UT: Let’s again look at the things the RBI has tried to do in the last four-five years. First, therewas a committee under H. Malegam which recommended a board of management of fit andproper persons, other than the board of directors. Directors are elected by members and veryoften the borrowers get to nominate their own persons, while depositors are not reallyrepresented as these banks accept deposits from non-members. So, the idea was to have aboard of management in actual control of operations as opposed to elected directors. I think thismust be done immediately as an incentive for those who want to continue to grow. We shouldperhaps tell these banks, you must put this in place, otherwise there will be no more branchlicences and we can impose restrictions on your loan book. There must be a push for a fit andproper management, otherwise the elected director can get away with fraud. Then all we can dois cope with the aftermath of his or her actions.

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Having said that, you will find that a majority of the cooperative banks have been doing a goodjob — meeting the needs of small businesses and even rural credit — very much what we callinclusive finance. Just about 50 or 60 of these 1,500 banks are large. So the RBI’s supervisoryresources have to be really focused on these larger banks mostly operating across the countrylike commercial banks.

Second, the RBI has given the choice to urban cooperative banks to convert to small financebanks. That option is there for those players with more than 50 crore capital and 15% capitaladequacy. This is an incentive as they will then be able to grow their capital by issuing shares ata premium. Today, the biggest hurdle for an urban cooperative bank is to raise capital. For them,the RBI might like to incentivise conversion into small finance banks. It can say that for furthergrowth the larger urban cooperative banks should either appoint a board of management thatmeets the RBI’s norms for fit and proper or become small finance banks. The challenge inbanking supervision and regulation lies in knowing the quality and engagement of the Board, thekey personnel and their conflicts of interest and connections.

Third, RBI has also said that for urban cooperative banks there could be an umbrellaorganisation promoted by the banks themselves to raise capital as a joint stock company canfrom the markets.

This incident poses a challenge for supervision. It comes back to how exposures can be hidden,which can be done in any bank or NBFC, not just a cooperative. The supervision system shouldbe able to catch much more underreporting or false reporting and ensure accountability of theBoard and the auditors. Criminal action has been initiated against the managing director, butwhat about all the directors? Is it possible that the directors or the Board were not aware of theexposure? In any case they are liable.

I think we should also look at the extent of deposits of other cooperative banks in such largeurban co-operative banks. Perhaps it is time to review whether an urban cooperative bankshould accept deposits of other urban cooperative banks. Because this means depositors ofsmaller banks may also suffer.

The frequency and intensity of supervision has to be clearly based on the size of the bank andthe assessment made of the governance standards in the banks. All banks — small financebanks, cooperative banks and leveraged institutions like NBFCs — are open to the risk of poorgovernance. There is no option but to look at the fit and proper character of the directors.

MD: Many depositors opt for cooperative banks because they give a higher interest rate. Eventhe RBI’s staff cooperative has deposits parked with PMC. The confidence comes fromgovernance and regulation. RBI has been urging cooperative lenders to act professionally. Weneed confidence-building for all banks, not just for cooperatives, but even NBFCs. A recentstudy showed that small cooperatives are doing better in terms of non-performing assets andother aspects, while large urban cooperatives are not doing well. So, we have to look at how tosupervise large cooperatives better.





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MAKING POLITICAL PARTIES ACCOUNTABLERelevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Important Aspects of Governance, Transparency & Accountability

including Right to Information and Citizen Charter

Recently, the Supreme Court in D.A.V. College Trust and Management Society Vs. Director ofPublic Instructions held that non-governmental organisations which were substantially financedby the appropriate government fall within the ambit of ‘public authority’ under Section 2(h) of theRight to Information Act, 2005. Under this section of the RTI Act, ‘public authority’ means “anyauthority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted by or under theConstitution and included... any non-government organisation substantially financed directly orindirectly by funds provided by the appropriate government.”

Owing to the reasoning given by the court, the judgment can potentially have wide ramificationsin the discourse pertaining to the ambit of the RTI regime on national political parties.

In D.A.V., the top court held that ‘substantial’ means a large portion which can be both, direct orindirect. It need not be a major portion or more than 50% as no straitjacket formula can beresorted to in this regard. For instance, if land in a city is given free of cost or at a heavilysubsidised rate to hospitals, educational institutions or other bodies, it can qualify as substantialfinancing. The court resorted to ‘purposive’ interpretation of the provisions by underscoring theneed to focus on the larger objective of percolation of benefits of the statute to the masses.

In 2010, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) filed an application under the RTI to allnational parties, seeking information about the “10 maximum voluntary contributions” receivedby them in the past five years. None of the national political parties volunteered to disclose theinformation. Consequently, ADR and RTI activist Subhash Agarwal filed a petition with theCentral Information Commission (CIC).

In 2013, a full bench of the CIC delivered a historic judgment by declaring that all nationalparties came under ‘public authorities’ and were within the purview of the RTI Act. Accordingly,they were directed to designate central public information officers (CPIOs) and the appellateauthorities at their headquarters within six weeks.

