Mess
on farming front continues
By
Eduardo Faleiro
Prices of
agricultural commodities, particularly
cash crops, have crashed across the
country, making the life of millions of
farmers unbearable. For instance, on the
western coast, the price of coconut,
which was Rs. 5,000/- per thousand in
1999, dropped last year to Rs. 2,000/-
before recovering at about Rs. 2,500/-
Even more serious is the problem of
arecanut, which is still selling at less
than Rs. 60/- per kg. (below remunerative
price). Arecanut was selling at Rs. 126/-
per kg. in 1999 and at Rs. 65/- last year
and today the average rate is Rs. 53/-.
Some State
Governments have announced a Market
Intervention Scheme under which the
farmers will get a price support of
additional Rs. 20/- to be borne equally
by the State Government and the union
Government. However, this scheme has not
yet been implemented and the State
Governments should implement it
immediately to avoid further loss to the
farmer. Rs. 80/- per kg. will hardly be a
remunerative price and more importantly
only about a quarter of the total
production will be covered under the
scheme.
Another
commodity which is in serious danger of
being subjected to price collapse is
cashew. The price of cashewnut has
deceased from about 48/- per kg. last
year to about 37/- per kg. now Cashewnut
imported from Indonesia, Brazil and
African countries is selling at around
Rs. 34/- per kg. Farmers and the state of
agriculture in India could be worse off
following the Exim Policy announced on
April 1,2001, which has removed all
quantitative restrictions.
A further
fall in agricultural prices may be
unavoidable once the heavily subsidised
exports from abroad find a place in our
market. Rajya Sabha members were informed
during the last session that domestic
support and export subsidy as percentage
of total agricultural production was at
present 56% in the European Union and
28.7% in the United States. Similar is
the position in other developed
countries. No such support exists in
India.
On the
country, prices of agricultural inputs
like fertilizers, kerosene, electricity
and pesticides have doubled over the last
decade. Government should immediately
formulate a strategy to make our
agricultural prices globally competitive.
In particular, Government should make
available credit, technology and other
inputs of the same quality and on terms
similar to those available in countries
which are globally competitive. It is
also most important that Government
should formulate a system by which import
duties are linked to world prices so that
tariffs are raised whenever there is a
steep drop in world prices and lowered
whenever there is a global price-rise.
The Import
Policy should be automatically linked to
movement in world prices and should be
formula-based so that delay in changing
import traffis can be substantially
avoided. The last year's crisis should
not be allowed to recur and Government
must not react only after the harm is
done.
As it is,
agricultural is preceived as quite
unremunerative and unless imports are
controlled, there will be large scale
unemployment and sharp increase in rural
poverty with heavy influx of farmers and
agricultural labourers into the cities.
Steps taken over the last 150 years to
attain a measure of food security will
come to naught and food dependency will
henceforth become the norm.
World
leaders in farm technology such as the
transactional companies, Monsanto and
Cargill have been providing free access
to the Indian market and this will
further accelerate food dependency unless
our own institutions of agricultural
technology such as I.C.A.R, Krishi Vigyan
Kendras, agricultural colleges and
departments of agricultural of State
Government wake up from this morass. It
should be mandatory for our Agricultural
Research institutions to make available
to farmers is sufficient quantity high
yielding seeds and planting material.
Their performance should be evaluated
with reference to the quality of their
Extension Services.
The
concept of "lab to land" must
be effectively implemented. On the
western coast and perhaps elsewhere also,
only a select few benefit from the
schemes of the Coconut Development Board,
the Directorate of Cashew, Cocoa
Development Board and such other
organisations. The State Governments must
create awareness and disseminate these
schemes widely so that farmers generally
and marginal farmers, in particular,
benefit. Government should also
strengthen the co-operative sector and
devise other means to eliminate the
middlemen. The present Government's
policy regarding the foodgrains is an
example of gross mismanagement. Last
year, it decided to deprive the entire
population above the poverty line of PDS
supplies. The result was stockpiling of
foodgrains in the Central Pool with the
arrival of new crops. The total storage
capacity being about 30.07 million
tonnes, the rest is kept in makeshift
tents at the mercy of rodents and other
creatures, the two-legged variety. As on
June, 1 the foodstock stood at 40.6
million tonnes, while the buffer norm was
24.3 million tonnes.
In a
letter to the Prime Minister dated
November 11, 2000, several Members of
Parliament, had, including this writer,
strongly objected to the decision of the
Food Ministry to sell the excess wheat in
the international market at the same at
which it is being sold out to people
below the poverty line.
