The involvement of women into dairy sector should be enhanced

Union Agriculture, Shri Radha Mohan Singh has stressed the need to further enhance the involvement of women into dairy sector so that India can lead the world in the sector. Addressing the Golden Jubilee celebrations of National Dairy Development Board in Anand ,Gujarat yester he said that the Government is set to remove all bottlenecks and inertia in the growth of the sector to further emulate, growth of Gujarat, in whole of country. 

Shri Radha Mohan Singh said that value of milk produced in India is now more than the value fetched by rice/paddy.” We are the biggest producer of the milk in the world and even export skimmed milk powder whereas I remember, as a kid in school, consuming British milk powder in 1960s.” 

Highlighting the Government initiative to protect indigenous breed of cow, the Agriculture Minister said that Indigenous breeds of cows are about 83% of total number of cows, if their productivity goes up, even marginally, total milk production shall grow beyond our expectations. Indigenous cows are tolerant to climate change as well. The Government is working on “ Gokul Mission” worth Rs. 500 crores to promote the breed.

Underlining the importance of farmers in the economy, Shri Radha Mohan Singh said that Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri recognized this and Shri Atal Bihari Vajpai took it further, now it is our great fortunate that Prime Minister Modi has given special focus on Agriculture in Union Budget. PM’s Gram Sinchai Yojana will ensure proper irrigation. First time in the history we have introduced soil health cards to check non judicious use of fertilizers and we are committed to provide these cards to all farmers within three years. 

Shri Radha Mohan Singh said that banks were nationalized long back but poor man never felt empowerment from these institutions. Our Prime Minister recognized the need and launched ‘Jan Dhan Yojana” which has so many benefits for the poor man. Within short period more than six crore accounts have been opened which shows there no fault in the system but in the intention of the people in governance. 

World Food Day and Family Farming

Keeping symmetry with central theme of World Food Day, the Minister for Agriculture, Sh. Radha Mohan Singh has called for more investment in family farms to channel affordable credit and sustainability especially to combat impact of climate change. The theme selected for this year’s World Food Day is Family Farming: “Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth”. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s website:

“The 2014 World Food Day theme – Family Farming: “Feeding the world, caring for the earth” – has been chosen to raise the profile of family farming and smallholder farmers. It focuses world attention on the significant role of family farming in eradicating hunger and poverty, providing food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources, protecting the environment, and achieving sustainable development, in particular in rural areas.”

In his message, on the eve of World Food Day, Sh. Radha Mohan Singh has said that family farming is inextricably linked to ensuring national and global food security and is the pre-dominant form of agriculture in both developed and developing countries. 

Notably, every year 16th October is observed as World Food Day to mark the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). The intention of observing this Day is to raise public awareness about the plight of the hungry and malnourished people all over the world and initiate comprehensive action to tackle and mitigate the menace of malnutrition and hunger.

Underlining the importance of family farmers in the growth of agriculture, Sh. Radha Mohan Singh said family farmers despite less access to productive resources efficiently manage their agriculture and record high productivity. Family farmers have not only preserved traditional food products but have also contributed to produce a balanced diet and safeguard the world’s agro-biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources. India has consistently supported small farm holders which have played a very dominant role in steady growth of agriculture, he added. 

The Minister has said almost 200 million hectares of gross cropped area is cultivated by small farm holders to help the country in achieving macro food security. In order to realise the full potential of family farmers in eradicating hunger and malnutrition and ensuring food security, Government of India has put in place an extensive research system involving national and state level institutions beside agriculture universities. Extension workers and cooperative societies help in educating farmers and providing inputs such as credit, seed, fertiliser etc. to family farmers. 

The Agriculture Minister has said that on the World food Day, all of us should resolve to strengthen family farmers keeping in view their contribution to Indian Agriculture and to ensure food security. 

Indian Agriculture at Crossroads: A Policy sketch for the Future

Today’s world is a global village. The long process of liberalising the multilateral trading system based on the theory that “Free Trade is the First Best Policy” any economy can opt for, got initiated way back in 1947 with the signing of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT).

As of today, the multilateral trading system is guided by the multilateral rules set under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the successor to GATT formed in 1995.   It aims for a “Freer and Fair” Multilateral Trading Regime (MTA).

