Population And Poverty, hunger

Question 1

Who conducts the senses

Answer 1

The responsibility of conducting the decennial Census rests with the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India under Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

Question 2

Discuss the significance of a census

Answer 2

The Census is one of the most credible sources of information on the following:

1. Demography.
2. Economic Activity.
3. Literacy and Education.
4. Housing & Household Amenities.
5. Urbanization, Fertility, and Mortality.
6. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
7. Language

Historical Significance:
1. ‘Rig-Veda’ reveals that some kind of population count was maintained during 800-600 BC in India.
2. Arthashastr by ‘Kautilya’ written in the 3rd Century BC prescribed the collection of population
statistics as a measure of state policy for taxation.
3. During the regime of the Mughal king Akbar, the administrative report ‘Ain-e-Akbari’ included
comprehensive data pertaining to population, industry, wealth and many other characteristics.

Question 3

Discuss the two child policy of India

Answer 3

• Presently, India has no national policy mandating specific number of children.
• The Family Welfare Programme in India is voluntary in nature. It enables couples to decide the size of their family and adopt the family planning methods best suited to them according to their choice without any compulsion.

• In December 2020, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court seeking denial of access to government jobs, subsidies, right to vote, to property and to free shelter to those with more than two children.
However, Ministry of Health and Family welfare has refused to implement such a legally enforceable two-child policy.

• Several states, including Assam, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan,
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, already have some form of the two-child norm in place for those running for elected government posts or government jobs.

Question 4

What is the need for a two child policy

Answer 4

• Health consequences: Mortality rates of mothers increases as the number of children increased. Some experts believe that having pregnancies too close together doesn’t give the mother time to recover after losing nutrients such as iron and foliate after pregnancy and breastfeeding. This is called maternal depletion syndrome.
• Limited resources: India is a young country with over 60% of the Indian population under the age of 35 years. Therefore, even if couples decide to have only one or two children, India’s population will continue to increase until 2051. This would put huge burden on India’s natural resources limiting economic growth.
• High standard of life: Less number of children results in judicious use of family resources. Such families have more resources at their disposal for spending on health and education of children.
• Lack of awareness: Poor or illiterate section of society may not understand the benefits of small number of children. In this predicament, legal enforcement of two child policy may be needed for putting a cap on population stabilization.

Question 5

What are the negative consequences of a two child policy

Answer 5

1. Domestic experience not encouraging: After the 1991 census, several states prohibited those who had more than two children from holding any panchayat post.
   Instead of better family planning, this had unintended consequences like men deserting or divorcing wives if they became pregnant a third time, men abandoning or disowning their third child, sex-selective and unsafe abortions etc
2. International experience not encouraging: Any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions.
   - For example: China’s one-child policy led to sex-selective abortions and an ageing population with a fast-declining workforce. The skewed sex ratio also led to increased trafficking of women and forced prostitution.
3. Replacement rate is almost achieved: The fertility rate across Indian states has fallen without coercive measures as family incomes increased and women were educated.
   - According to the National Health Family Survey 5(NFHS-5), women have fewer than two children, on average.
   Therefore, India does not need to go in for coercive family planning strategies at this point.
4. Also, there are communities where the TFR is below replacement level.
   For example, Parsis are considered to be on the verge of extinction due to very low TFR. National policy for two-child would have dampening effect on the number of these communities.
5. Contravention of violation international laws: India became a signatory to the International Conference on Population and Development Declaration in 1994. Thus, India is committed to honour the individual right of the couples to decide freely the number of children they want to have.
6. These measures would be contrary to the constitutional Right to Education (Article21A, Article45 and 51A) and Right to Life (Article 21).
7. Exclusion from benefits: Such a policy takes away the basic rights of citizens like contesting election and voting. These policies also result in denial of merit. Moreover,such a policy reinforcing the inequality and results in exclusion of marginalized from welfare service.