Indian
wheat is being sold at about 95 US
dollars per tonnes as against the current
global price of 105 to 130 US dollars. It
is feared, as a result of these exports,
about 1000 crores rupees would be lost to
the Government in the first two years.
Government should make available these
foodgrains to people who fall within the
ambit of the Public Distribution System.
In a reversal of the earlier decision,
the Government has now allowed APL
card-holders to draw ration at 30% less
than the Central issue prices.
The prices
of foodgrains under PDS were
substantially increased in recent times
and as a result there was a much reduced
offtake from the Fair Price Shops, since
the poor did not have the required
purchasing capacity. All people who come
within the PDS could buy grain at the
concessional prices. So far these were
available only to people below the
poverty line. Prices of foodgrains in the
PDA, except for people below poverty
line, is presently higher than in the
open market and the quality is inferior.
Though these rates have not been cut
further, below the poverty line (BPL)
section can draw upto 25 kg. of
foodgrains on there ration cards.
Practically
all the households within the ambit of
PDS consume only one meal per day.
Official data on nutritional levels show
that 56% of India's population is
malnourished and 74% is unable to meet
its daily protein requirements. It is
essential to bring down the prices of
foodgrains under PDS to the level of the
export price, so that the poor can
benefit from the higher quota now being
allocated to them.-CNF.
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Jammu's
‘pathetic’ response to
Musharraf visit
TALES OF TRAVESTY
By: Dr.
Jitendra Singh
The Agra
summit has collapsed and nothing
substantial has come out of it but if the
talks had arrived at some conclusive
decisions in relation to the future of
Jammu and Kashmir, would Jammu have found
its due place in any such dispensation?
That is the question to ponder.
It is a
saving grace, though not wholly
gratifying, that a Panun Kashmir
representative managed for himself a few
minutes' direct audience with the
visiting Pakistan President General
Pervez Musharraf. Credit must be given to
this Kashmiri Pandit organisation for
being the only non-Hurriyat organisation
from Jammu and Kashmir which made a
determined attempt to make its presence
felt during the much publicised summit.
The only other but misguided effort was
made by the Panthers Party leader whose
comical "Dharna" at Agra was
more of a joke rather than a serious
exercise. And, as far as the socalled
Jammu Bandh on July 14 on the eve of
Musharraf visit, the lesser said the
better. The Bandh was hardly observed for
just a few hours in the morning before
the markets were thrown open only to
betray the Jammuites' desperate
shop-keeper mentality.
While
Jammu suffers from the dual tragedy of
lack of mature leadership on the one hand
and on the other hand an overwhelming
mushrooming of local vested and business
interests which are essentially
subservient to the leadership from the
Valley, it is unfortunate that the
socalled intelligentsia from Jammu has
also reduced itself to become ambiguous
articulators of remote manifestos and
remote philosophies thus betraying a
total lack of understanding of the ground
realities. Take, for example, a
cross-sectional opinion survey of Jammu
based doctors and lawyers published in
the "Hindustan Times". Most of
those who were interviewed sounded
euphoric about their photographs being
published alongside their respective
opinions and complimented their grandiose
notions by delivering philosophical
sermons on peace and friendship without
precisely referring to the fate of their
native Jammu in any future dispensation.
It is
rediculous to note that exactly on the
Saturday when the Pakistan President
landed at Delhi for a crucial meet, the
only BJP Union Minister from Jammu and
Kashmir found nothing wrong in taking the
flight to Jammu for his usual weekend
retreat. Had this Hon'ble Union Minister
stayed on in the national capital, his
presence and his viewpoint as the BJP
Minister from Jammu and Kashmir could
have attracted the attention of
international media which gave
round-the-clock coverage to the events
relating to Musharraf visit. Instead,
sadly enough, this Hon'ble Union Minister
was making local news in Jammu by
inaugurating a garments show-room.
Another
Jammu based organisation comprising some
retired Government officers, some
publicity - crazy businessmen, some
self-styled intellectuals and some idle
activists chose to hold a seminar a few
days before the Pakistan President's
visit to India. These learned
"seminarians" failed to
understand that it was time for them to
come out of cosy confines of a Hotel
auditorium and launch an aggressive
campaign to assert Jammu's case --- be it
through a series of forthright write-ups
and statements in the press, deputations
and memoranda to the concerned Union
Ministries as well as foreign High
Commissions as even the UNO, public
rallies and vociferous representations at
strategic venues in New Delhi and Agra.
