Good evening, this belated newsletter covers the new farmer ordinances, where India stands based on its coal-powered energy plants, and mental health in a pandemic, amongst other rural, health, and environmental news.
Rural
Will the new agricultural laws blend?
The new agricultural bills were passed amid much uproar in the parliament. Yet, the farmers have not stopped taking to the streets as water cannons gallon their way through the protesting crowds. While they look good on paper, the ordinances are lacking in many ways.
Essentially, the new ordinances allow farmers to sell their produce in places other than regulated mandis, allow economic agents to stock food without the fear of hoarding, and also let farmers enter into contract farming with private players. The idea behind these is to ‘liberalise’ the market, hoping to introduce competition and allow for better prices for farmers.
Despite the fact that the government did an untidy job at making farmers aware of what the bill was supposed to do, it is evident that the primary concern of farmers has been around the fact that the government, like the several other promises it has made, may not purchase the crops at the minimum support price MSP, and its decision to prioritise consumers over free trade in the market — such as halting the export of onions — may hamper the price. Moreover, it is for corporations to decide on the price now, as the MSP works only at the government procurement centres.
However, several farmer bodies have welcomed the move which has seen the government assure them that they can go to the mandis if they wish to. They now have more choices — only the way around it is unclear. This will also clear a lot of middlemen and the fear of losing a 2.5 percent commission has also led to opposition for the new ordinances.
It is for the time to tell — the bill has been passed against massive opposition and distrust that the government might not uphold its promise on the MSPs. However, if the farmers gain steady increased income on the produce with massive room for innovation, and without the threat of monocrop plantations that could ruin soil health, the new laws might just fit well.
RTI on migrant deaths in Shramik Trains
In an RTI application filed in 18 zones of the Indian Railways by the Wire, Indian Railways has confirmed the deaths of at least 80 people on board the Shramik Special Trains. According to the report, 96 migrant labourers died on board Shramik special trains while 49 others died at various quarantine centres.
This report comes at a time when the Center has declared that it has not collected any data on those migrant deaths that occurred due to the lockdown.
Rural schooling in the pandemic
Room to Read, a non-profit organisation supporting literacy, conducted a survey of 28,000 girls in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Vietnam to determine the impact of the pandemic on girls’ education. The study showed that 42% of girls reported a decline in their family’s income and that one in two girls surveyed was at risk of dropping out.
This piece by The Indian Express discusses how the NEP 2020 ignore the issues rural India faces with education and doesn’t do enough to address them. It also highlights that increasing privatisation could make schooling more inaccessible to the marginalised, who already are limited to government schools.
Impact of the pandemic on rural women
An Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), Delhi, conducted a survey among 4,500 women in rural areas of 20 Indian states between July and August. The results show that the pandemic has largely affected women’s lives, work, and livelihoods. Eight out of ten respondents reported that girls college situated at distant place viz. more than 5 km. 80% of them use their own savings for their healthcare, and 43% reported having seen violence against women in their neighbourhood due to poor cooking, children crying, and not taking care of in-laws.
How to reduce food and job insecurity in rural areas
A survey of about 17,000 households in 80 districts in 11 states, carried out by Rapid Rural Community Response to Covid-19 (RCRC), has found that only 7% of the returnee migrants are engaged in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). 66% of rural households fell short of cash for food and 40% reduced their intake. This report highlighted the need to revive public systems of service delivery in health and nutrition. A few of the solutions mentioned were to pump more funds into the MGNREGS, banks should extend a top-up loan of Rs 10,000 crore to Self-help Groups (SHGs), and extend the free ration scheme for six more months.
Digital India far from reality
Digital India might be hard to achieve when over 70 percent of rural India does not have access to the internet. Broadband penetration in rural India is limited to a mere 29.2 percent as of 31 March 2020, according to Sanjay Dhotre (Minister of State for Communications, Education, and Electronics & Information Technology).
Do decreasing farmer suicides mean progress?
This report by the Hindustan Times talks about how the decreasing number of farmer suicides in India might not be as great of an achievement as it sounds like - while the number of deaths has decreased, the number of deaths of cultivators hasn’t, and reasons for the deaths have stopped being published since 2016. Additionally, a study conducted by Columbia University shows that between 2001 and 2013, a total of 9,456 suicides were linked to excess water flooding during the three cultivation months (March-June).
Postal service to the rescue
The Department of Posts has launched a 'Five Star Villages scheme' which aims to spread the postal schemes to cover 100% of the rural areas. Post branch offices will function as a one-stop-shop to cater to all post-office-related needs of villagers.
No crematorium for Dalits in rural MP
Members of the Akhil Bhartiya Shree Balai Mahasangh staged a protest outside the Divisional Commissioner Office in Indore demanding a separate crematorium for Dalits. Manoj Parmar, national president of the federation, stated that the higher caste of the area did not allow Dalits to cremate their dead in common crematoriums, adding that there are roughly 50 villages in rural Indore where this occurs.