In 2013, The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill was introduced in Parliament to keeppolitical parties explicitly outside the purview of RTI that lapsed after the dissolution of the 15thLok Sabha. Notwithstanding the binding value of the CIC’s order under Section 19(7) of the Act,none of the six political parties complied with it. Quite interestingly, all the parties were absentfrom the hearing when the commission issued show-cause notices for non-compliance at thehearing.

Finally, in 2019, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court seeking a declaration of political parties as‘public authority’ and the matter is sub judice. Irrespective of the ideological differences amongthese political parties on almost all the issues under the sun, non-compliance of the RTImandate has been a great unifier.

Drawing an analogy between the Supreme Court’s judgment on D.A.V. and the political parties’issue which is sub judice, it can be argued that national parties are ‘substantially’ financed by theCentral government. The various concessions, such as allocation of land, accommodation,bungalows in the national and State capitals, tax exemption against income under Section 13Aof the Income Tax Act, free air time on television and radio, etc. can easily satisfy theprerequisite of Section 2(h) of the RTI. If an entity gets substantial finance from the government,

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there is no reason why any citizen cannot ask for information to find out whether his/her moneywhich has been given to the entity is being used for the requisite purpose or not.

Applying the purposive rule of interpretation which is discernible from the preamble of the RTIAct, the ultimate aim is the creation of an ‘informed’ citizenry, containment of corruption andholding of government and its instrumentalities accountable to the governed. Under the anti-defection law, political parties can recommend disqualification of Members of the House incertain eventualities under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

The Law Commission opines that political parties are the lifeblood of our entire constitutionalsystem. Political parties act as a conduit through which interests and issues of the people getrepresented in Parliament. Since elections are predominantly contested on party lines in ourparliamentary democratic polity, the agenda of the potential government is set by them.

As noted by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in his famous Constituent Assembly speech, “The working of aConstitution does not depend wholly upon the nature of the Constitution. The Constitution canprovide only the organs of State…The factors on which the working of those organs of the Statedepend are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry outtheir wishes and their politics.” It is hoped that the top court will further the positive advancesmade in this direction. Since sunlight acts as the best disinfectant and our political partiestirelessly claim themselves to be apostles of honesty and integrity, it is expected that they wouldwalk the talk.

Anmolam is a lawyer, running a non-profit organisation, BDLAAAW. Shivam is a researchscholar at the faculty of law, Delhi University














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TOILET TARGETS: ON ENDING OPEN DEFECATIONRelevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Health & Sanitation and related issues

India’s declaration on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi that its rural areas arenow open defecation-free will be acknowledged around the world as a milestone in itsdevelopmental journey. Cleanliness and sanitation were central to Gandhi’s concerns for hisvast number of impoverished countrymen, and should ideally have been pursued zealously bygovernments in free India, along with good housing and access to clean water. In 2014, the NDAgovernment made total sanitation a high priority, with the avowed goal of bridging decades ofneglect through a policy focused on toilet construction. That 110 million toilets were built underthis programme since then counts as an achievement in itself, even though many of thesestructures have been bootstrapped to ramshackle dwellings; many do not meet constructionstandards. Forward-looking as it is, the campaign for universal sanitation and an end to opendefecation cannot go far if toilet access is the sole metric of success. One independent surveyshows toilets are not used by up to half the population in some places, underscoring thechallenge ahead. It is welcome, therefore, that an ODF-Plus programme has been adopted bythe Ministry of Jal Shakti to encourage toilet use and create the infrastructure to manage solidand liquid waste in every village. This is a long road, and the Central government can hope toachieve sustainable outcomes only if it prioritises citizen rights and community participation. Thecampaign has erred in its approach in many instances, opting for coercive methods that producedreadful consequences.

Development literature makes it clear that bringing one set of freedoms to people, includingmaterial benefits, cannot compensate for the loss of others, notably freedom from oppression.This bears mention in the context of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and its efforts to end opendefecation, since officials and campaigners have resorted to violence, public shaming and thethreat of deprivation of welfare benefits to bring about compliance. Such methods must beended immediately and voluntary participation encouraged. Of concern too is a possible resortto illegal manual scavenging, since many toilets built under the Swachh mission are not of theprescribed twin-pit design, and will need periodic evacuation. Despite widely reported cases, theCentre does not appear to be eager to eliminate manual waste removal through a war-like effort,under which all States will install sewage and sludge treatment plants. Neither are States keento strictly enforce the law that makes the practice punishable. In the years ahead, makingsanitation universal and sustainable will depend not just on toilets, but on providing decent urbanand rural housing, and strengthening another key determinant of development — the right to agood education.








