Affirmative Action : India must Learn from Brazil
Since 2003, as per FAO estimates
Malnutrition reduced by 73%, Infant mortality by 45 %, and poverty by 33%.
These are the figures for Brazil 2003-2008. Mired with red-tapism, corruption, pilferages, wastages etc., with lack of inter-ministerial and/or interdepartmental coordination, we, in India are yet to confirm even the number of our poor. All our programmes, particularly women-centric, are either yet to take off or have gone awry. The government even is not aware that a child, whose mother is not healthy, can not be healthy himself/herself. Even when the food stocks are full to the brim the proportion of malnourished children is high. Why?
President Luiz Inacio da Silva popularly known as Lula, on his day one as President, started the Zero Hunger programme integrated with structural changes like family agriculture programme, agrarian reforms and initiative to educate people about nutrition. He, through his Bolsa Familia (family purse) programme, gave 55 dollars a month to 12 million poor families directly to the mothers or women heads of the family (with a condition of regular attendance of their children in the school) along with food to about 37 million children at school.
The success of the programme has been due to (i) perfect coordination between the ministries of Education and Social Development (ii) international support and public-private partnership (iii) great coordination between districts, states and the country.
The programme has been so successful that many African countries including Ghana, Nigeria Zambia and Mozambique have replicated it.
In India, we are still advocating the distribution of Food Cards to BPL families (Pl. see T. Nandakumar in ET dtd. April 27). Even if it is done, how long will it take the unscrupulous elements to create their duplicates and triplicates? Then we will be heading for another scam.
Malnutrition reduced by 73%, Infant mortality by 45 %, and poverty by 33%.
These are the figures for Brazil 2003-2008. Mired with red-tapism, corruption, pilferages, wastages etc., with lack of inter-ministerial and/or interdepartmental coordination, we, in India are yet to confirm even the number of our poor. All our programmes, particularly women-centric, are either yet to take off or have gone awry. The government even is not aware that a child, whose mother is not healthy, can not be healthy himself/herself. Even when the food stocks are full to the brim the proportion of malnourished children is high. Why?
President Luiz Inacio da Silva popularly known as Lula, on his day one as President, started the Zero Hunger programme integrated with structural changes like family agriculture programme, agrarian reforms and initiative to educate people about nutrition. He, through his Bolsa Familia (family purse) programme, gave 55 dollars a month to 12 million poor families directly to the mothers or women heads of the family (with a condition of regular attendance of their children in the school) along with food to about 37 million children at school.
The success of the programme has been due to (i) perfect coordination between the ministries of Education and Social Development (ii) international support and public-private partnership (iii) great coordination between districts, states and the country.
The programme has been so successful that many African countries including Ghana, Nigeria Zambia and Mozambique have replicated it.
In India, we are still advocating the distribution of Food Cards to BPL families (Pl. see T. Nandakumar in ET dtd. April 27). Even if it is done, how long will it take the unscrupulous elements to create their duplicates and triplicates? Then we will be heading for another scam.
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