[HT] The Hunger Project

Emerging India either does not know or ignores the statistics: Half its children are malnourished, a record worse than the world’s symbol for deprivation, sub-Saharan Africa. India is ranked 66th out of 88 countries in the Global Hunger Index drawn up by the International Food Policy Research Institute. India is home to a quarter of the world’s hungry – about 230 million people – according to a World Food Programme report released on March 2009. More than 455 million Indians survive on US$ 1.25 ((Rs 56) approximately) a day or less, compared with 420 million in 1981. As the government prepares to launch India’s grandest attempt yet to tackle hunger and malnutrition, the Hindustan Times announces a nationwide effort to track, investigate and report every aspect of the struggle to rid the nation of hunger.

Follow the Hunger Project on HT. 

Orissa, Jharkhand Cut Neonatal Mortality Rates

 Mothers in the tribal regions of Jharkand and Orissa are stopping their babies from dying by simply 'peer educating' and 'talking out' problems with the help of NGOs like Ekjut. TOI reports:

Prasanta Tripathy runs the NGO Ekjut, which facilitated the training. He says “there is a 45% reduction in neonatal mortality rate as well as a change in practices related to child-rearing. Besides, there is a 57% reduction in postnatal depression.”
Tripathy says they stress on “participation, learning and action — the ingredients in the making of an empowered mother and healthy baby.”
The NGO started with 20 women in three villages around Chakradharpur six years ago. By now, it has 20,000 trained women, spread across more than a thousand villages in nine districts of Jharkhand and Orissa.
Sumitra Gagrai, Ekjut group coordinator, says the core of the revolution was the community spirit unleashed, when trained female volunteers fanned out across remote villages “to encourage adolescent girls and married women to find practical solutions for good health during the pre and post pregnancy period.” 

Read the TOI reports here and here.
Just another example of how far even a handful of small basic steps can go in alleviating the seemingly intractable challenges facing us today.

Vijay Mahajan on Universal Financial Inclusion : How It Can be Done

He writes in the Inclusion magazine:

In terms of bank branch density, India scores fairly well and this is primarily due to the branch expansion policy that was pursued soon after nationalisation in the 1970s. Thus, while we seem to have cracked the “last mile” problem, the poor have still to see the “first smile” from the service providers. More branches have not translated into better access for the poor. They still find it difficult to fulfill the “know your customer” (KYC) requirements to open accounts and contending with surly staff in branches. How can this be changed?
...
The interesting thing is that India’s banking system (except for big city-based high-end users) in 2009 is a lot like the Indian telephone system was in 1989, before the STD-PCO revolution. To be sure, there are thousands of ATMs from where even small account holders can draw cash, but even these are mainly present in bigger cities in any reasonable density. To truly take the system to the next level of access, three things are a must – enabling every adult to open a bank account, establishing a dense and nationwide network of transaction points, spanning not just the “last mile” but the “final furlong”, and lastly, an inter-bank exchange or switch, to ensure that all transactions are recorded in real-time. Taken together, this will be the Nationwide Electronic Financial Inclusion System (NEFIS) that we recommended in the report of the Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial Sector Reforms.
...
Interestingly, India is on the threshold of these possibilities. The first, opening of bank accounts, can be greatly enabled by the proposed unique ID (UID) number that will be given to every Indian. This will eliminate the need for further KYC requirements. The second is supported by the recent recommendation of the RBI committee on the business correspondent (BC) model, which says that kirana shops and STD-PCOs (yes!!) can become BCs for banks. The third, an inter-bank switch already exists both for large transactions - RTGS for above Rs 100,000 and NEFT for transactions below Rs 100,000, but rarely below Rs 1,000. Thus, all key parts of NEFIS are falling into place.
 ...
The technologically challenged need not worry if this is possible and how much will it cost. It is already being done in several pilots, such as by the pioneer company in this field, A Little World or ALW, and the whole kit costs less than Rs 10,000 per mobile BC!
...
After satisfying itself that such technologies are reliable and tamper-proof, the RBI should permit the use of m-money more widely (that is beyond bank account to bank account transfers), as has been done in European e-money regulations. This will reduce the use of currency for small transactions, just as has happened for larger transactions in the last decade. This will significantly reduce transaction costs of cash pay-in, pay-out and handling currency notes/coins. A day should come when an NREGS worker receives her wages on her mobile phone and uses it to pay her kirana shop and school fees, without using currency. All this, while the balance in her account earns interest!

 Read the full article here.

Economic Survey suggests replacing PDS with food coupons

The Public Distribution System (PDS) of food grains in India is plagued by pilferage, black-marketing and diversion and inexcusable wastage. These supply side inefficiencies not only hurt the poor but also have cascading effects that impinge on the consumption choices of the common man as well. It is high time this regime of indirect subsidies is done away with and replaced by a more effective system of direct subsidies in the form of food coupons that can be used to buy food items from the open market by the BPL families. This will lead to a single market for food grains (vis-a-vis the two markets that exist today - the subsidised one for BPL families and the non-subsidised open market) and hence do away with the very concept of black-marketing. It will also get rid of the need for government owned-fair price shops which is important as the operators of these shops have little incentive to prevent wastage since their income is not dependent on how much they sell.

An article on InfoChange India on the Economic Survey recommendation:

India’s 2010 Economic Survey suggests doing away with food and fertiliser subsidies and providing the poor food coupons to exchange at market prices.