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Boris Johnson seems bent on delivering a no-deal Brexit









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Source : www.indianexpress.com Date : 2019-10-04

MAKING AMENDSRelevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Rights & Welfare of STs, SCs, and OBCs - Schemes & their

Performance, Mechanisms, Laws Institutions and Bodies

© 2019 The Indian Express Ltd.All Rights Reserved

The Supreme Court has done well to recall its 2018 order that diluted provisions of theScheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The three-judgebench observed that the March 20, 2018 judgment was “against the spirit of the Constitution”. Atwo-judge bench had, then, forbidden the arrest of public servants and private persons withoutprior permission in cases filed under the SC/ST Act and insisted on a preliminary inquiry beforeregistering an FIR in such cases. The Court also found that the guidelines for the execution ofthe Act given in the 2018 order were beyond its remit and an encroachment on the legislature’sdomain. Indeed, the 2018 order had read the Act apparently without taking into consideration thesocial context and imperatives that led to its enactment in the first place.

The 2018 order triggered unrest among Dalits and gave fresh impetus to the mobilisations thathad started in the wake of a series of high-profile crimes against the community. The politicalchurn following the rise of the BJP in the 2014 general election unleashed a new social dynamic.Even as the BJP’s top leadership began a high-visibility outreach to Dalits, the latter came underattack from communities whose political-ideological prejudices found validation from elements ofthe Hindutva agenda such as cow protection. The public flogging of five Dalits by cow vigilantesin Una, Gujarat, became a symbol of the new political hooliganism. In western UP, attemptswere made to crush Dalit assertion. Earlier, the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a research scholar inHyderabad Central University, had bought to the fore the issue of caste discrimination oncampus. While these incidents fitted the pattern of the anti-Dalit violence Indian society hasbeen experiencing for centuries, they also created a new narrative of Dalit resistance andagency that led to the emergence of a new generation of leaders such as Jignesh Mevani andpolitical outfits including the Bhim Army. The 2018 order came in the backdrop of this politicalferment and stoked unrest in large sections of the SC/ST communities. A Bharat bandh calledby Dalit groups was met with violence and at least nine persons were killed in police firing.

It is creditable that the Supreme Court has revisited its order and recalled it. The apex court’swillingness to course-correct in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution points toinstitutional resilience, especially at a time when questions are being asked on theindependence of institutions when a domineering political executive is armed with a largemandate.

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MILES TO GO BEFORE BECOMING OPENDEFECATION-FREE

Relevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Health & Sanitation and related issues

The plea claimed that residents of a slum at Sarai Kale Khan in south Delhi still defecate in theopen due to lack of toilets. Photo used for representation purpose only. File Photo

October 2 was not only Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, but also the fifth, andperhaps final, anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission. Speaking in Gujarat, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi declared India “open defecation-free”.

But is rural India really open defecation-free? The Swachh Bharat Mission website claims withsome caveats that the country has achieved 100% coverage of latrine ownership. If this was thedefinition of being open defecation-free, then, again with some caveats, India can be declaredso.

Ten months ago, our team revisited families we had interviewed in a 2014 survey in Bihar, UttarPradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. We asked about the defecation behaviour of nearly10,000 people. Between 2014 and the end of 2018, latrine ownership in the region hadincreased by 34 percentage points. Yet, even in States that had already been declared opendefecation-free, the actual coverage was far below 100%. Although the percentage of peopledefecating in the open declined by 26 percentage points, close to half still reported to berelieving themselves in the open. And sadly, the programme barely managed to bring anychange in the behaviour of latrine owners. Like in 2014, about a quarter of people who own afunctional latrine continued to defecate in the open. Overall, the study found that 44% of peoplein these four States defecated in the open. These facts are unlikely to have radically changed inonly 10 months.

Some may call Mr. Modi’s declaration a political overstatement and move on to celebrate thereduction in open defecation. But doing so will leave us with an unanswered question: Will Indiahave a sanitation policy that will address the remaining who openly defecate? For those whocare about India’s abandoned toilets and stunted health outcomes, this is an important question.

In the past five years, the Indian government has built a 100 million toilets. This implies that itconstructed 38 toilets every minute that had passed since the Swachh Bharat Mission waslaunched. With a country as large as India, this is a big achievement. But another importantquestion to ask here is: how was this achieved?

Hard-working government officials going around convincing people to build and use a latrinemight be half the story, but the remaining half is alarming. From talking to 156 governmentofficials, we learned that many rural Indians were threatened with or even denied their legalrights, such as PDS ration, for not building a latrine. Officials resorted to threats of fines and jailterms to intimidate people in some places.

“The tehsildar came [to our village] once. He told the patwari that he should cancel the KisanCredit Cards of people who did not build toilets,” said a village secretary in M.P. In Rajasthan, aration dealer told us that the government had asked him to “stop people’s ration until they had aniralo ghar [house with a toilet] stamp on their ration card”.