Question 6

How can we successfully control the population without facing the negative consequences of a two child policy

Answer 6

1. Increase legal age of marriage: This would delay the age of first child birth and more maturity among couple may enable them to make informed decision regarding desirable number of children they should have.
2. Increase the education level of girl child: Longer period of girl child in school would delay the early pregnancy.
   It would also empower them to have control over decision on number of children they want.
3. Moreover, good education would pave the way for effective participation of women in the workforce.
   This would further empower them to have control on their reproductive rights.
4. Involve community leadership: Community leaders including religious leaders, generally, have high reputations. Hence, they could be involved for raising awareness about socio-economic and health benefits of having less number of children.
5. Change the priority under family planning budget: Currently, family planning programmes account for about 4% of the National Health Mission budget majority of which goes for incentives to families and service providers for sterilization.
6. The budget for family planning should focus on reducing social and cultural taboos in using contraception, and behaviour change communication, especially for men

Question 7

Global hunger index. Is released by whom

Answer 7

GHI is published by Concern Worldwide (international
humanitarian organization) and Welthungerhilfe (private aid
organisations in Germany).
• GHI score is determined on a 100-point scale - 0 is best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. Each country’s score is classified by severity -from Low to Extremely alarming.

Question 8

What are the findings of the global Hunger index 2020 which context of India

Answer 8

• India was ranked 94 on the 2020 Global Hunger Index (GHI), lower than neighbours like Bangladesh and Pakistan.
• GHI 2020 gave score of 27.2 on a 100 point scale to India which puts the country in the “serious” category of hunger.
• According to GHI, in terms of overall undernourishment,
o 14%ofIndia’spopulationdoesnotgetenoughcalories. o Almost35%ofIndianchildrenarestunted.
o 17.3%ofIndianchildrenunderfivearewasted.
o Under5mortalityrateisat3.7%.

Question 9

What is the meaning of hunger

Answer 9

Hunger is usually understood to refer to the distress associated with a lack of sufficient calories. The Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines food deprivation, or undernourishment, as the consumption of too few calories to provide the minimum amount of dietary energy that each individual requires to live a healthy and productive life, given that person’s sex, age, stature, and physical activity level.

Question 10

What is the meaning of malnutrition

Answer 10

Malnutrition refers more broadly to both undernutrition (problems caused by deficiencies) and (problems caused by unbalanced diets, such as consuming too many calories in relation to requirements, leading to obesity, with or without low intake of micronutrient-rich foods).

Question 11

What are the steps taken by India to fight malnutrition and reach nutritional security

Answer 11

1. POSHAN Abhiyaan: Launched in 2018, it is a multi-ministerial convergence mission with the vision to ensure attainment of malnutrition free India by 2022 in a phased manner, through a life cycle approach, by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach.
2. Mid-day meals in primary and upper primary schools, along with anganwadis, have played an important role in monitoring and supplementing efforts to reduce malnutrition through free food for children (and pregnant as well as lactating women).
3. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has notified norms for permissible levels of micronutrients for fortifying processed food products such as breakfast cereals, biscuits, breads, etc. to ensure balanced consumption of micronutrients fortified products.
4. Companies will be able to fortify the products with iron, folic acid, zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin A, among other micronutrients.
5. Anemia Mukt Bharat strategy has been
   designed to reduce prevalence of anemia by 3
   percentage points per year among children, adolescents and women in the reproductive age group (15–49 years), between the year 2018 and 2022
6. Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India. It aims to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years.
7. Jharkhand government’s SAAMAR (Strategic Action for Alleviation of Malnutrition and Anemia Reduction) campaign:
   It aims to identify anemic women and malnourished children and converge various departments to effectively deal with the problem in a state where malnutrition has been a major problem.
   The campaign also tries to target Primarily Vulnerable Tribal Groups.

