16 hindustantimes
TH URS DAY, APRIL 1 9, 2018
e sta b l i s h e d i n 1 9 24
Thecashcrisis
mustberesolved Let us opt for the peasant food web
The State and RBI should defuse
the problem immediately
W
ith reports of ATMs running dry in many
parts of the country, fears of cash shortage
witnessed in the post-demonetisation period
have come back. Both the government and
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have stepped
in to allay such concerns. A statement
by the Ministry of Finance underlines
the government’s commitment to sup-
ply necessary additional cash. RBI has cited recalibration of
ATMs and logistical reasons behind the crisis. At the same time
it has also ordered an increase in printing of currency notes to
address the problem. These statements raise a question. If the
problem is due to logistical reasons, which would mean a mis-
match between supply and demand of cash across states, what is
the need to print more currency notes?
This question is important because the cash-GDP ratio in the
economy came down after demonetisation. We were told that
this was owing to an increased preference for cashless methods.
Currency in circulation came back to its pre-demonetisation lev-
els early this year. But if cash preferences are converging back
to their pre-demonetisation levels, the currency in circulation
would need to be increased significantly. Was there an error on
judgment on part of RBI while deciding on the amount of cur-
rency to be supplied in the economy?
There could be other reasons for the cash crunch as well.
These include the onset of elections, revival in economic growth
and hoarding of cash. Irrespective of what factors have led to the
current shortage of cash, the government and RBI should make
sure that the situation is addressed at the earliest. Demonetisa-
tion was meant to encourage people to adopt digital transactions.
There was considerable short-term pain in the pursuit of this
goal. The manner in which the policy was implemented also
raised questions on the efficacy of RBI. The debate on successes
and failures of demonetisation is bound to be mired in political
controversy. This rancour should at no cost be allowed to pre-
vent all that is necessary to ensure that there is adequate supply
of cash in the economy.
§
On entrepreneurship,
listen to Infosys’ Murthy
TheIndiastoryof joblessgrowthwon’t
changeunlessbasichurdlesareremoved
I
n January, speaking at the 22nd National Youth Festival in
Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said
that his government was willing to hand-hold young entre-
preneurs. While his support for aspiring entrepreneurs is com-
mendable, the plan could run aground because, as Chairman
Emeritus, Infosys Limited NR Narayana Murthy, warned on
Tuesday, India is facing a huge talent crunch, which, in turn, is
affecting entrepreneurship.
The reasons behind this talent crunch are well known: first,
the obsolete education system, which still focuses on rote learn-
ing and does not encourage students to think independently ; sec-
ond, as Mr Murthy pointed out, “unless we become an open soci-
ety with an open mind, I don’t think we will be in a position to
help our youngsters become better entrepreneurs”. Third, we
need to link the education system with industry to develop the
skills of young people and give them the right exposure so that
they have the requisite knowledge to decide on their future
careers. Fourth, India does not have a policy on apprenticeship;
and fifth, the government has to be largest enabler for the entre-
preneurial ecosystem. But many state governments are failing
to push through the Skills India and Start-up India programmes.
This needs to change.
Since jobs are hard to come by — a report on Tuesday said
doctors, MBAs and engineers are in a race to become constables
in the Mumbai police — India’s future depends on young entre-
preneurs. It is not that it is not happening; there are hundreds of
small tech firms that are providing solutions to India’s multifari-
ous problems, from transport to sanitation, and employing peo-
ple. Then there are NGOs which are financing and training
entrepreneurs. But these efforts will not bear fruit unless the
basic issues that prevent young people from becoming successful
entrepreneurs are not taken care of.
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§
citysmart
SWATI RAMANATHAN
Enabling food policies can ensure that important
experiments don’t become innovation fireflies
E
ven as India witnesses persistent
agricultural distress and farmer
protests, there is a food revolution
underway across the world. It is a
David (or more accurately,
Davids) versus Goliath story, of what is
called the peasant food web, taking on the
industrial food chain. This revolution isn’t
ourtake happening in any one place, but all across the
world. Like most revolutions, it is a fight that
is being fuelled by grassroots activism. This
is why it is bound to succeed.