Jammu's
"pathetic" response to recent
Musharraf - Vajpayee parleys on Jammu and
Kashmir exposes a bankruptcy of vision on
the part of Jammu's political and
intellectual leadership but nonetheless
it might leave some valuable cues and
lessons to be followed whenever there is
an occasion like this again in future.
The common
man in Jammu is hard-pressed. Even if he
decides to forgive and forget, his
children comprising the younger
generation may not be in a mood to pardon
the socalled protagonists who knowingly
or unknowingly bungled with the cause of
Jammu. Meanwhile, Umapathy will
have to stop leaning on his self-seeking
leaders and instead assert his identity
and his existence through his own means.
Or else, the note of caution comes in the
form of Allama Iqbal's poetic warning "---
Teri Barbaadiyon Ke Mashwarey Hain
Aasmanon Mein!"
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Assessing
Abortions through Women's Eyes
By Punam Thakur
It is one area
which has been neglected by the women's movement
in India and yet, it is believed that 20 per cent
of all maternal deaths in the country are due to
unsafe, clandestine abortions. The number of
abortions in the country exceeds 11.2 million
every year and it is also estimated that for
every legal abortion, there are 11 illegal
abortions conducted.
The reason for
such a state of affairs can be directly
attributed to the poor implementation the Medical
Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, lethargy on
the part of the medical community to comply with
the legislative measures and medical ethics, as
well as the socio-cultural context of abortion
centres, according to the Centre for Enquiry into
Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT).
Says Dr Sunita
Bandewar who has been working with the Pune-based
organisation for a number of years,
"Abortion research at CEHAT has been geared
for advocacy to improve women's access to safe
and legal abortion care services. We wanted to
know the specific areas of concern for different
stake holders - women, abortion service providers
and state administrators - in the process of
abortion care service delivery to be addressed
during the advocacy campaign."
According to
Bandewar, CEHAT was aware that the Medical
Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 was not
working and the healthcare facilities were not
good enough. The organisation wanted to define
the critical advocacy agenda in this regard.
CEHAT, which has
been working in the field of abortion research
and advocacy, understanding women's needs and
perspectives and the quality of abortion care
conducted research in two districts of
Maharashtra - Pune and Ratnagiri.
At the individual
woman's level the focus of the study was to find
out how she responds to the law and to abortions
per se. Says Bandewar, "A woman's point of
view is never expressed when it comes to
abortions so we wanted to find out what she feels
and even what she knows about the law."
Hence, CEHAT
decided to focus on the women in a qualitative
study conducted in six villages in the Pune
district. The districts were carefully chosen -
three had good access to healthcare and three did
not. The population size in these villages ranged
from 1,500 to 3,500 people.
CEHAT conducted
interviews with 67 women who had taken part in
focus group discussions prior to the start of the
study. Seventy per cent of the women interviewed
supported abortion as a woman's right over her
body and most of the women felt that abortions
were especially needed by women who became
pregnant outside marriage.
But more
significant than this was the fact that only 18
per cent of the women who formed part of the
study knew that abortions are legal in India and
even these women had inadequate information about
the law.
These women were,
however, more informed about certain other
aspects of abortions. For instance, all the women
maintained that they knew that abortions were
being conducted both by government hospitals and
also private practitioners. And 50 per cent of
them were aware that abortions could be conducted
up to five months of pregnancy.
The project which
started in 1997 covered 159 healthcare centres
offering abortion care facilities. The study
found that for every registered Abortion Care
Facility (ACF), there were around three
non-registered ACFs.
Moreover, the
study also found that the distribution of the
ACFs was very lopsided with all of them being
located in 44 villages and townships, which had a
population of 5,000 and more people. The
estimated number of women between 15 and 49 years
who may need abortion care varied between 172 and
1,007 per urban-based ACF and between 3,124 and
21,553 per rural-based ACF. The estimated number
of abortions per facility ranged between 54 to
480 per centre, assuming that 20 per cent of the
pregnancies are wasted.
"The biggest
handicap that we have faced is that there is no
information that is available on the extent of
abortions that take place in India. The data from
the official records is not complete or accurate.
Most of the empirical research has been hospital
based. The data from such studies is not adequate
because of the inherent constraints in the Indian
context to reveal the correct state of
affairs," says Bandewar.