Question 12

What are the challenges in tackling malnutrition in India

Answer 12

1. Weak Implementation of schemes: Top-down approach, and poor implementation processes, lack of effective monitoring, and siloed approaches of government schemes in tackling malnutrition (missing convergence) often result in poor nutrition indices.
2. Lack of qualified human resource: Many workers are unable to play an effective role in attending to the problem of malnutrition because of low wages and inadequate training.
3. COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of globalized food systems: It is characterized by increasing dependence on food imports by low- and middle-income countries; underinvestment in local farmers, farmer associations, and smallholder-oriented value chains; and increasing rates of diet-related non-communicable disease.
4. Food wastage: India wastes about 7% of its total annual food production and almost 30% of the fruits and vegetables because of inadequate warehousing facilities and cold storages.
5. Status of women: Indian women’s nutrition, feeding and caring practices for young children are inadequate. This is related to their status in society, to early marriage, low weight at pregnancy and their lower level of education.
6. Shifts in diet and lifestyle patterns: As market exposure increases, foods and drinks high in fat, sugar and salt are cheaper and more readily available, leading to a rapid rise in the number of children and adults who are overweight and at risk for diet related NCDs such as heart disease and diabetes.
7. Social structure: Several schemes do not reach large sections of the people especially marginalized tribes and Dalits, who find themselves ostracized by the distribution system.

Question 13

What are hunger hotspots

Answer 13

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are issuing an early warning for urgent humanitarian action in 20 countries and situations – called “hotspots” – where parts of the populations are likely to face a fast deterioration of high acute food insecurity that will put their lives and livelihoods at risk.

There is a likelihood of further deterioration in acute food insecurity in these countries due to multiple drivers of hunger that are interlinked or mutually reinforcing, primarily conflict dynamics, economic shocks, the socio-economic impacts of COVID19, weather extremes and the diffusion of plant pests and animal diseases.

Question 14

How can India tackle malnutrition

Answer 14

1. Identification of early signs of malnourishment: Government should re-activate and scale-up services for the early detection and treatment of child wasting.
   Also, to track and tackle hunger, governments must produce data that are timely, comprehensive, and disaggregated by income, subnational location, and gender.
2. Organisation of regular orientation programmes, exposing workers to new techniques available for tracking the growth of every child, and supporting them in the implementation of schemes.
3. Focusing on women and adolescent girls: All adolescent girls and women need to be educated on nutritional behavior and should be provided educational and skilling opportunities to delay marriage.
4. Design and development of more efficient integrated systems of food production, processing, preservation and distribution to suit the changing lifestyle of country’s population.
5. Residential care for food security of the most vulnerable children: For children of rural seasonal migrants, the village school should be converted into a community-based temporary residential school, to enable the child to access food and education, without having to migrate every year with their guardians.
6. Formal and informal education on agriculture and nutrition should be tailored to local conditions.

Question 15

What is the meaning of social security

Answer 15

According to ILO, social security is based on the recognition of human dignity and social justice guaranteed by law to all human beings who live from their own labour and who find themselves unable to work temporarily or permanently for reasons beyond their control.

The Code on Social Security 2020 defines social security as “the measures of protection afforded to employees, unorganised workers, gig workers and platform workers to ensure access to health care and to provide income security, particularly in cases of old age, unemployment, sickness, invalidity, work injury, maternity or loss of a breadwinner by means of rights conferred on them and schemes framed, under this Code.”

Question 16

What are the constitutional provisions in India to tackle social security

Answer 16

It is item number 23 in the concurrent list Social Security and insurance employment and unemployment
Item number 24 in concurrent list welfare of labour including conditions of work provident funds employers liability workmen’s compensation in validity and old-age pension and maternity benefits

Article 41 securing the right of work
Article 42 securing just and humane conditions for work

Question 17

Discuss the features of code for Social Security 2020

Answer 17

1. Provisions for registration of unorganised workers, gig workers and platform workers.
2. It directs the Union and the state governments to consider designing welfare schemes to provide social security for all three categories of workers.
3. Stipulates the formation of national and state-level Social Security Boards to recommend schemes for workers.
4. Expands the definition of employees to include workers employed through contractors and “inter-state migrant workers” to include self-employed workers from another state.
5. Introduces Inspector- cum-Facilitators and a quasi-judicial
   appellate authority to adjudicate over disputes.
6. It subsumes under it schemes such as Janani Suraksha Yojana, Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) and
   Aam Admi Bima Yojana (AABY).
7. Aadhaar registration is mandatory for all workers seeking benefit from the government in either kind or cash.