With unrealistic targets pushed down from the top, “Swachh Bharat Mission beneficiaries” were

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not alone in facing coercion. Government officials at every level – whether elected, appointed, orcontracted – faced immense pressure and threats from their bosses. A block coordinator in M.P.said, “We have to motivate people but we also have construction targets. We have to build18,000 toilets before October 2 [2018]. So, we have put motivation aside and we focus on theconstruction target. I am a contract worker. They tell us that if we don’t get 700 toilets built, wewill be fired.”

Coercion in some form or the other was ubiquitous in almost all the places we visited. More thanhalf of the families we talked to reported the use of coercive activities in their villages to getpeople to build or use latrines; one in every four families told us that they have heard ofgovernment benefits being withdrawn for not having a latrine; and Dalits and Adivasis were atleast twice as likely as others to report that they or their family members had faced coercion.

The spirit of bidding farewell to open defecation as a gift to Gandhi deserves accolades. But wemust not forget that there are still miles to go. India needs to have a sanitation policy thatfocuses on reducing open defecation. And most importantly, it should follow Gandhi’s path ofahimsa and compassion.

Nazar Khalid is a research fellow with the research institute for compassionate economics(r.i.c.e.) and Nikhil Srivastav is a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin and aresearch fellow with r.i.c.e.
















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A SOUND REVIEW: ON SUPREME COURT RECALLINGITS VERDICT DILUTING SC/ST ANTI-ATROCITIES LAW

Relevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Rights & Welfare of STs, SCs, and OBCs - Schemes & theirPerformance, Mechanisms, Laws Institutions and Bodies

After last year’s amendments aimed at nullifying the effect of a Supreme Court judgment thatwas seen as diluting the law against atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, theapex court’s decision recalling the earlier verdict may not appear very significant. However, thelatest order by a three-judge Bench on the Centre’s petition seeking a review is more than amere academic exercise. Its sound reasoning and sympathetic reconsideration have fortified thelegislative measure to restore the law on atrocities committed on Dalits as originally conceivedby Parliament. The March 2018 decision laid down three new rules as safeguards against theAct’s possible misuse: that the bar on anticipatory bail under Section 18 need not prevent courtsfrom granting advance bail; that a person can be arrested only if the “appointing authority” (in thecase of a public servant) or the SP (in the case of others) approves such arrest; and that thereshould be a preliminary enquiry into all complaints. It caused an uproar among Dalits, and anation-wide protest in August last year turned violent in some places. There was politicalclamour for Parliament’s intervention to restore the anti-atrocities law to its original rigour. Thatthe Bench declined to stay its own order when a review was sought spurred the government intoaction.

There was widespread criticism then that the BJP’s perceived espousal of upper caste interestsand its weak submissions in court had led to the verdict. It was even argued that the Centre wasunder political compulsion to undo the perception that the interests of the SCs and STs were indanger. The court’s re-examination, on the contrary, is anchored in sound principles. It firstunderscores that special laws for the protection of SC and ST communities flow from socialrealities, the discrimination they still face and the circumstances that preclude them frommustering the courage to lodge a complaint in the first place. The court assails the assumptionthat SC/ST members are more likely to give false complaints than the general population (asevidenced by the fact that there is no preliminary enquiry or prior sanction for arrest envisagedfor other complaints). In other words, the additional “safeguards” against the alleged abuse oflaw by Dalits is another form of discrimination, the court has pointed out. Further, it rejects theidea of treating Dalits as people prone to lodging false complaints. The directions for getting anauthority’s sanction for arrest or holding a preliminary enquiry for this class of cases alone areextra-statutory, and clearly amount to the judiciary engaging in legislation. The review is a timelyreminder that the top court’s power to pass any order required to uphold justice cannot be usedto give directives contrary to existing laws or to supplant them altogether.








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Source : www.livemint.com Date : 2019-10-09

WE MAY NEED A WHOLE NEW APPROACH TO DATAPROTECTION

Relevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: E-governance - applications, models, successes, limitations, andpotential incl. Aadhaar & Digital power

Rules set for data owners haven’t worked well for data governance. It is time for alternatives

Data is all around us in everything we do and in every object we use. In the information age,there is no person or object that does not generate data and, since we are all connected, thereis nothing to stop each of us from accessing it. If there is no limit to the amount of data thatexists and no additional cost to the creation of each unit of new data, it stands to reason that thevalue of this data should be zero.

The reality, however, is quite different. Data is one of the most valuable resources of the moderneconomy, and, among the many debates it has sparked, is the question of who actually owns itand is entitled to claim its value.

If you think about it, data actually has no value unless someone decides that it is worth beingcollected. Even after a data collector decides to invest time and effort in collecting andprocessing it, any individual item of data actually becomes valuable only when it is aggregatedwith others like it into truly large data sets. It is in this state that data has value.

As much as we may want to believe that data has value from the get go, the fact of the matter isthat without the efforts of data collectors, no data would have had any. Very few data collectorsactually say this out loud, as this is not a statement that would go down well with most people. Intoday’s data-rich world, data subjects genuinely believe that they are and should be the rightfulowners of their own data, and so also the last word on what can or cannot be done with it. Theybelieve that data is valuable in the aggregate and, therefore, there must exist some appropriatefractional value attributable to each data element solely by virtue of it having individuallycontributed to the whole.

