Death in Kandhamal: failure of Public Distribution System | Radhakanta Barik

for twenty four years people have forgotten the hunger related deaths in Odisha and today it has got started in Kandhamal district of Odisha. It seems that failure of public distraction system has resulted in killing two persons in the district.

Key Words: Hunger, poverty, public distribution system, death

Introduction:

Within five months of rule in Odisha the Hanuman is dancing in the villages where lanes of thatched houses are there and people are scared of the Hanuman with its tail catching fire which can burn these houses. Perhaps this may be the reason for not having Hanuman temples in Odisha which later invented by the Hindutva forces. Their ration system has been destroyed which resulted in bringing back of geography of hunger in Odisha which resulted in deaths of two Dalit Christians. The tail of Hanuman is marching in the cities of Odisha where rioters led by the Ministers are dancing with the Hanuman and burning the shops and houses of the minorities and the police officer M/S Nath went to arrest some of them which resulted in her transfer. No old age pension coming to the people for which the women are abusing the Hindutva forces. Six lakhs of women members of Mission Shakti are on the streets to protest against the present government as they do not get money for doing their works.

After the super cyclone of 1999 the central government constituted a team who looked into the failure of Public Distribution system as the cyclone affected people could not get ration as it was not working. The findings show that the storage for food grains meant for PDS was in the private hands. Every district level the traders belonging to Marwaris control the storage space and sold the grains in the open market. The central government gave financial allocation for making the storage space to be controlled by the state. Sufferings of people did not matter to these traders who enjoyed their power by selling the goods and services to people by making huge profit . This information given to me by Marwari industrialist from MP who used to live Rayagarh and told me that politicians of Odisha scared of the Marwari whereas in MP they were scared of the politicians. With the coming of Naveen Patnaik this situation got changed and as he is a powerful personality. He saw that the storage did not remain in the hands of Marwaris and the government took over the space and controlled the storage of grains at the district level.

Reasons behind the non working of PDS in Odisha:

What are the reasons behind the collapse of Public Distribution system in Odisha under the present government. It started in a different environment which can explain the failure today. After Naveen Patnaik came to power in 2000 he gave priority to working out ration system in the state where seventy percentages of people lived in hunger and poverty. As story went that many children did not demand food from their mums but they went straight to their homes and put their leg into the Chulla and if fire was there then they asked for food from mum otherwise they drank a glass of water and went to the bed. In our school days I used to go to many friends homes where I found no lunch had been cooked as it is the major meal in the state. As a researcher I did a survey in 1090s that sixty percentages of families in the villages could not tell me what they used to eat for six months. This story got repeated today in a different form. Politics of implementation of PDS lies in the politics of the state. The most of the MLAs of the both the ruling party and opposition party used to share the loot from the selling of food grains under the PDA programme as the Marwaris controlled the business. They used to sell the grains allotted for the PDS and distributed the money among the ruling party MLA and defeated MLA in the form of 60 : 40. This did not work as the Marwaris could not reach Naveen Patnaik as the chief minister as he maintains a distance from his MLAs and the powerful Marwari. This helped him to work out the implementation of PDS in Odisha with the help of some of dedicated civil servants.

Review of literature:

Study conducted by Dreze and Retika Khera on working of PDS in Odisha shows it has improved and food delivery is reaching to those having ration cards. “ At the State level, the impact of PDS on rural poverty varies a great deal as one would expect. In States like Jharkhand where the functioning of PDS , the impact of the PDS on rural poverty substantial especially in terms of the distribution- sensitive poverty gap index “ “ The Impact of the PDS on rural poverty is well above the all India average in Odisha a state where the PDS has significantly improved in recent years” Dreze, Retika Khera: 2013 ,” Rurla poverty and Public Distribution System EPW Nov 16,2013 More than ninety percentages of people are having ration cards. The study conducted by Institute of Human Development, Delhi shows that the supply of food has been streamline which help the officials to monitor the trucks carrying the rice and wheat from the District Head quarter to the villages. Monitoring shows that no a single truck carrying rice vanishing on the way and which used to happen sometime but get sold in the open market. Each family gets rice and wheat per month and they look happy and prosperous in the village. My personal study shows that in each KG of rice and wheat 250 grams get siphoned up by the shopkeeper. But people find it is better than non availability of rice and wheat. I went to the tribal areas and found people are walking to the market place where the ration shop is located. They collect rice and wheat and come back home. In their kitchens I find the food stuff is available in a pot.

Geography of Kandhamal:

Kandhamal is a part of KBK region which is an economically backward district like Bolangir Kalahandi and Koraput. This region is declared as backward region and Planning Commission under Rajeev Gandhi constituted a Committee headed by renowned economist Yoginder Alagh who prepared a special package for the development of the region. This continued till the BJP came to power in the centre. But these are really backward districts and furthermore Kandhamal is the only district not connected with the rail line which keeps the district in a disadvantageous position. The district suffered from violent communal riots between Dalit Christians and Tribals. As they are poor they once more reconciled after the riots and started working in the project of NREGA as workers. Both the communities work as workers and they start forgetting the animosity. Ankita Agarwal’s study on working of public distribution system in Koraput district found that 97 percentages of people are holding ration cards and are getting total ration. ( Agarwal 2011)Furthermore, Mihika Chatterjee’s study shows that in Odisha working of PDS is highly satisfactory. (Chatterjee 2013)

Some findings:

All the studies conducted by renowned individuals, the performance of state government in the context of PDS is very much appreciated. Furthermore, it has improved every year by closing the leakages on the level of distribution. One can find the villagers attitude today towards storage of rice. They used to keep the rice in a forty Kg bag or big pot for daily use. And rice used to be kept in storage for a year in the richer houses and but today things changed. As they collect ration per month and consume it.