Question 18

What are gaps in the code for Social Security 2020, criticism

Answer 18

1. Lack of a minimum benefit policy at the national level: Social security provisions currently have varying thresholds and depend on the wage earned by the worker and the total number of workers in the enterprise, among other things.
   For instance, benefits, such as pension and medical insurance, continue to be mandatory only for establishments with a minimum number of employees (such as 10 or 20 employees).
   It results in exclusion of substantial informal workforce from social security net.
2. Lack of accountability: The registration of unorganised workers is the responsibility of the district administration, but there is no provision to hold them accountable for delayed registration.
3. Subordinate Legislation: The vital provisions of the code can be defined and reworked through the discretion of executive without the participation of stakeholders or democratically elected Parliament.
4. Overlapping of definitions: As per the definitions given in the code, a driver working for an app-based taxi aggregator is a gig worker, platform worker and unorganised worker at the same time. This might create confusion in application of schemes.

Question 19

Discuss the impact of Covid 19 on social security

Answer 19

1. Crippled financial inclusion infrastructure: In many rural areas and remote locations, the working of
   Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) depends on Business Correspondents or Bank Mitras.
   However, due to travel restrictions during the pandemic, their functioning had been severely affected.
   With the reduced presence of Bank Mitras, it was hard for those with difficulties in travelling, such as aged people or persons with disabilities, to get their hands-on cash.
2. Portability of social security benefits: For provisions that prima facie incorporate migrants, such as old age pensions and schemes for unorganised workers, their administrative architecture does not make any specific provisions for migrants.
   Thus, in the case of inter-state migration of workers, it was unclear which state will be required to pay for migrant workers’ social security benefits- the ‘source’ state or the ‘destination’ state.
3. Ensuring sustainable livelihood amid reverse migration: Many states have experienced high levels of reverse migration during the pandemic, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal.
   Many of these states are already reeling under an agrarian crisis with falling productivity, water scarcity, and decreasing demand and thus are not equipped to sustain such a steep increase in labour force and ensuring them sustainable livelihood.

Question 20

How can India ensure social security

Answer 20

Multi-pronged interventions will be important in addressing the limited reach and scope of social protection for informal workers in India at present. These include:

1. Ensuring a minimum social security net for all workers irrespective of wage, enterprise size, and place of origin:
   This is resonant with international norms. For example, SDG target 1.3 calls for the implementation of nation- wide social protection floors.
   Similarly, the ILO Recommendation 204 suggests the implementation of minimum social security guarantees to facilitate the transition from an informal to a formal economy.
2. Need for a robust monitoring and enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance to labour legislations
3. Creating a common database of informal workers: This will not only help in optimum provisioning of
   benefits, but also streamline identification of potential beneficiaries for different schemes.
4. Streamlining registration process of informal workers: A decentralised system of registration and service- delivery can improve the enrolment of eligible beneficiaries in different social protection schemes.
5. Creating awareness about entitlements: The labour unions and other civil society organisations can play an important role in this process by leveraging their networks.
6. Moving beyond the traditional conceptions of work which rely on stable employee-employer associations.
   For example, in the case of street vendors, since there is no employer that controls their labour market transactions and space of work, functional substitutes such as municipality where they work, can be a potential replacement.

