Talking about the ICDS program, we often talk about such aspects as coverage and access. However, it seems that we need to ask further – what about quality? What about impact? Clearly, having an ICDS centre is not an achievement in itself unless it produces results and results unfortunately are anything but encouraging.

A report by the World bank titled “India’s Undernourished Children: A Call for Reform and Action” point out that three recent studies estimate the association between having an anganwadi center in a village and the likelihood that a child is underweight, found little or no association between the presence of an ICDS center and child nutritional status. The World Bank also estimates that, for boys, having a local ICDS center is associated with a 5% reduction in the likelihood of being underweight, but that there is no significant association for girls. Similar studies also found little significant effect when children in ICDS villages are compared with children with similar demographic, household and village characteristics in non-ICDS villages except in Kerala. There is also not much evidence that ICDS has been successful in attaining its goal of improving the coverage of specific child health interventions such as de-worming and Vitamin A supplementation, and encouraging mothers to adopt appropriate child care and feeding behaviors (including practices related to breastfeeding, weaning and diet) that have the potential to improve child growth and health outcomes.

There can be various explanations for the gaps from ineffective communication to the challenges to behavior change. However, at the crux is poor accountability to the people services, especially because the main beneficiaries are poor. As the saying goes, the services for the poor end up as being poor services. Where does the buck stop?

For more of such articles visit http://www.csopartners.org.in

- Ipsita Basu

It is now emerging that universalization of food security would not be possible, at least immediately, given the current state of agricultural productivity and the level of grain procurement. Given the situation, the National Advisory Council (NAC) recommended the Union Food Ministry the extension of universal food entitlements to either one-fourth of the poorest districts or one-fourth of the poorest blocks in the country. The members were in favour of the implementation of universal food entitlements in one-fourth of the poorest blocks rather than one-fourth of the districts, as that would better target the most vulnerable. In the remaining areas, the status quo will continue with the current application of the Public Distribution System (http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/15/stories/2010071553110100.htm)

This is an area of concern because it highlights that the fears about low levels of production were not unfounded. It also underscore the importance of making farming more efficient in small land holding, given that is the most pre-dominant form of land holding in the India rural scenario. At the same time, it is absolutely important to help the farmers diversify into alternative livelihoods both farm based and non farm based enterprise.

Finally, in intervening for food security, it is important to keep the focus on vulnerable and less vocal sections, like pregnant woman who need most nutrition but are often denied given the overall patriarchal arrangement of our society. Targeting this group is the only way to arrest under-nutrition, so widespread in the country. Roping in Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Panchayati raj Institutions (PRI) is important for communicating this effectively and making changes at the household level.

For more of such discussions visit http://www.csopartners.org.in/blog
-Ipsita Basu

Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is a form of budgeting that contributes to the advancement of gender equality and the fulfillment of women’s rights. It entails identifying and reflecting needed interventions to address gender gaps in sector and local government policies, plans and budgets. GRB also aims to analyze the gender-differentiated impact of revenue-raising policies and the allocation of domestic resources and Official Development Assistance.

GRB initiatives seek to create enabling policy frameworks, build capacity and strengthen monitoring mechanisms to support accountability to women. As such, it is a process that entails incorporating a gender perspective at various stages—planning/ policy/ programmes formulation, assessment of needs of target groups, allocation of resources, implementation, impact assessment and if required, reprioritization of resources.

Given that the women represent 48 percent of the total population in the country and that owning to various factors, they face disparities in access to and control over services and resources, the government, in an important initiative has mandated setting up of Gender Budgeting Cells (GBCs) in all Ministries/Departments.

The move also stems from the recognition that the bulk of public expenditure and policy concerns are in so called “gender neutral” sectors– power, defence, petroleum, transport, etc, whereas, in actual terms, there is no sector which can be considered to be completely “gender neutral”.

What is important about gender budgeting in the realization that it is not an accounting exercise. Gender Responsive Budget and Gender mainstreaming are outcomes of Gender Budgeting. Given this, there was an allocation of Rs. 28,737 cr. for benefit of women estimated from 24 demand for grants in 18 Ministries and Departments. The process has been extended to all levels of governance—Centre, State, District, local governance and also to Public Sector units and Autonomous Bodies. Gender Auditing has also been made mandatory.

While it is too early to comment on the performance of the initiative, it is indeed a welcome step and if implemented well, it can address some of the important issues pertaining to women specifically with regard to access to resources. However, for that to happen, it is important to ensure that there are adequate structures and mechanisms to ensure that there is space for participation of women in budgetary exercise, be it from SHGs or other platforms. Without this, plans would continue to be made in isolation from the reality. For how long can we afford it?