The fair trading regime is expected to usher in all round development for the masses of the participating countries – a development changing the lives of the present generation, along with sustaining the benefits for the future generations to come. That is, the MTS is strongly linked to the social, economic and environmental dimensions of “Sustainable Development”.

That trade expands markets and choices while lowering prices, thereby benefitting all economic agents of the economy cannot be denied. However, the pace at which it will happen and the process that needs to be followed depends on the respective economies we consider. To adjust to the pace and the process, comes the importance of the national policies, both in economic and other fields. At this juncture, the economic, social, environmental areas are interlinked.

India initiated its liberalisation process from mid-80s of the last century, focussing on the area of Foreign Investment. The liberalisation process got strengthened in the 90s. The WTO gave a further push to the process, India being a founder member to the organisation. Along with getting market access in 122 countries, the country also had the responsibility and thus pressure of giving increased market access to those countries; not to forget that the number was steadily increasing. Not only was there the issue of giving increased market access, in came the obligation of making the national policies compatible to WTO.

A series of policy adjustments were required; this got followed by structural adjustments. The promised benefits were not clearly visible in many aspects. The underlying reason in some cases are the nature of the benefits while in some other cases, the diplomatic tackling of the MTS by “other members” to grab a bigger share of the cake. Along with these, the more important issue is the juncture at which the economy was at that point of time. Were all our sectors ready to face foreign competition? Were all our policy suitable to handle the pressure of getting integrated to the rest of the world? Did our socio economic structure had the safety-net designed to safeguard the society and the economy from the strong initial thrust of globalisation.

To get into a detailed discussion of the above issues, let us make an attempt to dis-integrate the globalisation process under the MTS we have referred to. Globalisation implies integration of the economy to the rest of the world. To integrate to the rest of the world, liberalisation of the national economy is needed. The components of the liberalising the economy targets the following areas:

1.       Reducing import and export barriers, i.e., liberalising the external sector

2.       Addressing the internal policies which implies

a.       Reduced government control over domestic market, i.e. liberalisation of the domestic market

b.      Privatisation of public sector organisations

c.       Making domestic policies compatible with International Obligations

The above process is expected to result in structural changes, thereby leading to some adverse implications on the various segments of the economy in the absence of safety net created through proper policy implementation. Now, it needs to be understood that in a populated developing country like India creation of a safety net through Government is not sustainable in the long run. Proper policies, directed to the specific segments emerges as the key ingredient to survive and prosper in the present age of globalisation.

India is a predominantly agrarian economy. This does not imply that the manufacturing and service sectors are of less importance or there has not been improvement in technology, manufacturing and service sector. But there is some crucial differences between the agriculture and non-agriculture sectors in India in the context of the globalisation regulated by the MTS. In the first place, even today, more than 50 percent of Indian population depends on the agriculture sector for their livelihood. This makes the sector stand out as the primary one to get its due attention of safeguard from the adverse implications of globalisation. In the second place comes the composition of the Indian agricultural sector. The sector is dominated by marginal, small and medium level farmers. Also, traditionally, Indian agriculture sector, being a family oriented sector, labour productivity has been relatively low. Being a family oriented sector, investments in this sector is not very high. A major part of the sector still follows traditional way of production. All these factor have resulted in this sector getting a certain extent of support from the government in different aspect s through different government policies.

In the next place, it is the way agriculture has been treated in the WTO makes the sector different from the non-agricultural sector. It is not just the issue of reducing import barriers in the form of tariff that has been negotiated in the WTO. Negotiations in this sector rotated around a complex net of tariff, tariff quota, subsidies, both export and domestic along with issues of food safety and food security.

These two sets of issues have resulted in globalisation bringing down quite severe adverse implications for the Indian agricultural sector.While the reduced subsidies implied some positive impacts on Indian agro exports through increased global prices, privatisation and liberalisation of the domestic market coupled with lack of proper safety net through policies brought in adverse implications for the sector. The severe adverse implications became most visible through the suicide cases of farmers throughout the country. Data trend also reveals a declining trend in agricultural growth of the country. So, it becomes apparent that liberalisation is yet to bring in some net positive impact on this sector.

This critical scenario calls for a detailed analysis of the sector, which would be taken up gradually. In this issue paper the major issues are considered, on which detailed analysis will be taken up in an attempt to come up with policy suggestions.