The terms industrial food chain and peas-
ant food web were coined to contrast two
competing food systems, in a report titled
‘Who will feed us?’ published in 2017 by the
ETC Group, a research institution working
on ecology, technology and economics. The
report says the peasant food web is not a
pseudonym for agro-ecology, organic farm-
ing, permaculture, or any other production
system. Were organic farming employed
throughout food production, we would be
closer to food security but not necessarily
closer to food sovereignty.
The industrial food chain (IFC) refers to
the various components of the links running
from production inputs to consumption out-
comes, and includes crop and livestock
genomics, pesticides and fertilisers, as well
L A X L AWS
n An accident site near Gurugram. A proactive approach is required to apprehend offenders
on the move with interceptors rather than the static checking of documents SANJEEV VERMA/HT
Safety education should
be a part of the curriculum
Nations that have designed safer vehicles and improved
their road culture have seen a steep fall in road accidents
YASHOVARDHAN
AZAD
L
ife is too precious to be lost on a kerb-
stone. Recently, a 22-year-old motor-
cyclistlosthislifehitbyacarin Delhi.
There can be no consolation for lives
lost so early, and so easily.
Around 46% of the Road Traffic Accident
(RTA) victims in India are below 35, the eco-
nomic,societalandemotionalcostofwhichis
enormous. In consonance with the Brasilia
Declaration on Road Safety adopted in 2015,
Indiahasresolvedtohalveroadaccidentsand
fatalitiesby2020.However,with16 roadacci-
dent deaths every hour, India clearly has a
long way to go.
A country is known by its capital and the
city byits traffic.It mirrorsthecollectivedis-
cipline or the lack of it. Our national capital
tops the country in road fatalities, according
to the government’s Road Accidents in India
2016report.Thisisadragontheemergenceof
Brand India on the global stage.
Most traffic crashes are predictable and
preventable. International road safety
research has come up with some innovative
ideas. Nations that have designed safer vehi-
clesandroadsandimplementedeffectivetraf-
ficmanagementsystemshaveseenasteepfall
inroadaccidents.Similarresearchneedstobe
innervoice
LET US OVERCOME VIOLENCE
IN THE WORLD WITH
THE POWER OF LOVE
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MANAGING EDITOR: SOUMYA BHATTACHARYA
comment
as transportation and processing systems.
The chain controls the policy environment of
our food.
The peasant food web (PFW) is made of
small-scale producers, usually family or
women-led, that include farmers, livestock-
keepers and urban/peri-urban producers.
While some peasants do use chemicals for
commercial produce, most of what PWF pro-
duces is de facto organic.
The statistics about the relative share of
these two food systems in feeding the world
are quite stunning: The PFW caters to more
than 70% of the world’s food needs, compared
to 30% by the IFC, and yet only consumes 25%
of the energy for this, compared to 75% of
energy consumed by the IFC. And yet, advo-
cates of the IFC have so far won most of the
policy battles, defining government regula-
tions in virtually every country. Our solu-
tions for food systems are tilted towards IFC-
based solutions: larger and more commercial
farms, more mechanisation, more chemical
fertiliser and pesticides, etc.
But change is coming from two independ-
ent streams: first, from the growing aware-
ness of the long-term negative consequences
of adopting IFC — such as monoculture
(growing only one crop), or the impact of
chemical fertilisers and pesticides on the
conductedinIndiatorolloutmeasurestopre-
vent mishaps.
Many Delhi roads have flawed designs.
Specialguidelinesareneededtodesignround-
aboutsandservicelanesalongintercityhigh-
waysandforeffectivespeedcontrol.Thelack
of proper pedestrian crossings, faulty foot-
bridgedesign,dingysubways,lackofsignage
andencroachedfootpathsareamongtherea-
sons that lead to accidents.