According to one
report of all the abortions that take place,
three fifth are induced. According to some other
estimates about 10 per cent of the induced
abortions are after sex determination of the
foetus. "After our studies we have come to
the conclusion that the incidence of abortion is
highly underreported. We also believe that sex
determined induced abortions are
underestimated," Bandewar says. CEHAT is now
co-ordinating along with Health Watch, a national
level initiative called 'Abortion Assessment
Project - India' (AAP-India). Qualitative
research studies will be undertaken to understand
the socio-cultural aspects of abortion through
facility surveys in six states to assess quality
of abortion care. Community based retrospective
abortion incidence studies will also be
conducted. Five organisations in others states
like Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Haryana and
Rajasthan are replicating the work that CEHAT has
done on quality of abortion care during 1997 and
2000.
The methodology
workshops for the facility survey studies and
community based abortion incidence studies have
already been completed and these studies are now
waiting for approval by the Ethics Consultative
Group (ECG), AAP-India to launch the field work
in Maharashtra. This is the first ever
community-based retrospective study in India on
abortion incidence, care and cost.
What the workers
at CEHAT believe is that it is essential to
address social issues like empowering women to
gain better control both over theirbodies and
sexuality. Moreover, safe abortion techniques and
comprehensive healthcare services including
prenatal care, safe childbirth, safe and reliable
contraception and sex education are also needed. WFS
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Overcoming
long flight risk of DVT
By Deepak Arora
The death of a
woman in her twenties last October, immediately
after a flight from Australia to London, was
blamed upon a low cabin air quality which results
in Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). The incident hit
international headlines. It led some tabloids and
even a few broadsheet newspapers, particularly in
Britain and Australia, to predict thousands of
deaths per year and branding DVT as mass epidemic
similar to Britain's mad cow disease.
DVT is a condition
in which a blood clot forms in the deep vein of
the leg, particularly in the calf muscle.
Sometimes, in rare but potentially fatal cases,
the clot travels to the heart or lungs through
blood stream, possibly blocking the blood flow to
the lungs and causing acute pain, breathlessness
and even death by pulmonary embolism.
While it is clear,
and has been known for a long time, that
immobility for extended periods may indeed cause
DVT, direct connection between flying and the
condition is not proven. Back in 1940, the death
of 26 elderly people, asleep in deckchairs in the
London Underground (subway system) during an
aerial bombing raid, was linked directly to
immobility and a stagnating blood circulation.
Flying and DVT
have only in recent years drawn the attention of
the aviation industry, government authorities and
bodies such as the World Health Organisation
(WHO), are subject of in-depth statistical
methodology, the risk of contracting DVT while
flying.
One of the major
difficulties with DVT is that the condition may
appear, or have fatal consequences, several days
after a flight. With any long lapse of time, it
is extremely hard to prove whether a passenger
had a blood clot before travelling, or developed
one whilst travelling, and what caused it.
Factors suspected
to increase the risks of DVT, in addition to
prolonged immobility, are well defined:
dehydration, frequency of travel and forced lack
of movement due to safety procedures or cabin
crew activities. Personal factors also have a
significant influence: they can be obesity,
recent surgery, use of contraceptive pills, abuse
of alcohol and smoking.
DVT has mistakenly
been termed, in popular press, and "economy
class syndrome". But the fact is the
immobility can be the cause of a thrombosis
anywhere. It could occur in different modes to
travel and irrespective of the size or shape of
the seat being offered: for example, sitting
through a Tran Siberian train trip, of driving
non-stop from the east of the west coast of the
United States.
There is no
evidence that DVT strikes economy class
passengers more frequently than those in other
sections of the cabin. In fact, using this
misnomer could actually keep potentially at-risk
passengers from taking useful precautions while
travelling.
After the media
furore in the UK, the House of Lords had a deeper
look into the question. The Science and
Technology Committee of the House recognises that
a combination of personal and cabin-related
factors may contribute to the onset of DVT. The
investigation, however, repeatedly stresses the
need for further study, since there are no data
currently available by which the contribution of
air travel to the overall risk of DVT from any of
these factors, singly or in combination, can be
estimated.
In May this year,
IATA had held in Geneva a two-day conference
titled Cabin Health 2001, where this issue was
debated prominently. The Conference was attended
by more than 100 airline medical and other
specialists, medical suppliers and lawyers, The
agenda covered global International Health
Regulations, cosmic radiation, cabin air quality,
deep vein thrombosis (DVT), prevention measures,
regulatory initiatives and corporate
responsibility.