One of the major issue which has traditionally disturbed the agricultural sector is that of debt. This issue has intensified with the process of liberalisation through privatisation of the market (which includes the input market of agriculture like seeds and fertilisers and pesticides) and erosion of government subsidies. Coupled with lack of proper policy initiative and infrastructure specifically designed for the sector in general and the agro categories in particular have led to the farming sector getting into a debt trap. The Increased global prices of agro products as a result of decreased subsidies led farmers shift to cash crop production, thereby bringing in adverse implication in terms of food production on one hand and increased cost of production on the other. The liberalisation of the agro market through decreased restrictions at the border led to increased competition from global producers which in many cases could not be faced by domestic producers.

At this juncture certain points need to be considered. It cannot be denied that globalisation brought in adverse implications for Indian agro sector. However, in this era of globalisation, it is not possible for a country to move away from it. What is required is domestic policies directly addressing the adverse situation. To elaborate a bit we consider the case of Indian Edible Oil.

“From 70s to the late 80s, India was a heavy importer of edible oils. In 1986– 1987, India produced 3.9 MT of edible oils, and imported 1.5 MT (28% dependency). However, thanks to the Technology Mission on Oilseeds, the total oilseed production soared from 11.3 MT in 1986–1987 to 21.5 MT in 1993 (10.5% average annual growth). Imports fell to a negligible 0.35 million tonnes. In 1998, as a temporary shortage of edible oils, combined with unchecked hoarding drove up prices, the government liberalised imports. At the same time the US flooded the world market with soyabean and soya oil, further driving down international prices of soyameal and all edible oils. As a result India has become the largest edible oil importer in the world. 43% of the total edible oil available in the country is imported [17]. As the acreage under oilseeds decreases, with farmers reeling under the price collapse, further imports are envisaged.” (Vandana Shiva 2004)

In the above case, it cannot be denied that the globalisation coupled with the western world leaving no stone unturned to grab the bigger share of the cake lead to the disaster. However, the unchecked hoarding driving up the prices could have been tackled if the proper tracking system along with the policy would have been in place. That the prices are increasing due to unchecked hoarding could have been identified and dealt with instead of liberalising imports at that point of time. In the case of a temporary shortage, the relevant WTO provision of restricting exports to deal with it could have been used.

The case is a dated one. Still it is brought in here just to initiate a discussion that there can be situations where a domestic initiatives might be designed to fight the adverse impact.

That globalisation brings in adverse implications for certain economic agents, especially the weaker sections of the society cannot be denied. However, it also brings in opportunities. Moreover, global initiatives from various segments are initiated to address the issues of the weaker sections.

After the Millennium Development goals (MDG), the global Community through United Nations (UN) are gearing up for the Sustainable development Goals (SDG) to be initiated in 2015. The resource document proposes “End Hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition and Promote sustainable Agriculture” as a goal (SDG2). (65^th annual UN DPI/NGO Conference Outcome Resource Document). Under Actions, recommendations and partnerships of SDG2, it proposes

“A SHIFT to sustainable agriculture and food systems, food security and nutrition is essential, and key actions to this end include the following:

·         Small-scale food producers empowered

·         Hunger and all forms of malnutrition ended, and full access to food ensured

·         Inclusiveness in decision-making on sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition

·         Food systems established which are sustainable, diverse and resilient, less wasteful, restore soil fertility and halt land degradation

·         Trade policies reshaped and food price volatility mitigated. 

For this shift to take place, governments, international organizations, private sector, academia and civil society must work together in order to mobilize the finance, research, technology and capacity building needed, and shape the enabling environment such as trade, policies, and multi-stakeholder partnerships.”

The SDG2 addresses the concerns which touches the problems coming out in the agro sector of the Indian Economy.

Building on the contribution that trade can make to sustainable development, WTO Staff working Paper  ERSD -2014-07, Thoughts on how trade, and WTO rules can contribute to the post-2015 development agenda by Michael Roberts  paper “offers thoughts on 10 contributions that trade, and WTO rules, can make to the post-2015 development agenda”.  Roberts further states that “the list is indicative, not exhaustive”  In practice, trade and WTO rules contribute in many other ways than the 10 outlined in this paper the complex way in which trade and WTO rules interact with a diverse set of issues ranging from development financing and green growth to decent work, food security, health systems and poverty eradication.  These contributions are organized around three headings: WTO rules as part of the enabling environment for the achievement of the post-2015 development agenda; the role that trade, and WTO rules, can play in meeting possible specific goals (including possible Sustainable Development Goals); and the contribution that Aid for Trade can make to financing the post-2015 development agenda (see Table 1).   