Environment
Wildlife clearances are given without body meeting
680 projects were granted wildlife clearance over the last five years, even though the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has never met during the past five years with all its 47 members in attendance. Most of these projects are located in protected areas or wildlife-rich areas, it was said in the Rajya Sabha. In reply to another query, the environment ministry said it had received 31 coal mining projects for environmental clearance this year, of which 14 projects have been granted environment clearances.
Aftermath of Assam oilfield fire
Wildlife Institute of India, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, has called for a reassessment of the environmental clearance given to Oil India Limited in April for drilling 18 wells and laying gas pipelines Baghjan, Assam. The fire, which has been burning for more than a hundred days, was finally capped on the 13th os September.
The report states that 65 to 70 hectares of land including crop fields, grasslands and swamps, have been destroyed by the Baghjan disaster. This is especially pertinent since, after the 16th of January, projects such as the oil wells fall under the “B2” category - those which requires no public hearing.
Environmental degradation and peace and security
At the UN Security Council debate titled “Humanitarian Effects of Environmental Degradation and Peace and Security,” India spoke against “securitisation” of environmental problems, saying that there was no point to linking environmental issues to peace and security. “However, merely to link up everything related to environmental issues with peace and security does nothing to enhance our understanding of the problem; nothing to help us address these issues in a meaningful way and does nothing to call out the real perpetrators and make them adhere to their commitments on environmental issues or help change the behaviour of people at subsistence level,” India said.
Coal-powered plants: the pros and cons
2022 is the deadline for coal-powered plants to meet their environmental norms, but a new assessment by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) finds that a large number of the plants in India continue to be lax and laid back when it comes to getting ready to meet the deadline. CSE found that only 56 percent of the total capacity complies with the new PM norms, and only 35 percent are in compliance with the SO2 norms. There has been an increase of 3 percent and 5 per cent respectively when compared to October last year.
A new analysis was done by Climate Risk Horizon, a non-profit that analyses the risks to the Indian economy from climate change, shows that were 54 coal plants (that are older than 20 years), to be shut down in the next two years, there would be a savings of up to Rs 53,000 crore over five years for the states’ electricity distribution companies. These savings will come in two ways – avoiding the installation of pollution control technology, and using cheaper options to replace the electricity bought from the old plants. India’s renewables capacity would be sufficient to make up for the lack of these plants.
Read the study by Climate Risk Horizon here.
The government does have plans to shut down 34 units of 12 polluting thermal power plants that have not submitted any plan to adhere to the newly prescribed emission control norms. Most of them are run by state governments. Power companies have retired almost 14000 MW of coal-based generation capacities over the last 18 years, about 164 thermal power generating units were retired.
Coal-powered plants are one of India’s main air polluters. Emissions have been linked to 83,000 deaths each year in India. The burning of coal contributes nearly 44% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.
Operation of poultry farms has the potential to damage the environment
The National Green Tribunal has revisited its order of previously allowing poultry farms with less than one lakh birds to be categorised as “green,” saying that “Leaving the field of poultry farm below one lakhs birds unregulated is a failure to protect the environment, as required under the Water Act, 1974 and the Air Act, 1981.” It looks into antibiotics being used along with poultry faecal matter being a polluting agent which needs to be disposed of well.
Edakkal caves in Wayanad under pressure
Edakkal rock shelters in Wayanad, Kerala are categorised as Neolithic Petroglyphs, the new stone age. Despite being a treasure trove for archaeologists and researchers, the mountain is now under duress from illegal constructions, mining, and urbanisation. A crack developed on the eastern part of the mountain in 2019 is also contributing to the worries around the caves. This is going on in spite of the government declaring 5.5 acres of land around the caves as protected and banning any kind of construction activities 300 meters around the premises. Read more in-depth about the area and its problems here.
Community wildlife conservation in Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh’s Thembang — of the community conserved areas — has been practising community-based tourism for more than 10 years. What more? It has managed to increase its value 4-fold since 2019. They have voluntarily declared nine community conserved areas over 15 years, and have an area of 1500 square kilometres that they take care of.
Read more on this method of conservation and tourism.
Joint community ownership for mineral protection
The United Nations Environment Programme is organising consultations around the world to better be aware of the challenges around sustainable mineral procurement. The programme has also seen surveys in South Asia where it has looked at communities impacted by mining as a stakeholder.
Najafgarh lake needs a joint environmental plan
Najafgarh Jheel (lake) as a water body falls in both Delhi and Gurgaon in Haryana, leading the National Green Tribunal to rule that both the governments need to prepare an environment plan to prevent encroachments and construction in the area. While previously it wasn’t considered to be a lake, the Haryana government had earlier taken a U-turn by telling the NGT that it had accepted the area as a water body.