"The wide
range of topics discussed at the conference
covered public health issues," said IATA
Director General Pierre J. Jeanniot. "For
air transport as with other industries and
activities, precise answers may not be always
available. What is important is that the
industry, led by the airlines, is taking a
pro-active stance, involving themselves, their
passengers, the medical profession and
international institutes such as the World Health
Organisation (WHO) in both common sense measures
and further, more meaningful, research."
Against a
background of recent high-profile media coverage,
a particularly intense debate took place on DVT.
The shared view of the medical community and the
airlines is that there is at present on firm
evidence that flying is a specific risk in
itself. There is a shared view amongst the
medical community and the air transport industry
that is known preexisting conditions or factors
and immobility, rather than the cabin environment
itself, which are the key elements in developing
DVT.
"It is at
this point that common sense and cooperation come
into play," continued Jeanniot and added.
"Airlines will continue to encourage common
sense, simple measures on the part of passengers,
many of them involving gentle exercise, which can
guard against DVT and make the journey a better
experience. At the same time, and in the
best public health tradition, it is essential
that airlines and the world medical community
cooperate to obtain the best information possible
on any links, however tenuous they may be,
between flying and the condition," He said
IATA was to take a lead role in airline
collaboration with the World Health Organisation
(WHO) on long-term epidemiological studies of DVT
and flying.
Several airlines,
including British Airways, Air France, Quantas
and Alitalia have been working on the DVT factor
and provide information to passengers. British
Airways declares itself "seriously concerned
at passengers and staff health,' and has
contributed evidence and cooperated extensively
with the House of Lords investigation. It accepts
its conclusions about the importance of providing
passengers with accurate information on health
and travel. The company always takes health
issues seriously and considers itself
particularly pro-active on DVT.
At Air France the
accent is on information material that the
carrier has been providing to its passengers for
the last five years. The company has not
responded directly to the recent media coverage
in any special way, since it believes that it has
been taking the issue seriously for a long time.
The airline has
been paying attention to travel-related health
issues. A radio channel broadcasts a series of
exercises suggested of passengers. Its in-flight
magazine also carries health tips. In economy
class, a leaflet illustrates stretching movements
and recommendations about eating and drinking
adequately in order to counterbalance the dryness
of the cabin air. In cooperation with medical
experts two years ago a video tape was produced
in three different versions according to the
duration of the flight, with relaxation exercise
and movements aimed at improving blood
circulation-CNF.
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Unsavoury
educational menu at Rajouri
Academic Pulse
By Prof S K Bhalla
Now when the days
of alternating euphoria and gloom of
SUMMIT, closed door meetings, diplomatic
manoeuvres as also dainty menus are the reality
of none too remote past, once again it is time to
grapple with the educational realities available
for the scrutiny of the discerning in J&K.
Readers, my allusion is to the educational
process being conducted in the border district of
Rajouri wherein as per a media report of July
15,2001 we have a network of 1 Degree College, 16
Higher Secondary Schools, 2 Industrial Training
Institutes, 1 District Institution of Education
and Training, 80 High Schools, Countless number
of Primary and Middle Schools.
The grouse of the
affected public is the non-availability of staff,
absenteeism, the tendency of some teachers posted
in Govt. Schools more worried about teaching in
private schools enjoying the benefit of double
pay and dilapidated educational structures. There
is a lot of hue and cry of revamping the system
as mindboggling educational realities are a cause
of concern for the poor, down and out students
and parents. It is not for the first time that
such reports have trickled in the parliament of
people called a Newspaper. They are rather now a
routine affair like the practice of white washing
the lapses which recur at intervals with a
greater intensity.
According to Mark
Twain "Truth is the most valuable thing we
have. Let us economise it". In our country a
debate has been going on whether the progress of
the country was hampered due to wrong economic
policies. But as Noble Laureate Amartya Sen
recently pointed out the country should
concentrate on achieving progress in the field of
education and health instead of indulging in such
lengthy debates.
And primarily it
is in these two domains that the people want to
see real progress as each generation is growing
progressively blurred and degenerate. If measure
are not taken immediately to carry out a
full-scale fumigation we will forever in our
State be stuck in the prevailing atmosphere of
cynicism and despair.
Coming back to the
complaints of Rajouri District it can be safely
written that the aggrieved people on their own
should form Watch Dog Committees to oversee and
supervise things in a spirit of goodwill and in
case nothing improves within a time-frame
mutually agreed upon they can resort to sensible
democratic means for the redressal of their
genuine grievances. The top official educational
hierarchy in the District should have the courage
to respond to the blunt complaints and piercing
questions without any further delay.