Table: indicative contributions that trade and WTO rules can make to the post-2015 development agenda 

Heading	Specific Contribution
I.                    Trade rules as part of the "enabling environment"	1. WTO as a "Global Public Good" 2. Achieving an "inclusive" multilateral trading system.
II.                  The role that trade, and WTO rules, can play in meeting possible specific goals	3. Eradicating poverty 4. Promoting inclusive growth 5. Promoting the goal of sustainable growth 6. Trade as one of the elements to achieve food security 7. The interface between trade policy and public health 8. A "rights" based system, balanced with "obligations" and dispute mechanisms
III.                The Contribution of aid for Trade	9. Promoting financing through trade and investment - the role of Aid for Trade 10. A data revolution to improve trade statistics and track trade's contribution to development

  Source: Author.”

The above paragraph brings in a suggestive features that can be considered when addressing the issues in Indian Agro sector.

We need to accept the fact that at this point going away from globalization is not a viable option for India. What the situation and the time demands is being a part of the process while formulating specific sector oriented policies to address, decrease and gradually eradicate the negative impact of the same.

Reference:

1.       S. Vandana, “The Future of food: countering globalization and Recolonization of Indian Agriculture”, Futures 36 (2004) 715-732

2.    65^th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference Outcome Resource document, August 2014.

3.      Roberts. Michael, “Thoughts on how trade, and WTO rules can contribute to the post-2015 development agenda”, 2014, WTO Staff working Paper  ERSD -2014-07

Ecological Farming at FRA land and fringe areas in Tripura

          We are glad to inform you that a day-long brainstorming session on ‘Ecological Farming at FRA land and fringe areas’ will be organized by ProMASS in collaboration with ASHA, DRCSC, Kolkata and Agriculture Deptt, Tripura at Agartala Press Club (Tripura) on September 10, 2014 beginning from 10 am.

This is aimed at sensitizing the stakeholders including farmers to tap resources of FRA land and find out meaningful ways to enhance economic activities therein and over righteous package of practice of ecological farming towards sustainable agriculture. In the session eminent agricultural scientists and experts will deliberate on topical issues over ecological farming. particularly in the state specific geographical area. 

Shri Aghore Debbarma, Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture, Tripura has given his kind consent to grace the inaugural function of the session as Chief Guest. Inaugural session will begin at 10 am.    

     Concerning Heads of Departments and stakeholders including members from farmers’ organizations, PRI, peoples’ representatives, farming community, NGO, Media have been invited to attend the session for effective knowledge diffusion to create momentum in sustainable agriculture in Tripura. Around 100 participants are expected to attend the day-long session.

            Notably, ProMASS is a media research group working in Tripura since 2005 to reach the un-reached and disseminate info on developmental issues, particularly on Govt schemes relating to Agriculture, Health and Education.

Workshop on Agricultural Marketing Reforms Identifies Two Key Reform Areas

The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture organized a Workshop on “Agricultural Marketing Reforms and Promotion of E-Marketing” here today. The Department has for a long time now been pursuing the States and Union Territories to reform their respective Agri market regulations in order to foster a more conducive and competitive environment which not only incentivises the farmers through effective market linkages but by shortening and strengthening the supply chain can ensure sustainable supplies to consumers as well, at reasonable rates.

Invitees from 23 States and Union Territories participated in the workshop which deliberated on status of implementation of agri market reforms in states and the need to implement the reforms quickly. Two key reform areas focused for discussion in the workshop were those of E marketing and Kisan Mandis. The State Governments promised to explore the scope for adopting such options in their respective states. 

Soil Health Card – A tool for better productivity

Farming as an activity contributes nearly 1/6^th of our Gross Domestic Product and a majority of our population is dependent on it for their livelihood. Deteriorating soil health has been a cause of concern and that has been leading to sub optimal utilization of farming resources.  Imbalanced use of fertilisers, low addition of organic matter and non-replacement of depleted micro and secondary nutrients over the years, has resulted in nutrient deficiencies and decrease in soil fertility in some parts of the country

Soil health needs to be assessed at regular intervals so as to ensure that farmers apply the required nutrients while taking advantages of the nutrients already present in the soil.