This is the tension that frustrates all attempts to regulate data the traditional way. On one hand,data collectors argue that had they not put in the effort to collect and organize data, or developalgorithms to extract insights out of the large volumes of data they hold, there would be no valuewhatsoever. Data subjects, on the other hand, argue that since it is they who have provided theinformation in the first place and it is they who will be affected by the use of this information, theability to exert ownership rights over how it is eventually used should vest with them.

The reason we are having this debate at all is that we believe we need to think of data in termsof who owns it. We have operated on the assumption that the secret to effective datagovernance is identifying the owner of a given item of data so that we can impose upon them aset of rules as to what they can and cannot do with it. This approach has not worked so well forus. Ownership leads to monetization and eventually to fraught questions over who deserves tobenefit from it.

Perhaps we need a new approach.

One alternative that has been suggested is to conceptualize the issue in terms of datatrusts—constructs that treat data as a pooled resource, with data aggregated in such a mannerthat the sum of its discrete elements has value greater than any individual item. Trusts allow

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data to be shared, breaking down silos that place data under the exclusive control of a datacollector, and, instead, sharing them between data collectors and/or data subjects to let thevalue generated flow across a larger group of users without cleaving to traditional notions ofownership.

There are broadly two distinct types of data trusts that are spoken about: collector-centric andsubject-centric.

Collector-centric data trusts are established by data collectors so that they can establish theterms under which the data they have collected can be pooled into a common resource. Thispooling allows them to share the benefits of the larger data set without having to negotiatetransfer arrangements between each other.

By encouraging the sharing of resources across collectors, who would have otherwise kept thisdata siloed and apart, collector-centric data trusts ensure greater data sharing than wouldotherwise have taken place.

However, since collector-centric trusts only work to the benefit of incumbent data controllers,they deny new entrants market access, which could result in their being mistaken formonopolistic constructs that are designed to preserve the advantage that existing data collectorshave.

The second type of data trust allows data subjects to pool their data in this trust and then makethis pooled data available to collectors on terms negotiated by the trust on behalf of thecontributing data subjects. By banding data together in a single pool, data subjects are able toaggregate their data assets so that the pool has more value than any individual element of dataever could. With a sufficiently large number of data subjects, the entire trust would be in a farbetter negotiating position than if each of them had to deal with data controllers on an individualbasis. Subject-centric trusts vest in trustees the responsibility to deal with the data in the bestinterests of all members of the trust—as opposed to data collectors—making it one of the fewconstructs designed to work for data subjects.

As India gets to the final stage of conceptualizing its data protection regime of the future, thecountry would do well to examine these alternative models and facilitate their inclusion in anylegislation on the matter. The world has tried data ownership as a model, and it has not worked.Perhaps it’s time to try something different.

Rahul Matthan is a partner at Trilegal and author of ‘Privacy 3.0: Unlocking Our Data DrivenFuture’.

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FOR A HAPPY CHILDHOODRelevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Rights & Welfare of Children - Schemes & their Performance,

Mechanisms, Laws Institutions and Bodies

With over 18% of India’s population aged 10-17, the future of the country will be driven by thissegment. The government has introduced many initiatives for their health, nutrition, educationand employment. The goal should be for them to thrive, be productive adults and be happy.

But a happy childhood is fast becoming a challenge for many. Recent data suggest that mentalhealth disorders are on the rise among 13-17-year-olds, with one out of five children in schoolssuffering from depression. According to the National Mental Health Survey of 2016, theprevalence of mental disorders was 7.3% among 13-17-year-olds. With many resorting to self-harm, statistics suggest that suicide among adolescents is higher than any other age group.According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2016, in India, the suicide death rateamong 15-29-year-olds was highest in Karnataka (30.7), Tripura (30.3), Tamil Nadu (29.8), andAndhra Pradesh (25.0). India’s contribution to global suicide deaths increased from 25.3% in1990 to 36.6% in 2016 among women. Though suicides among women have decreased overall,the highest age-specific suicide death rate among women in 2016 were for ages 15-29 yearsand 75 years or older.

Half of all mental health disorders in adulthood starts by 14 years of age, with many cases beingundetected. Those who suffer from depression and anxiety in adulthood may often beginexperiencing this from childhood and it may peak during adolescence and their early 20s.

Studies relate suicidal behaviour to absenteeism from school, sexual and/or physical abuse anddepression, bullying and peer pressure. Overall, a poor social environment and difficulties indiscussing problems with parents increase the odds of poor mental health. Even as many canidentify feeling sad and distressed, only about 8% can label it as depression. Most are unable tocorrectly identify approaching mental health professionals as a good solution due to the stigmaaround mental health issues and lack of understanding of how good support can help them feeland do better.