It is a great
tragedy in education sector as in other sectors
that after a brief period of "startled
wakefulness" we go to sleep again. There is
no need to make a mountain of mutterings but to
face boldly uncovered damning truths about the
educational climate in the affected area.
Is
Technology the Answer to Poverty?
By J Niti
The United Nations
Development Programme's (UNDP) newly released
Human Development Report 2001 with its central
message that major initiatives are needed to
ensure that new technologies address the pressing
needs of the world's poor, has drawn criticism
from activists both within the country and
abroad.
The report, the
12th in the annual series brought out by the
UNDP, has ranked 162 countries on its Human
Development Index (HDI), the composite measure
that includes life expectancy, educational
enrolment and adult literacy. Norway is now
ranked first in the world in terms of HDI
followed by Australia. Both moved narrowly ahead
of Canada, the leader of the previous six years.
India jumped 13 places to rank 115 on the HDI due
to consistent progress in poverty reduction.
This year's theme
which is dedicated to 'Making New Technologies
Work for Human Development' has developed a
Technology Achievement Index (TAI) for the first
time which ranks countries by the level of
diffusion of technology.
The point in the
report which has generated the most debate has to
do with its perspective of technology as a tool
for development. In this network age, the report
stresses, any country that fails to make
effective use of technology is likely to find
itself falling behind in human development and
marginalised in the global economy. Criticism of
this point started with the release of the report
in New Delhi when questions were raised about the
logic of stressing on technology when people in
the country could not get one square meal in a
day.
At the launch
function in New Delhi, which was attended by
Information Technology Minister, Pramod Mahajan
who also released the report, agricultural
scientist M S Swaminathan and UN Resident
Coordinator in India Brenda Gael McSweeny noted
with concern the disparities in the spread of
technology both between and within countries.
India, for instance, though home to a world-class
technology hub in Bangalore ranks at the lower
end of the TAI at the 63rd position. This is
because Bangalore is a small enclave in India --
a country where the average adult receives only
5.1 years of education, adult illiteracy is 44
per cent, electricity consumption is half that in
China and there are just 28 telephones for every
1,000 people, the report points out. What was
also stressed was the urgent need for stepping up
research efforts in four areas. These include
vaccines for malaria, HIV and tuberculosis;
high-yielding, pest-resistant and drought
tolerant varieties of staple foods of south Asian
and sub-Saharan Africa; low-cost computers,
low-cost energy systems and wireless connectivity
for the poor.
Dr Swaminathan
advocates an 'antyodaya' approach, that is,
development based on attention to the poorest
people, to bridge the digital, genetic and gender
divides. This approach, he says in a special
contribution to the report, has proven very
effective in including the excluded, particularly
women, in technological and skill empowerment.
Arguing that
information and communication technology and
biotechnology can actually make major
contributions to reducing world poverty, the
report concludes that all countries, even the
poorest, need to implement policies that
encourage innovation, advanced skills and access
to new technologies.
It is these
conclusions which have drawn fire from
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and action
groups. The report, by advocating that
"farmers and firms need to master new
technologies developed elsewhere to stay
competitive in global markets", completely
ignores the scores of technological alternatives
to hi-tech and biotech that have been developed
by ordinary people around the world, they
maintain.
Groups like the
Pune-based Kalpavriksh Environmental Action
Group, the Andhra Pradesh Coalition in Defence of
Diversity and the Delhi-based Forum for
Biotechnology and Food Security and the
International Group for Grassroots Initiatives
have in a joint letter strongly criticised the
report for its "unabashed" support to
the hi-tech bandwagon on which "a minority
of powerful elites are galloping to even greater
riches, even more power".
According to them,
this year's report goes against its own
principles as last year's report made a strong
argument in favour of global policies that are
human rights-based and favour fundamental rights
of the world's poor to food, housing, health and
self-determination. Development and environmental
groups like Oxfam Canada and Greenpeace while
applauding the UNDP's concern that intellectual
property rights codified in the WTO have impeded
the transfer of technology to developing
countries, come down heavily on the report for
its failure to take up proven alternatives for
developing nations.
A Greenpeace
co-commissioned report of over 200 projects in
developing nations shows that sustainable
agriculture offers incredible advantages for the
hungry to feed themselves. "Extensive
studies show that the best solutions to world
hunger are coming from the field, not being
hatched in biotech labs," says Michael Khoo
of Greenpeace. WFS
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