Owing to the population boom, limitation
oncarusagecanbeoneofthesolutionsimple-
mented to create order out of chaos. An inte-
gratedmultimodaltransportplanconsisting
ofroad,railandmetro-railnetworkshouldbe
evolved to make travel convenient.
Subways and footbridges lie unused as
commuterssticktotheiroldpractices.Worse,
pedestrians often cross heavy traffic zones
insteadofusingsubwaysandfootbridges.The
frequency of casualties can be reduced by
imposing fines on jaywalking.
The traffic police deserve a better deal in
termsofmanpowerandresources.Vacancies
need to be filled and a boost given to projects
such as the Delhi Traffic Police’s Accident
Crash Lab. A proactive approach is required
to apprehend offenders on the move with
interceptors rather than static checking of
documents at traffic intersections.
For an improved road culture, safety edu-
cation should be a part of the school curricu-
lum. Only then can the road safety norms
become part of the popular DNA.
Yashovardhan Azad is a retired IPS officer and Central
Information Commissioner, Government of India
The views expressed are personal
Sant Rajinder Singh
There is plenty of anger and violence in the
world. In every town and village, in every
home, one finds explosions of anger. Some-
times we become angry when someone
hurts or offends us. There are other instan-
ces in which we become angry when we see
others being hurt.
We may find cases of social injustice in
which a group of people in society is being
treated unfairly.
The difference is in how we respond to
H INDUSTAN TIMES , NEW D EL HI
n The scientific community has supported
the food web as a sustainable practice MINT
inherent quality of the soil and final produce.
Second, from a new force not evident a dec-
ade earlier — the increasing sustainable food
movement atthe grassroots, aimed at provid-
ing a viable alternative to feed the world. The
scientific community which earlier was an
ally of the industrial chain system, is now
more frequent in its support of the food web.
What are the components of a successful
‘food web’ approach? Four key elements may
be considered as critical components of this
model: no use of chemical fertilisers and pes-
The Kathua victim must
be called by her name
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights
appears to have forgotten its primary responsibility
KRISHNA
KUMAR
A
small girl has slipped through
the protective arms of the State.
Now the National Commission
for Protection of Child Rights
(NCPCR) has reminded us that we are not
free to identify her by name. This belated
sense of duty puzzles me. The girl suffered
forced confinement, bestial assault and
was finally killed.
She was born in a community that
enjoys a special status in the Constitution.
That provision, however, could not help
her in any manner. After being kidnapped,
she was alive for a week, but remained
untraced. Now the National Commission
for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)
is keen to grant her the rights she missed
when she was alive.
One of the rights the NCPCR wants to
give her posthumously is the right to
remain unknown, nominally. Hadn’t she
already earned it? Anonymity is part of
being ordinary, and that is who she was.
So, exercising the right to keep her name
hidden will pose no problem.
As an organisation set up to protect chil-
dren and their civic rights, the NCPCR has
failed to justify its name. If it is closed
down, no one will miss it.
The finance ministry will be pleased
that some wasteful expenditure can be
avoided. As a custodian of children’s
rights, the NCPCR has a noble responsibil-
ity which it has forgotten. Its protective
umbrella does not reach out to India’s vul-
nerable children.
After the Kathua incident came to light,
the NCPCR chose to blame the media for
not following the norms it has laid down.
It is the media that turned Kathua into a
moment of national introspection. The
NCPCR also objected to the girl’s face
being shown. Like a part and parcel of
bureaucracy, the Commission was more
concerned about rules than about the
DURING A SPATE OF SUCH
INCIDENTS, A JUDGE HAD ASKED,
‘HAVE OUR PEOPLE GONE MAD?’
WHAT DISTINGUISHES KATHUA IS
THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
SURROUNDING IT. THE SAME IS
TRUE OF UNNAO.
injustice. We can either react out of anger,
or we can overcome and replace the anger
with love.