The good news is that parents and peers can play an important role by being understanding andcommunicative. There is evidence that technology can create loneliness, isolation andunrealistic expectations for adolescents. By moving away from strict rules and diktats, parentsshould gently discuss the role of technology to bring adolescents to the realisation that limitingscreen time and engaging in social activities may improve how they feel.

By learning more about mental health, parents and school administrations should sensitisethemselves about what constitutes ‘warning signs’ like erratic sleep patterns and mood swings.Peer support systems and trained counsellors can encourage dialogue around seeking supportand better coping mechanisms.

A new approach is required for disseminating mental health awareness backed by progressivegovernment policies, based on evidence-based approaches. A 2010 Lancet study highlightedinterventions conducted with 10,000 adolescents across 10 European countries, with a keysuccess around ‘Youth Behaviour and Mental Health’ segment. This resulted in adolescents withmental health challenges receiving psychological support via 45-minute sessions, which ensureda reduction in suicidal ideas and behaviour. Projects with a similar approach, such as SPIRIT(Suicide Prevention and Implementation Research Initiative) in India, aim to reduce suicidesamong targeted adolescents and implement research-based suicide interventions. They also

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aim to empower regional policymakers to integrate evidence generated from implementedresearch on suicide prevention in policymaking. India requires multiple similar interventions forchange.

Soumya Swaminathan is Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization; Lakshmi Vijayakumaris the founder of SNEHA, a suicide prevention centre; and Sukriti Chauhan is a Director atGlobal Health Strategies


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MAP ON REGIONAL FOODS PROPOSED TO FIGHTMALNUTRITION

Relevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Poverty & Hunger and related issues

In a bid to counter nutritional inadequacy among infants, the government will develop a maphighlighting local foods of different States, Minister for Women and Child Development SmritiIrani said at the fifth meeting of the National Nutrition Council on Thursday.

The announcement by the Minister comes days after the government’s first-ever survey onnutrition highlighted that only 6% of children between the age group of 6 and 23 monthsreceived a minimum acceptable diet. As per the study, the prevalence of minimum acceptablediet was as low as 1% in Andhra Pradesh. It was the highest in Sikkim with only 36% childrenbeing adequately fed. In 10 out of 30 states, less than 5% of children aged 6 to 23 monthsreceived a minimum acceptable diet. In fact, the findings of the Comprehensive NationalNutrition Survey were raised several times at the meeting by different members of thegovernment’s largest body on nutrition.

“The solution to tackling malnutrition lies in promoting regional cropping patterns and embracinglocal food that are rich in protein,” a press statement released by the Women and ChildDevelopment Ministry quoted Ms. Irani.

The map, to be developed by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Deendayal ResearchInstitute, was among the measures suggested to address the issue of food inadequacy in ournutrition system, according to Member (Health and Nutrition), NITI Aayog, V.K. Paul.

“Children have to eat more often — twice a day between six to nine months, thrice between nineand 12 months and four times a day beyond 12 months. They also must eat diverse foods,which should include cereals, protein, fat, sugar or jaggery, milk and fruits. Both meal frequencyand diverse diets together make an acceptable diet,” explains Mr. Paul.

A subordinate panel on nutrition had in its meeting in June also proposed to develop policyguidelines on “agri-nutri” and suggested setting up of a national advisory panel under JointSecretary and Mission Director of Poshan Abhiyaan.









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Several inaccessible villages in Malkangiri have no basic health services. What they do have isa doctor whose visits are eagerly awaited.









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NEW ‘AAROGYASRI’ HEALTH CARDS FROMDECEMBER 21


Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Thursday that the governmentwould bring treatment of 2,000 types of diseases and procedures under the ambit of its flagshipprogramme ‘Aarogyasri’ from April next on a pilot basis in West Godavari district.

One district would be added under the scheme every month. Launching the YSR Kanti VeluguScheme on World Sight Day at the Government Junior College here, Mr. Reddy said newAarogyasri health cards would be issued to all eligible persons from December 21 with aprovision to record patient’s medical history.

The dues of the network hospitals had mounted to Rs. 650 crore in the past five years but alldues till May 31 were settled by paying Rs. 540 crore.

The financial health of these hospitals would improve now, the Chief Minister said andannounced that 250 hospitals in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru would be empanelled andtreatment for Aarogyasri card holders would be enabled from November 1.

Of the 5.40 crore population, 2.12 crore people suffered from vision-related problems, hence theentire population would be covered at a cost of Rs. 560 crore.

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‘EDUCATION OF MOTHERS DIRECTLY LINKED TOBETTER NUTRITION FOR CHILDREN’


A first-of-its kind pan-India survey conducted by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry onnutrition levels among children shows a direct correlation between mothers’ education and thewell-being of children.

The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNSS) studied 1.2 lakh children between 2016and 2018 and measured food consumption, anthropometric data, micronutrients, anaemia, irondeficiency and markers of non-communicable diseases.