They divert the resources for buying fish and vegetables today and most of the families start eating the dal and rice or chapatti. Yes the traditional crops like millet and Suan have slowly vanished from the plates. They divert their resources for educating their children. Even poorer families are sending their children to the colleges. All children in most of the districts go to the school and have mid day meal which is nutritious as egg and kichidi are available in the plate. The present government has not decided yet after five months whether egg to be in their plate. The working of ICDS project for children below six and lactating mothers are working better. Retika Khera conducted a study in the Mayurbhanj district found that the children below six are in a better health and their mothers are in a better health. Furthermore, the introduction of a meal with rice and dal in the cities has changed the face of urban poverty. Unemployed youth, students and daily wagers are rushing to have a lunch here. In the cities who are earning below five hundred like three wheeler owners speaking to me that they do not take break fast now and they start working from the morning and go for lunch in the selected places and order two meals for ten rupees and enjoy the meal for the whole day. In the night they eat a simple meal of chapatti and dal. The present government is dilemma to close it or keep running it.

Poverty and Hunger:

Poverty and hunger are two separate things. The majority of people in Odisha are in poverty as their per capita income is very low. But they are not hungry as reported by the present Planning Commission or Niti Ayog that 53 % of people eat three meals in Odisha whereas in Gujarat only 35 percentages of people have three meals. This explains the poor can be healthy having access to food. With the working of Public Distribution system it is possible. Those having two acres or more are without ration card are facing hunger if they do not have working person or a woman headed family. Land is an important asset in rural Odisha but it does not explain they are above the poverty line. Some time back a family with two acres land and woman headed family die of hunger. This demands that universalization of PDS is an answer to the hungry people not the land per se.

BJP government in Odisha and its discriminatory approach:

The present government carries its tradition of discrimination against certain communities such as Bengalee farmers of Raj Kanika of Kendrapara district by branding them as Bangladeshi and against Muslims which reflected in communal riots organized by the ministers of the present government in Balesore and Bhadrak and third against the Christian Dalits or tribals of Kandhmal specifically and in other districts. This is reflecting in the working of public policies such as checking the Addhar cards for the families of Kanika for entering into cyclone shelter. This resulted in death of three farmers in the cyclone. Large scale destruction of the houses and business centres owned by the Muslims happened in Balesore and Bhadrak in the name of beef. As colonial records tell that Odiya Muslims do not consume beef despite they got attacks in the name of beef. In Kandhamal district one research team finds in the village where two people have died as the ration has been discontinued for last three months which forced them to eat mango kernel which is poisonous. All these are happening more because of the prejudices and dilly dallying the working out of distribution of ration to the card holders.

Hunger is the permanent friend of Odiyas till 2002 when the public distribution system got introduced and worked out with a certain degree of efficiency. Two hundred years of hunger introduced with colonialisaiton of Odisha in 1803 which destroyed all the major industries like Salt, Shipping and Textile which resulted in deindustrialisation. More people depended on agriculture with low productivity which resulted in a series of famines and hunger related deaths. The 1866 famine resulted in deaths of one third of its population. Hunger and poverty both force the children to work as slave labour in the landed houses. In 1990 a labour was paid Rs ten for herding the cows and working as a helping hand in agricultural operation. The slavery got disintegrated with working of Public Distribution System. Human capability got increased which get expressed today in sports activities of young men and women. During the 1970s in Ravenshaw College nobody was playing in the field as they felt hungry by four in after noon. After coming from the college they used to wait for the dinner where lunch at ten and dinner at eight were two regular meals for the students. The psychology revolving over rice used to work in every family. Even those working in government services they used to say that first thing was to have sufficient rice for the whole year. This thinking has gone with the working of PDS and human capability has increased.

Poverty and migrant labour:

1.75 million people including dalits tribal and other communities migrate to other states for earning their livelihoods. (The Hindu Nov 20, 24)On their perception they value the ration as it decreased their anxiety about their own family while working in a distant place. This helps them to increase their productivity and live in peacefully. This is happening because of pushing factor from the state of Odisha. Their poverty pushes them to work outside of the state. There are hardly any opportunities in working in the state of Odisha. Rain fed agriculture is not able to sustain such a huge labour force and there are hardly any industries for these working people. They move to different states as they have certain skills which pay them better in different states. Poverty and hunger is not the same thing. It is poverty pushes them out of the state despite hunger of their family members are getting satisfied with the amount of grains available in the ration system on regular basis.

References:

• Agarwal A 2011, “ The PDS in Rural Odisha, Against the grain?”EPW, Sept3
• Chatterjee, M 2013” An improved PDS in reviving State: Food Security in Koraput; Odisha , mimeo . Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, Oxford University
• Dreze, Retika Khera: 2013 ,” Rurla poverty and Public Distribution System EPW Nov 16
• S Irudaya Rajan and Datta 2024 “ A snapshot of distress migration in Odisha”in The Hindu, Nov 20