How can gender budgeting be made effective?

-Ipsita Basu

Educated women in India invariably find themselves in a state of dilemma after marriage and childbirth. Who is to be the dispenser of childcare responsibilities- a fundamental yet thankless job?

It made big news when Indira Nooyi announced a program to re-engage women who had left PepsiCo due to child care responsibilities. As magazines gloss over successful women who have balanced family and career, there is no escape from trade-offs- something no Cost Benefit Analysis can adequately capture or decisively judge.

But why does it have to be like that? There are endless possibilities of work that can be done with flexible timings and/ from home. Why not have crèche/ day care centers in the offices? Some have started, but most of the organizations shy away from the responsibility and the legal implications. It is possible for a woman farmer to carry her baby to the field and carry on with her work. It is more difficult for a woman software engineer with an MNC. We as a society are not prepared to create that space. Otherwise, why can’t we think out of the box for the millions of women who have constraints in mobility but sharp and active minds? Why do we want to lose trained and efficient employees rather than look at innovative ways to keep them engaged?

For more such discussions visit http://www.csopartners.org.in/blog

- Ipsita Basu

Health care is a huge economic liability for the poor. While the poor quality of the government health units deter people from accessing these, the high costs associated with private services are difficult to afford. A dual pressure of reduced income (especially when the working members of the household are sick) and increased health care expenses put enormous pressure on the households. Ill health not only undermines the inherent quality of life but also compromises productivity and impairs access to other services by diverting the limited resources. For example, a household that has to care for a sick person might have to withdraw a child from school in order to meet the medical expenses.

India spends about 4.9% of GDP on health (WHR, 2002)-public expenditure (0.9%); private expenditure (4.0%). The private expenditure can be further classified as out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure (3.6%) and employees/community financing (0.4%). It is thus evident that public health investment has been comparatively low. In fact as a percentage of GDP it has declined from 1.3% in 1990 to 0.9% as at present. Furthermore, the central budgetary allocation for health (as a percentage of the total Central budget) has been stagnant at 1.3% while in the states it has declined from 7.0% to 5.5%.

As a results, around 24% of all people hospitalized in India in a single year fall below the poverty line due to hospitalization (World Bank, 2002). An analysis of financing of hospitalization shows that large proportion of people; especially those in the bottom four-income quintiles borrow money or sell assets to pay for hospitalization (WorldBank, 2002).

In light of this, can health insurance, especially designed for the poor help?

To begin with, the health insurance market in India is very limited covering about 10% of the total population. In addition to the regular insurance, there are community-based schemes targeted at poorer populations. Such schemes are generally run by trust hospitals or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Some of the important organizations promoting such programs include SEWA and Ananad in Gujarat with a membership close to one hundred thousand each. The benefits offered are mainly in terms of preventive care, though Outpatient and in-patient care is also covered. Such schemes tend to be financed through patient collection, government grants and donations.

However, the coverage of such schemes is low, covering about 30-50 million (Bhat, 1999). Review of these schemes indicates that many community-based insurance schemes suffer from poor design and management, fail to include the poorest-of-the-poor, have low membership and require extensive financial support. Other issues relate to sustainability and replication of such schemes.

In some states the state governments have launched programs like Arogyashree in Andhra Pradesh that provide insurance (mainly as a form of cashless services in hospitals, including private hospitals) to the families that are below the poverty line. However, the need to enhance the coverage of health insurance for the poor cannot be overstated. While in terms of absolute figures, the government is allocating resources through various flagship programs including the National Rural Health Mission, for perceptible change to happen, delivery mechanisms have to be put in order. Until the health profile of the population, especially the poor does not improve, it is not possible to break out of the vicious cycle of poverty and deprivation. Health insurance for the poor can be one of the first steps towards a healthy India by reducing the financial burden of health.

Is it possible to have a viable model of health insurance for the poor or should it be treated as part of the social security net?

-Ipsita Basu

· ‘100 million Facebook members for Democracy in Iran’ on Facebook has 234,847 members.

· A Google search on the keywords “Iran election protests,” returns more than five million (5,740,000 to be precise) results.

· Students in Moldova used Twitter as a tool to mobilize opposition against a communist victory in Moldovian elections

The role of the social networking got extensive media coverage after the disputed election results in Iran and the following protests. Facebook, MySpace, Wikipedia, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social-networking tools were used to facilitate discussion, debate, and the exchange of ideas and information. The entire movement was branded as a twitter revolution with the social-networking technologies as a prominent component of “main street” communications. Numerous websites emerged as an information clearinghouse, with such details as the location of future protests, posting warnings on government crackdowns, and sharing updates of individuals injured, killed, arrested, or missing.