These were compared with different population characteristics such as religion, caste, place ofresidence and the mothers’ level of schooling.

The data recorded show 31% of mothers of children aged up to four years, 42% of womenhaving children aged five to nine and 53% of mothers of adolescents aged 10-19 never attendedschool. Only 20% of mothers of pre-schoolers, 12% of those of schoolchildren, and 7% of thoseof adolescents had completed 12 or more years of schooling.

Core indicators

Diet diversity, meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet are the three core indicators ofnutrition deficiency among infant and young children.

Data from the CNNS study show that with higher levels of schooling in a mother, childrenreceived better diets. Only 11.4% of children of mothers with no schooling received adequatelydiverse meals, while 31.8% whose mothers finished Class XII received diverse meals.

The study found 3.9% of children whose mothers had zero schooling got minimum acceptablediets, whereas this was at 9.6% for children whose mothers finished schooling. Moreover, 7.2%of children in the former category consumed iron rich food, whereas this was at 10.3% forchildren in the latter category.

The proportion of children aged two to four consuming dairy products, eggs and other fruits andvegetables the previous day increased with the mothers’ education level and household wealthstatus. For example, only 49.8% of children in that age group whose mothers did not go toschool consumed dairy products, while 80.5% of children of mothers who completed theirschooling did so. These trends also show among older children and adolescents — only 25.4%of children in the 5-9 age group with uneducated mothers received eggs, but 45.3% of childrenwhose mothers studied till Class XII had eggs.

Stunting, wasting

Levels of stunting, wasting and low weight were higher in children whose mothers received noschooling as opposed to those who studied till Class XII. Stunting among children aged up tofour was nearly three times for the former category (19.3% versus 5.9%), and the number ofunderweight children was nearly double among them (14.8% versus 5.1%) as compared to thelatter category. Also, 5.7% of the children were wasted in the former category, while this was at4.3% in the latter category.

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Anaemia saw a much higher prevalence of 44.1% among children up to four years old withmothers who never went to school, versus 34.6% among those who completed their schooling.

Flip side

But on the flip side, a higher level of education among mothers meant that their childrenreceived meals less frequently, perhaps because their chances of being employed and travellinglong distances to work went up — 50.4% of children in the age group of 6-23 months born toilliterate mothers versus 36.2% among those who had finished schooling.

Such children were also at higher risk of diabetes and high cholesterol as relative prosperitycould lead to higher consumption of sugary drinks and foods high in cholesterol. Children in theage group of 10-19 showed a higher prevalence of pre-diabetes if their mother had finishedschooling (15.1% versus 9.6%). The prevalence of high cholesterol levels was at 6.2% in thesechildren as opposed to 4.8% among those whose mothers never attended school.















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WITH NINE CASES A DAY, MIZORAM BECOMES STATEWITH HIGHEST HIV PREVALENCE RATE


Mizoram, one of the least populated States in India, reports nine positive cases of HumanImmunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) a day.

The virus “strike rate” has made Mizoram top the list of States with an HIV prevalence rate of2.04% followed by two other north-eastern States — next-door neighbour Manipur with 1.43%and Nagaland with 1.15%.

Data compiled by the Mizoram State AIDS Control Society (MSACS) show that 67.21% of thepositive cases from 2006 to March 2019 have been transmitted sexually, 1.03% of thetransmission route being homosexual.

The next major cause, accounting for 28.12% cases, is infected needles shared by intravenousdrug users.

The Christian-majority State bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar has battled drug traffickingand abuse for a long time.

Narcotic substances such as methamphetamine and heroin are smuggled in from Myanmar.

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga said the State could do without the dubious record ofbeing the highest HIV-prevalent State in the country.

“The present scenario is indeed alarming. We have to increase the level of awareness about thevirus and focus on the treatment and prevention of the disease,” he said, while launching anHIV/AIDS sensitisation campaign in Aizawl on October 11.

Dr. Lalthlengliani, the MCACS project director, said that an average of 9.2 cases are detectedacross Mizoram’s 44 standalone Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres on each of the 25days a month they remain open.

The prevalence rate had dipped to 3.8 during 2012-13 from a high of 4.8 during the previousfiscal.

It kept rising sharply since to become 7.5 during 2017-18 and touch 9.2 during the last fiscalending March 2019.

“Analysis of the HIV positive cases confirmed at the testing centres show that people in the agegroup of 25-34 years are the most vulnerable in Mizoram followed by those in the age bracketsof 35-49 years and 15-24 years,” Dr. Lalthlengliani said.

The HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in these three age groups are 42.38%, 26.46% and 23.03%respectively.