We do not put out the fire by fanning the
flames; we have to smother the fire. Simi-
larly, we can smother the fire of anger with
love. It takes a lot of energy to respond in
anger. The response tends to deplete and
drain us. But if we use our energy to respond
lovingly, we will not only bring harmony to
the situation, we will be energised by that
love. When we act lovingly, we are opening
the door for God’s love to flow through us.
ticides; diversity in seed banks; small land-
holdings by farmers and growers; and prox-
imity to end consumer markets.
A shift from using unhealthy chemicals as
well as genetically modified seeds requires
determined champions to continue their pol-
icy advocacy to find the right solutions and
political leadership. Establishing enabling
food policies is critical to ensure that experi-
ments don’t become innovation fireflies.
The second two components are inter-
linked to regional land zoning plans, and
demand sideurban economics.For the model
to work, there is a minimum catchment of
demand, and a local geographic footprint to
the supply. The success of the model depends
upon a critical mass of urban consumers who
are demanding better quality food. Com-
binedwithadequatedemand,minimisingthe
farm to table distance is critical to ensure the
economics of the approach.
With adequate incentives, farmers will
switch their growing practices, and be able to
quickly see the economic gain from doing so.
Such a localised food system allows all four
components to work together. When there is
adequate policy support, this local, ‘small is
beautiful’ food web approach may be able to
build a quiet foundation, which grows organ-
ically over time to take an increasing share of
the food wallet of the urban consumer.
(The second part of this article
will appear next week.)
Swati Ramanathan is chairperson, Jana Urban
Space Foundation, and co­founder, Jana Group.
The views expressed are personal
child being violated.
Six years ago, when a young woman was
brutalised in a Delhi bus, thousands of
young people assembled at Rajpath, pro-
testing against lax laws and policing. The
State acted quickly and drafted new, more
stringent laws.
That young woman was supposed to
remain anonymous, but the story of her
last-minute fight turned her into a symbol.
This suggested that even though they live
under constant threat, girls and women
need not live a life of fear. Posthumous
naming enabled the nation to redeem
some of its cultural dignity. The fact that
girls must always live in fear, and do,
remained concealed like a precious secret
that we couldn’t afford to make public. It
would have hurt national pride just as the
banned BBC documentary Daughters of
India did.
Now we are faced by Kathua. This is not
the first time that a child has suffered at
the hands of men determined and free to be
barbaric. If you look at newspapers of the
past few years, you will find reports about
victims as young as three to six years of
age. During a spate of such incidents, a
judge had asked, ‘Have our people gone
mad?’ What distinguishes Kathua is the
political environment surrounding it. The
same is true of Unnao. As common citi-
zens, we need not feel aghast at the politi-
cal response, its initial inertia and subse-
quent speedy recovery of familiar
reflexes. In the end, it sounds inane and
cold. Between shaming and defence, there
is plenty to stage and prolong the debate. It
is not clear though that anyone knows
what the debate is about.
Is it about inadequate policing? Is it
about the state’s reflexes? Or, about the
state’s Constitutional role to intervene in
culture through social policy laws and
their implementation? Any debate on
Kathua must cover all these questions. If
there is widespread misogyny in society,
who will address it and how?
Cultural characteristics tend to repro-
duce themselves. So does misogyny. What
can intercept the reproductive cycle of a
deep-set tendency like that? The Constitu-
tion mandated the state to engage with
society and culture.
But the Constitution seems like a lonely
voice today. In Kathua, the state has failed
the Constitution. A Scheduled Tribe girl’s
right to grow up with dignity and receive
education has been violated.
The least we can do now is to remember
her by name rather than call her the eight-
year old gang-rape victim of Kathua as the
NCPCR desires.
Krishna Kumar is former director, NCERT
The views expressed are personal
Through daily meditation, leading a calm,
peaceful life becomes a habit. Over time, a
habit turns into our nature. Day by day, we
transform ourselves into peaceful, non-vio-
lent and calm people and radiate that to
others. The ripple effect of our calmnessand
equipoise spreads and it will not be long
before we have a peaceful family, commu-
nity, and world.
(Inner Voice comprises contributions from
our readers.)
The views expressed are personal
n Innervoice@hindustantimes.com