This is important because the availability of the Internet in Iran is not widespread. Additionally, Iranian infrastructure, does not provide most Iranians with access to broadband. Yet, through the strong Iranian diaspora, the protestors reached out to the world. An example of the importance diaspora is that the most popular facebook account on democracy in Iran originates from New York.

What does this mean for India, a country with a sizable net using population in terms of absolute numbers? For one, one has to caution against misrepresentation. While the number of Indians is the highest after Brazilians on Orkut, net penetration is low if the at the country level. Any movement generated online should therefore needs to have that caveat to avert risk of amplifying one side of the issue, those that pertain to the net-enabled.

India also has a sizable large diaspora population, not just as “labor frontiers” but as intellectual export that exhibits online social-networking behavior more similar to nations with high levels of Internet penetration.

Analyst also note that the “freedom to scream” online may actually help the state by providing a “political release valve.” Repressive regimes can also employ social networking for their own ends, hawking propaganda and spreading disinformation. http://www.washington
post.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/19/AR2009061901598.html.

Information assurance–knowing that data are precise and reliable–remains the most serious concern regarding social-networking tools. Rumors, perfidy, or inaccurate information can be dispersed at least as fast as facts. Information technology allows researchers to conduct more and better analysis, but it also allows opinion makers to spin better, more compelling stories faster and proliferate them more widely. http://www.heritage.org/research/internetandtechnology/bg2300.cfm.

It is hard to predict how this cornucopia of user-generated media would impact India which has a relatively free media. Can it be expected to be more serious, as the TRP ratings matter less (though the number of hits on the blog does)? Intellectually superior to media reporting as blogging is based on an interest in the subject? Potent, because finally opinion makes on net are also increasingly decision makers?

Does social networking really have the potential to stir and/ steer a revolution?

- Ipsita Basu

In its Renewable Energy Roadmap, the European Commission proposed a mandatory target that bio-fuels must provide ten per cent of member states’ transport fuels by 2020. Environmentally sustainable, as this might sound, this target is a serious threat to vulnerable people in the developing countries at risk from land-grabbing and deteriorating food security as land is being used for producing bio fuels.

The chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues recently warned that 60 million indigenous people worldwide face clearance from their land to make way for bio-fuel plantations, contributing to one of the worst refugee crises in the world. Many of these violent acts occur in the traditional territories of indigenous peoples and as vulnerable groups are forced aside to make way for bio-fuel plantations.

Once people lose their land, they lose their livelihoods. Many end up in slums in search of work, others will fall into migratory labour patterns, some will be forced to take jobs – often in precarious conditions – on the very plantations which displaced them (oxfam)

Amidst concern that indiscriminate bio fuel production compromises the well-being of the poor, a growing body of work focuses on the ways in which bio-fuel production can be pro-poor. This stream of thought and action focuses on using bio fuels to help meet domestic energy needs required for such purposes as cooking, and lighting. In most parts of the world, the women and children are engaged in activities to meet the domestic needs (by such means as collection of fire wood, dried leaves, etc) that not only take a long share of time, but also is detrimental to their health. Children miss school or play time to accompany adults for work. In this scenario, bio-fuel production, by innovatively incorporating the rural small and marginal farmers more tightly into the value chain can make a difference. It is worthwhile to work out ways in which the farmers can capture more of the value-adds generated by bio-fuel production systems beyond just providing raw material and biomass.

Research by IFPRI and collaborators shows that if there are positive technological spillover effects into subsistence, smallholder agriculture—particularly when key staple crops are cultivated—then there could also be pro-poor consequences from bio-fuels growth. The configuration of bio-fuels production systems is important for pro-poor outcomes, since more intensive, plantation-style schemes will mostly give benefits through paid labor and wage effects, whereas more out grower-oriented schemes might have a stronger poverty-reducing effect for smallholder farmers who use their labor on-farm.

The issues have been well-summarized by Kojima and Johnson’s-“bio-fuels should be integrated within a broader context of investment in rural infrastructure and human capital formation. Low-income countries should assess whether the underlying conditions for a successful bio-fuel program exist or could be developed in the near-term, including infrastructure and essential public services”.

Can bio-fuels be pro-poor? Can smallholder farmers be equitably integrated in the bio-fuels global supply chain?

-Ipsita Basu

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