Government has launched a scheme to provide every farmer a Soil Health Card in a Mission mode. The card will carry crop wise recommendations of nutrients/fertilizers required for farms, making it possible for farmers to improve productivity by using appropriate inputs.

[ Promass bi-lingual Publication, Samlap available at SAMLAP e-copy ]

Central Government provides assistance to State Governments for setting up Soil Testing Laboratories for issuing Soil Health Cards to farmers. State Governments have adopted innovative practices like involvement of agricultural students, NGOs and private sector in soil testing, determining average soil health of villages, etc., to issue Soil Health Cards.

A Soil Health Card is used to assess the current status of soil health and, when used over time, to determine changes in soil health that are affected by land management. A Soil Health Card displays soil health indicators and associated descriptive terms. The indicators are typically based on farmers' practical experience and knowledge of local natural resources. The card lists soil health indicators that can be assessed without the aid of technical or laboratory equipment.

Though quite a few states including Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana are successfully distributing such cards, Centre plans to make it a pan India effort. According to the data, up to March 2012 over 48 crore soil health cards have been issued to farmers to make them aware about nutrient deficiencies in their fields. Tamil Nadu has started issuing soil health cards from the year 2006 onwards. There are 30 Soil Testing Laboratories (STLs) and 18 Mobile Soil Testing Laboratories functioning in the State. The Laboratory at Kudumianmalai, Pudukottai District has been declared as central laboratory and it monitors quality of analysis in all laboratories.

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has developed software – DESSIFER which is used by the STLs for online issue of soil heath cards and also in formulating fertilizer use recommendations.

Written by: Sh. K. M. Ravindran (ADG, PIB Chennai) and Sh. M. Srividhya (IA, PIB Chennai).

ProMASS Publication available in e-world

Pro-MASS, a voluntary organization dedicated to development and development communication, is publishing Samlap, the 1^st Community Newspaper in Tripura since 2011. Based on reality, ProMASS has decided to make Samlap voluminous bilingual and analytical-research based by nature. With its new face, Samlap Vol XIII is brought out on May 8, 2014 at a Writers' meet arranged at Press Club, Agartala in Tripura. This issue contains 25 articles focusing various social aspects and contemporary issues. Young as well as experienced writers, journalists and functionaries have shared their valuable views through their articles in Samlap.  The next issue will be published within a couple of months. Stay tuned for more.

Note: For donation and advertisement in Samlap, which is circulated among the Government functionaries, intellectuals and young people, please write to promass2012@gmail.com. 

Click here to view Samlap, Vol XIII

Click on following links for individual writer's article:

1. An analysis on Bangla-our mother tongue  by Alakananda Chowdhury

2. Changes in mother tongue of youths  by Sanjoy Kar

3. Factors behind tender age children going off track by Arindam Nath

4. Article on Women empowerment & PRI by Nandita Datta

5. A point of view on changing culture by Anjali Sengupta

6. Co-education in schools by Punam Bhowmick

7. Article on Situation of agrarian India by Bharat Mansata

8. Analysis on policy matters to cope with global warming by Jaydip Chakrabarti

9. Analysis of 2nd green revolution targeting Eastern India by Kalyan Rudra

10. Reasons of uprising of AAP by Arpan Debnath 

11. Humour on polity on facebook by Tirthankar Das

12. Security & jobs: youths desire from LS Polls by Priyanaka Deb Barman

13. Changing face of development paradigm in Tripura by Bimal Chakrabary

14. Article on impact of nutrition on woman health and child growth by Purbita Gupta

15. Article on BorderTrade and Tripura by Shyamal Roy Chowdhury 

16. Article on Fencing& Bordering people by Jayanta Kumar Bhattacharya

17. Article on Atrocities on Women by Aparna Dey

18. Article on Police public relations by Krishnendu Chakravertty

19. Impact of climate change on water and agriculture by Jaydip Chakrabarti

20. Impact of gender discrimination on occupation by Manisha Karmakar

21. Article on Sustainable farming by Krishanu Chakraborty

22. Necessity of Scouts and Guides by Ajit Debnath

23. Article on Caring Elderly Persons by Munna Dasgupta

24. Article on caring disabled people by Ratnabali Sengupta

25. Humour: Facebook-Phobia or Magic by Dr. Kalyan Roy

PM launches MyGov, seeks people's suggestions

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today launched MyGov, a platform that empowers the citizens of India to contribute towards Surajya. Speaking on the occasion, which also marked the completion of sixty days of the new Government, the Prime Minister said the success of democracy is impossible without participation of the people. 

