Randeep Ramesh looks at two ways in which the Indian government is providing relief and incentives for the poor.
Female foeticide
Last Monday, the Indian government announced a scheme to pay poor families to give birth to and bring up girl children in a bid to stop the trend of parents aborting female foetuses at the rate of half-a-million a year.
Families in seven states are set to benefit from a series of cash payments amounting to 15 500 rupees (R2 997) to poor families to keep their girl children. Ministers say more than 100 000 girls will be saved in the first year.
In India ultrasound technology, coupled with a traditional preference for boys, who are seen as future breadwinners, has led to mass female foeticide.
According to a study in the British medical journal the Lancet, 10-million female foetuses may have been aborted in India over the past 20 years after illegal sex-determination tests.
The government has been alarmed by the country’s dropping sex ratio and hopes the promise of money will change people’s behaviour. As an extra incentive any girl who reaches 18 will get a further 100 000 rupees (R18 631) provided she has completed her school education and is not married.
“We will pay the money in stages and monitor how they are brought up,” the Women and Child Development Minister, Renuka Chowdhury, told a news conference. “We think this will force the families to look upon the girl as an asset rather than a liability and will certainly help us save the girl child.”
The tragedy of being conceived female in India has been well documented. The sex ratio in India was 945 female to 1 000 male babies in 1991. This declined to 927 in 2001. The scheme will begin in areas with the worst ratios.
But some experts questioned whether the cash incentive would have any effect. Wealthier cities, with a high proportion of better-educated people, have the worst sex ratios.
Prosperous Chandigarh in Punjab and the nation’s capital, Delhi, have only 900 females for every 1 000 male babies.
“It is the urban middle classes who can also afford the ultrasound tests to determine the sex of the foetus,” said Sabu George, a campaigner against female foeticide.
“That is really the problem. The poor are copying the behaviour of the richer people in India. What we have not seen stop is that technology is more and more available and that every small town now has a doctor who will illegally test your baby’s sex and abort it for a fee.”
George said there was a “conspiracy of silence” by the medical profession over female foeticide. In the 12 years since selective abortion was outlawed only one doctor has been convicted of the crime. The government is considering giving life sentences to doctors convicted of the offence.
The social implications of India’s “missing girls” has worried many researchers. Some point to surveys that show brides are being trafficked across India. Other social scientists have predicted a crime explosion as unmarried young men turn to violence, unable ever to find a mate.
Farm suicide
India’s government moved last week to end the practice of suicides in bankrupted rural communities with a £7,6-billion (R119-billion) bail-out for small farmers. In a populist measure, which analysts believe heralds early elections, Palaniappan Chidambaram, the Finance Minister, said the plan would be a “one-off” rescue package for farmers brought about by “stories of great distress”.
In India, millions are driven to despair by their inability to pay off loans of a few thousand rupees. Figures show that more than 166 000 farmers have killed themselves since 1997 — a death almost every half hour. The farm sector is a key part of the economy, employing two-thirds of India’s 1,1-billion population.
India has the fastest growing of the world’s big economies after that of China. It grew by 9,6% last year — its fastest in 18 years. Saying that the boom had seen a section of the rich “get very rich”, Chidambaram said he wanted “to make growth more inclusive” for those left behind.
According to projections, the economy will cool this year. But the finance minister said he could afford the 600-billion rupee bailout to 30-million indebted farmers. “Our growth will be 8,7% … I know other finance ministers who would give an arm and a leg for such figures,” he said.
Analysts described the giveaway as the biggest in India’s banking history, and said it signalled an early election.
“It is irresponsible economics. To revive agriculture you need to build canals, roads and warehouses, not indulge in massive populist sops,” said Mohan Guruswamy, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a Delhi economic think tank.
“Every government now will look at writing off loans to win votes. The neglect has to be stopped, but not like this.” Farm growth is forecast to slow to 2,6% this year from 3,8% last year, raising concerns among experts about India’s ability to continue to feed itself.
The current government, led by the Congress party, is expected to lose control of the upper house in April and has been in a struggle with communist partners over foreign policy. It appears keen to win the support of poor voters, mainly in rural areas, who were seen as largely responsible for its 2004 election victory.
In television interviews, many farmers said they were pleased with the government plan. But some landlords were angry that only those farmers with smallholdings — less than two hectares — would benefit from the welfare package.
Rival parties said the money was too little, too late. The government’s communist allies said many farmers were indebted to private moneylenders and would not get the money, which covers only bank loans. The finance minister said the details of the scheme would silence doubters. There were also promises to raise spending on health and education, as well as tax cuts for the urban middle class. — Â