Question 21

Discuss the timeline of the midday meal scheme

Answer 21

In 1925 the midday meal scheme was introduced for disadvantaged children in Madras municipal Corporation

in 1995 it was launched to cover primary school

in 2002 it became universal in all government and government aided school

in 2007 it was extended to upper primary schools

in 2009 right of children to free and compulsory education 2009 included provision of cooking

in 2013 national Food security act 2009 in titles every child up to 14 years to free hot cooked mid-day meals in all government and government aided schools

Question 22

Discuss the features of the midday meal scheme

Answer 22

National Programme of Mid-Day Meals in School (MDM) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) of the Ministry of Education aimed at providing school meals to students with a view to enhance enrolment, retention, and attendance of children while simultaneously improving nutrition at all levels.

It is world’s largest school feeding programme.

The children covered under MDM Scheme are entitled to meals under National Food Security Act, 2013.

Under the MDM scheme, both the Centre and State government share the cooking cost for daily meals in the ratio of 60:40 for non-North eastern states (NER) and UTs with legislatures except Jammu and Kashmir and in the ratio of 90:10 for all others.

Question 23

Who are the beneficiaries of the midday meal scheme

Answer 23

Every child in every government and government aided schools
government aided schools and local body schools
and schools under the alternative innovative education and education guarantee scheme
centres recognised or other recognised madarsas as supported under Sarva Shiksha abhiyan and
NCLP schools run by Ministry of labour

Question 24

Discuss the significance of the midday meal scheme

Answer 24

Improve nutritional levels sustainable development goals 20 hunger sustainable development goals three good health and well-being
Increase attendance and enrolment in reduced dropout rates from disadvantaged sections
Improve learning outcomes sustainable development goal four
Achieving the objective of social equality
Encouraging local economy and also provides employment to woman workers as cooks

Question 25

What are the challenges regarding the implementation of the midday meal scheme

Answer 25

Poor Infrastructure: MDM is suffering with respect to the quality of food or inadequate nutrition content, poor infrastructure, and lack of community ownership in the community.

Social Discrimination: Study by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies (IIDS) in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal etc. found that Dalit children were being given less amount of food compared to upper caste children, not allowed to serve food to upper caste children and have been served food at other places.

Quality of food: It is reported that mid-day meals have been of inferior quality and have led to food poisoning further leading to death of children. There have been reports that children were fed substandard or adulterated food.

Improper Monetary Mechanism: There are provisions for regular social audit, field visits and inspections but these are seldom carried out. Even if there are committees at some places, they are not functional.

Corruption and leakages: Corruption is involved in the delivery system. Fake enrolments are being done to embezzle money. Also, the sanctioned amount for meals has not been completely utilized.

Meager allocation of Resources: Experts believe that direct cash transfer amount is too meager and at current rate it translates into a one-time direct transfer of just Rs 100 per child.

Question 26

What are the success stories regarding the midday meal scheme in India

Answer 26

Andhra Pradesh: 82 per cent of children are availing
MDM. It provides eggs/bananas to children twice a
week using the state’s own resources.

Maharashtra with 82 per cent of MDM coverage has
a unique practice of serving ‘Sneh-Bhojan’ (special treats which comprise sweets and snacks) to children on occasion of birthdays of eminent people of the state.

Question 27

How can the implementation of the midday meal scheme be increased suggest a way forward

Answer 27

1. Community Participation: The best way to ensure effective implementation of MDM is through community participation and vigilance along with sustained government efforts.
   Involving the parents and local community in the process of serving mid-day meals will improve its implementation.
2. The people need to ask the school authorities about the food being served, funds received and the
   quantity and quality of food grains procured for MDM.
3. Creation of Awareness: Experts suggest awareness building among all stakeholders in the scheme on
   nutrition, health, hygiene and safety of food.
4. Efficient Delivery: Experts highlight that increasing the staff involved in delivering the scheme on the
   ground and maintaining the quality of food served will bring about positive impact. The Government could strive to provide food supplements during statutory holidays and vacation periods by not just restricting to drought- affected areas.
5. Data collection: There is need for building proper data systems to track the scheme well. Better data keeping of the number of meals served per day along with other details like items served and quality.

Question 28

Who released the global report on food crisis

Answer 28

Global network against food crises