Centre rejects Greenpeace study on anthropogenic SO2
A Greenpeace study shows that India is the world's largest emitter of anthropogenic sulphur dioxide (SO2). However, the Environment Ministry has rejected these findings, stating that prior to a 2015 notification, there were no SO2 emission norms for coal-based thermal power plants, leading to no way to measure it. The plants did, allegedly, have 18 units for flue-gas desulphurization.
An upgraded flood policy in India
A review by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay tries to tackle the problem of floods in India. The researchers recommend that India’s flood management policy should shift from a “passive response” that depends on structural measures to a more hands-on predictive approach that emphasises nonstructural measures such as forecasting, land use planning, warning outreach, and floodplain mapping. You can read the entire paper here.
Health
According to the Union Health Ministry, India is now the country with the highest number of recoveries, and a fatality rate of reportedly 1.6 percent. Over Sunday, India's tally reached 54,87,580 with the fresh spike of 86,961 new cases this morning in the previous 24 hours. Twelve lakh samples were tested since Saturday, as per the Health Ministry. This takes the total number of samples collected to 6,36,61,060.
India is at second place worldwide, and at the current trajectory will surpass the US in around four weeks. This piece is a good explainer and background read about why India’s cases are sky-rocketing now.
Epidemic Bill, 2020
The Union government has also passed the Epidemic Bill 2020, updating it from the erstwhile 1897 Bill that was established by the British. However, the bill is largely the same, with the addition of making violence towards frontline workers a non-bailable offence. The Center is reportedly using the suggestion towards to bill to formulate a National Public Health Act as per Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.
Vandana Chavan of the NCP has called the ordinance a knee-jerk reaction. “You should bring in better legislation – not only for times of epidemics but for normal circumstances as well. We know that doctors are regularly attacked even when there isn’t a pandemic. You have also not taken into consideration ASHA workers, who have faced attacks when they went to the field for Covid-19 work, and have also not been paid for months,” she said.
Read more about the Bill and the case against it by the Opposition here.
India running out of O2
The oxygen industry had quadrupled production to 2,700 tonnes per day from 750 tonnes a day in the last six months and is now struggling to match the growing demand. In the previous week, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Mumbai have all reported shortage of medical oxygen resulting in the death of COVID-19 patients.
Prior to the resumption of industrial activity, the medical oxygen industry was supplying around 70-80 per cent of the oxygen to hospitals. Now, the industry is producing 5,000 tonnes of oxygen every day, of which 2,300 tonnes are for industrial use while 2,700 tonnes are supplied to hospitals.
Read more about medical oxygen and its shortage here.
No data on healthcare workers who lost their lives
Aside from stating that they had failed to collect data of migrant workers who had died due to the lockdown, the government also said that it did not have the data on the number of healthcare staff, including doctors, nurses, support staff and ASHA workers, who had been affected by and died of COVID. The government, however, does have the number of kin of the staff (155 people) who had sought relief under the PM Garib Kalyan Insurance Package, which provides relief in case of death of healthcare providers, which gives an estimate of the deaths.
Mental health and pandemics
The government has not conducted any study on the impact of the pandemic on mental health, though a number of initiatives have been initiated to provide psychosocial support during the pandemic, the Rajya Sabha was told as per Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey.
Researchers at UW Medicine have found that primary-care physicians and rural clinic staff felt more skilled in delivering mental health care if they followed a routine in collaborative care. It’s a model where primary-care physicians retain the responsibility to treat behavioural health disorders with the support of two members: a care manager and a consulting psychiatrist. Read about this research and how respondents felt over here.
The National Mental Health Survey (NHMS) in 2015-16 shows that 4.48% of people in rural India also experience depressive disorders in their lifetime, as compared to 8.23 in cities. Mental health issues in many cases lead to bad coping mechanisms, leading to drug and alcohol abuse. Per the report, "the rate of alcohol and substance use disorders was 24% in rural India as compared to 18% in urban metros." India only has 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 population, compared to 3 or more psychiatrists per 100,000 being the optimal ratio, as per an NBCI report.
Read about mental health in India, both rural and urban, over here.
What can make NDHM a success?
National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) has received a fair acceptance with nearly 1lakh health IDs already created by the National Health Authority (NHA). Sanjaya Mariwala, Executive Chairman and Managing Director at OmniActive Health Technologies, writes in the Financial Express the three things that could help the NDHM function optimally - to link it, expand it, and execute it.
Read up on what the points suggest to over here.
.LIFE
A weekly selection on things we’ve been reading
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leaves a Nuanced Legacy on Environmental Issues
Biodiversity and pandemics: Does conserving nature matter to corporates?
Drug abuse should be treated as a health and social issue – not a criminal one
What are the challenges in making healthcare more sustainable?
India's Biodiversity Stressed From Loss of Freshwater Systems, Agricultural Waste
That’s it for the week. See you next Monday!
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