Stating that in the past, there used to be a big gap between the people and the processes of governance, the Prime Minister said that in the past sixty days, the experience of his Government was that there were many people who wanted to contribute towards nation-building, and devote their time and energy. The only thing they required was an opportunity to shine and showcase their contribution. The Prime Minister said the MyGov platform is a technology-driven medium that would provide this opportunity to contribute towards good governance. 

The Prime Minister expressed confidence that the people would welcome this initiative. He also invited suggestions to strengthen and improve the platform. He hoped that everyone would join hands through this platform to take the country forward, and to meet the aspirations of the poorest of the poor. He said he was confident of success in this mission, because he recognized the strength and capability of 125 crore Indians. 

The Prime Minister said he looked forward to receiving the suggestions, views and ideas of the people. 

The platform - MyGov - presents an opportunity to the citizens to both ‘Discuss’ and ‘Do.’ There are multiple theme-based discussions on MyGov where a wide range of people would share their thoughts and ideas. Further, any idea shared by a contributor will also be discussed on these discussion forums, allowing constructive feedback and interaction. 

For those who wish to go beyond discussions and wish to contribute on the ground, MyGov offers several avenues to do so. Citizens can volunteer for various tasks and submit their entries. These tasks would then be reviewed by other members and experts. Once approved, these tasks can be shared by those who complete the task and by other members on MyGov. Every approved task would earn credit points for completing the task. 

National Informatics Centre (NIC), Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) would implement and manage the platform “MyGov” which would facilitate Citizen Engagement in Good Governance. 

Groups and corners are an important part of MyGov. The platform has been divided into various groups namely Clean Ganga, Girl Child Education, Clean India, Skilled India, Digital India, Job Creation. Each group consists of online and onground tasks that can be taken up by the contributors. The objective of each group is to bring about a qualitative change in that sphere through people’s participation. 

The Minister for Communication and IT, Law and Justice, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, and senior officers of the Government of India were present at the launch of the platform. 

Road Ahead 

The inauguration of MyGov is a small step towards the larger mission of becoming a one stop centre for citizen engagement towards good governance. Over time the number of groups, tasks and discussions will increase. MyGov would also be used as a comprehensive knowledge repository, giving insights from the sharpest and brightest minds across India. 

NEC stresses on inter-State road connectivity

The funds earmarked for the North Eastern Council (NEC) during the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17) is Rs. 6108 crore of which highest amount - Rs 117 crore allocated by Arunachal Pradesh followed by Assam (Rs. 95 crore) and Meghalaya (Rs. 91 crore).

North Eastern Council (NEC) gives primacy to inter-state road connectivity with an aim to strengthen regional integration and inter-state border connectivity. 

The details of projects sanctioned and under construction in various States of North Eastern Region (NER) during the Twelfth Five Year Plan are as follows: 

.	States /Agencies	Number of projects during the 12th Five Year Plan
		New projects	Under construction (ongoing as carryover from earlier plans)	Total
1.	Arunachal Pradesh	36	81	117
2.	Assam	21	74	95
3.	Manipur	34	56	90
4.	Meghalaya	28	63	91
5.	Mizoram	20	50	70
6.	Nagaland	38	49	87
7.	Sikkim	14	42	56
8.	Tripura	7	30	37
9.	Other Agencies	28	20	48
	Total	226	465	691

Malaria lashes hilly Tripura: Is Union Health Minister informed?

Jensi Reang was only two years when she succumbed to malaria. She hailed from a poor tribal family of picturesque Jampui hill in North Tripura District. Jensi’s family made a valiant attempt to save her and rushed to hospital once she complained body ache and high fever. Alas, all efforts of her family and doctors proved futile in the face of rampaging malaria menace.