We have to increase the level of awareness about the virus and focus on the treatmentand prevention of the diseaseZoramthanga

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Mizoram Chief Minister















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AGENTS OF CHANGE: ON INVESTING IN WOMEN’SEDUCATION

Relevant for: Developmental Issues | Topic: Education and related issues

If the evidence is clear and present, then not acting on it would be a chilling demonstration ofinability and inefficiency, and the lack of will to bring about change. There should be no doubtthat educating a woman serves a larger ameliorative purpose. The recently released HealthMinistry survey that showed a direct correlation between the nutritional status of children andtheir mothers’ education is a further stroke for the case of women’s education. TheComprehensive National Nutrition Survey, which studied 1.2 lakh children between 2016-18,measured diet diversity, meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet as the three coreindicators of nutritional deficiency among infants and young children. It demonstrated that withhigher levels of schooling for a mother, her children received better diets. On two counts, mealdiversity and minimum acceptable diet, and in terms of bolstering food with micro nutrients, thechildren of mothers with better education did well. The data is revelatory: Only 11.4% of childrenof mothers with no schooling received adequately diverse meals, while 31.8% whose mothersfinished Class XII received diverse meals. While 9.6% of children whose mothers had finishedschooling got minimum acceptable diets, only 3.9% of children whose mothers had zeroschooling got such a diet.

Development economists have long studied the role that education of girls plays in enablingthem to emerge as agents of change. Empirical work in recent years, Nobel laureate AmartyaSen reasons, has clearly shown how the relative aspect and regard for women’s well being isstrongly influenced by women’s literacy and educated participation in decisions within andoutside the family. In the late 1990s, Tamil Nadu along with the Danish InternationalDevelopment Agency, launched a mass rural literacy project in Dharmapuri, then consideredbackward, riding largely on local leaders, most of them women. Evaluation showed overallsalubrious effects on the community within a short while. Implemented largely through theemploy of the local arts, one measure of success, as recorded then, was an increasedoutpatient attendance in primary health centres. There is a body of compelling evidence for thegovernment to focus on improving female literacy. In Census 2011, the female literacy rate was65.46%, much lower than for males, at 82.14%. States such as Kerala with a high literacy rate(male and female) also sit at the top of the table on development indicators. As former AmericanFirst Lady Michelle Obama said, “Because we know that when girls are educated, their countriesbecome stronger and more prosperous.” No other task can assume greater urgency for a nationstriving to improve its performance on all fronts.









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MALNUTRITION BEHIND 69% DEATHS AMONGCHILDREN BELOW 5 IN INDIA: UNICEF REPORT


Timely complementary feeding is initiated for only 53% of infants aged 6-8 months./ File photo

Malnutrition caused 69% of deaths of children below the age of five in India, according to aUNICEF report released on Wednesday.

In its report, The State of the World’s Children 2019, UNICEF said that every second child in thatage group is affected by some form of malnutrition.

This includes stunting (35%), wasting (17%) and overweight (%). Only 42% of children (in theage group of 6 to 23 months) are fed at adequate frequency and 21% get adequately diversediet.

Timely complementary feeding is initiated for only 53% of infants aged 6-8 months.

About Indian women’s health, it said every second woman is anaemic. It also said that anaemiais the most prevalent in children under the age of five years. Its prevalence among adolescentgirls is twice that of adolescent boys.

Indian children are being diagnosed with adult diseases such as hypertension, chronic kidneydisease and pre-diabetes.

The data states that children under the age of five years are affected by micronutrientdeficiencies. While every fifth child under the age five is vitamin A deficient, one in every thirdbaby has vitamin B12 deficiency and two out of every five children are anemic.

The report said POSHAN Abhiyaan or the National Nutrition Mission is playing a major role inimproving nutrition indicators across India. The Anaemia Mukt Bharat programme to fightanaemic prevalence has been recognized as one of the best programmes implemented bygovernments across the world to address malnutrition.

The 6X6X6 strategy (six target beneficiary groups, six interventions and six institutionalmechanisms) of the programme has been highlighted for using anaemia testing and treatmentas the entry point to provide information on healthy diets.

Overweight and obesity increasingly begin in childhood with a growing threat of non-communicable diseases like diabetes (10%) in school-aged children and adolescents.

Urban India is moving into an unhealthy food snacking environment, which is influencingchildren’s food choices and this is spreading to rural areas. Food consumption patterns in Indiareveal that child diets are largely starved of proteins and micronutrients and are influenced byhousehold (adult) food choices.

Over the decades, despite growing incomes, protein-based calories remain low and unchanged,and the calorific share of fruits and vegetables has declined. The report said globally 77% ofprocessed food sales are controlled by just 100 large firms.

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In cities, many poor children live in “food deserts” or in “food swamps“.

Regarding the situation globally, the UNICEF’s report said at least one in three children underfive years of age — or 200 million — is either undernourished or overweight.

The report states that almost two in three children between six months and two years of age arenot fed food that supports their rapidly growing bodies and br

· 2019. 10. 30. · significant percentage of its assets as loans to Ketan Parekh, not unlike the...

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Transcript of · 2019. 10. 30. · significant percentage of its assets as loans to Ketan Parekh, not unlike the...