Jensi’s death is not an isolated case. It is estimated that more than 100 people, 90% of whom are reportedly children below 10 years have died so far during last one month after PF type malaria spread in the State. Poor and helpless tribal families of far flung areas are mostly affected and losing their lives. All the hospitals and village level health care centers are found overcrowded with malaria affected patients. Want of expert medical personnel and medicines recommended to control the PF malaria further aggravated the situation, sources alleged.

Many quarters, without any concrete evidence, are citing poor health care infrastructure, unaccountable health care delivery system etc as main reasons behind the outbreak. A section pointed out utter negligence by the medical personnel in implementing preventive measures like spraying DDT etc. It is true that a combination of these and many other factors have resulted in the outbreak turning dreaded in the State this time over. However, notably though the State was declared drug-resisted Malaria prone in 2009, there was no such outbreak during last two or three years. In the present context without playing blame game, it is important to find out why and how malaria disease remained suppressed during last seasons and why it resurfaced with such degree of vengeance. The Promass Media Research Group strongly advocates for a detailed study of ground realities pertaining to health care system in rural areas to ensure non-occurrence of Malaria outbreak and loss of lives.  

The news on the outbreak has been hitting local and national media daily past one month. However, interestingly, the Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan paid no heed to mention about the severe outbreak of malaria in Tripura during his meeting held a couple of days back to review the steps taken to prevent occurrence of Malaria and Dengue in National Capital Region. The meeting was attended, by among others, Health Ministers of Rajasthan and Hariyana, Lt Governor of Delhi. Truly, the meeting was held for evaluating situation in NCR, where 6/8 persons lives were taken out by malaria currently. He even though in the meeting mentioned about few other States in the context. The Honourable Minister, who is also an eminent Doctor could have suggested ways to arrest the mounting death toll in Tripura. What are the reasons behind the scene that has caused him forgotten or otherwise skipped to raise the context of the small NE State? Don't the deaths of far off and tribal people hurt? In the context, the Central Govt cannot put to end its responsibility and commitment only by sending an expert team from the Ministry to the State to visit vulnerable areas. This attitude may not be termed as a manifestation of a deliberate attempt to ignore and neglect the plight of people of the North East. Then what? 

The State Government claimed it has already informed the Central Government and requested to send expert team to the State for second time.  

Malaria epidemic in Tripura: 44 dead

Hilly tribal villagers of Tripura, a Northeastern State of India, is reeling under malaria menace while the menace is spreading in plains too. Despite efforts by the State Health Department, malaria menace is escalating in Tripura and spreading from hilly tribal hamlets to plain areas affecting more people. With the on-set of rainy season, the disease surfaced in the far-flung hilly tribal hamlets of Gandachhera and Longtharai sub-division under Dhalai district in Tripura. After visiting the worst affected areas of Health Minister of the State Badal Choudhury informed on June 18, total 44 people died so far, out of which 28 died due to malaria while causes are yet to be ascertained for remaining 16 persons. He added, around 2000 people, mostly tribal, are infected with malaria. The worrying fact of this menace is that most of victims who died from Malaria are children below 10 years of age.  

Notably, malaria broke out this time despite having total 131 sub-health centres, 12 Primary Health Care Centers, 3 Sub-divisional and 1 District Hospitals in the affected district. However, all of these are Though Government claims that all the health care centers and ASHA (village level health volunteer) workers are active in the areas, people of Gandachhera and Longtharai alleged that health care delivery systems in these areas were in pathetic conditions. Shortage of Doctors and utter negligence by medical personnel in initiating preventive care are ‘hallmark’ of these health care centers. Frustrated with fragile infrastructure and absence of medical personnel in the health care centers, witchcraft is only ‘dependable’ option available to tribal people in case of health problems. Lack of medical help at the beginning of the problem is cited to be one of the main reasons behind malaria outbreak.

Accepting the allegation, State Health Minister stated on June 18 that preventive steps like spraying DDT had stopped two years ago after the Dept of Environment raised serious reservation against DDT spraying. Errant medical health workers have been suspended, he informed. Initiatives to spray DDT in all of the 216 tribal hamlets in Gandachhera have been started. Apart from spraying DDT, awareness programmes have been lunched in co-operation with grass root health workers. Experts’ teams from Agartala also pressed into service. As patients are overflowing in all of the health care centers, arrangements to treat the patients in makeshift centers, located at Government offices, have been made.