infant mortality rate:facts figures and some new with analysis

According to SRS 2009 :

India's IMR is 53/1000 livebirth

Top 5 Indian states with high infant mortality rate are as follows:

1) Madhya Pradesh - 70/1000 livebirth
2) Orrisa - 69/1000 livebirth
3) Uttar Pradesh - 67/1000 livebirth
4) Assam - 64/1000 livebirth
5) Rajasthan - 63/1000 livebirth

5 Indian states with least infant mortality rate are as follows:

1) Goa - 10/1000 livebirths
2) Kerala - 12/1000 livebirths
3) Manipur - 14/1000 livebirths
4) Puducherry - 25/1000 livebirths
5) Nagland - 26/1000 livebirths

Unfulfilled promise
In 2000, 189 heads of state and governments, including India, made a promise to reduce the under five mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015 under the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal No 4 (MDG4).

However, going by the present trends, India will not meet MDG4 until 2020, which is five years after the promised date, ‘Save the Children’ points out.
Even countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Peru and the Philippines are on track to meet MDG4, exploding the myth that the costs of reducing new born and child mortality are high, it says.


Infant Mortality Rate Mission, IMR: Orissa
Details of Infant Mortality Rate Mission, IMR
Particulars Description
Name of the Scheme Infant Mortality Rate Mission, IMR
Sponsored by State Government
Funding Pattern It is a State Government sponsored scheme, so the funding is managed by the Government of Orissa.
Ministry/Department Department of Health & Family Welfare Department
Description Infant Mortality Rate continues to be high in Orissa. It is recognized that about 60 percent of infant deaths occur during the neonatal period, or the first four weeks of life. Most of these deaths are due to prematurity, low birth weight, respiratory infections, diarrhea and malnutrition. It is also acknowledged that infant mortality is higher in lower socioeconomic groups residing in backward tribal districts of Orissa. Notwithstanding the fact that several strategic interventions are being implemented to reduce MMR and IMR, the decline has been marginal. In the year 2001 when IMR was 97 per 1000 live births, the State Government decided to launch the IMR Mission to focus more on interventions addressing more proximal determinants of infant mortality. Home delivery by unskilled persons is a major cause of high infant mortality and morbidity. To promote institutional delivery, cash assistance was provided to beneficiaries to reach the health facility for delivery.
Beneficiaries Women,Children,other,
Other Beneficiaries Infants, mothers
Benefits
Benefit Type Others,
Other Benefits healthcare facility
Eligibility criteria Newly born children of both tribal and non tribal areas are eligible for this scheme.
How to Avail By contacting the nearest Health Centers or NGOs.
Validity of the Scheme
Introduced On 01 / 01 / 2001
Valid Upto 02 / 01 / 2012


Govt scheme to arrest infant mortality fails to deliver
TNN, Mar 31, 2011, 12.19am IST
GANDHINAGAR: The government has failed to achieve the infant mortality rate (IMR) target set under Chiranjeevi project, five years after it was launched. Besides, in at least 93 talukas, the empanelled private medical practitioners are yet to actually join the project.
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pointed this out in its report tabled in the state assembly on Friday. The Gujarat government launched Chiranjeevi project as a special intervention programme for reduction of infant mortality rate from 57 deaths per 1,000 live births to 30 deaths per 1,000 live births and maternal mortality rate from 3.89 deaths per 1,000 live births to 1 death per 1,000 live births. This goal was to be achieved by the end of 2010.

For this, the project envisaged obtaining services of empanelled private doctors to increase institutional deliveries, especially in rural areas. Yet, years after in 93 of 231 talukas in the states, the empanelled doctors were not available.
The CAG report stated that health department provided funds to the State Health Society (SHS) and Chief District Health Officers (CDHOs) for carrying out programme activities. While the department was allocating the funds directly to CDHOs, the SHS were also releasing the funds to district health society.
A part of the funds was also provided by project administrators, Integrated Tribal Development Project. Since funds under the programme were provided through three different sources, the department had no consolidated details on the actual release.
In the absence of a centralised monitoring authority and availability, a huge amount lay untilised. Of the total Rs 134.18 crore released for the project, 36 per cent (Rs 48.30 crore) was not utilised as on March 31, 2010.
Also, the report pointed out that the beneficiaries under the scheme - expectant mothers from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families - were paid less transport charges in several instances. Chief district officers had not established a system for cross-checking the BPL claims furnished by the empanelled private practitioners. Due to this, there was a risk of processing bogus and fraudulent claims.


Infant Mortality rate diminishes in Bihar, thanks to Cash on Delivery Scheme
The Centre’s scheme of giving cash rewards to women who have their babies in health centres has lowered newborn deaths and still births in the country’s 10 poorest states, says an India-US study, reported in the international journal Lancet.
The study evaluated the centrally-funded Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) and reported that the cash incentive lowered stillbirths by 4 and newborn deaths by 2 per 1,000 live births.
India’s infant mortality rate — newborn deaths per 1,000 live births — was 53 in 2008, with one in five newborn deaths in the world occurring in India.
Launched in 2005, JSY benefits 10 million women every year. It integrates cash assistance with delivery and post-delivery care for woman in 10 states with low institutional delivery rates — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan, Orissa and Jammu and Kashmir.
The cash incentives given to these ‘low performing states’ are higher than in other states.
In these poor states, pregnant women in rural areas get Rs 1,400 while the healthworkers who bring them to health centres get Rs 600.
In urban areas, the women get Rs 1,000 and the healthworkers Rs 200.
In richer states, the cash incentive for mothers is Rs 700 in rural areas and Rs 600 in urban centres.
The study was conducted by the Public Health Foundation of India and the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
“The success of JSY in this nationwide analysis, which used two rounds of district-level household surveys, is very encouraging. But more work needs to be done to reach the poorest and most disadvantaged women,” said Dr Lalit Dandona, a professor at both institutes who was part of the study.
For instance, there were wide variations among the states both in implementation and impact. Between 2007 and 2008, some states had just 5 per cent of all pregnant women participating while others had 44 per cent participation.
Dandona also suggested that instead of making all women in the 10 high-focus states eligible for JSY financial assistance, only those below the poverty line should be given the money.
“JSY is the biggest programme of its kind in the world, and its success has huge implications for global health policy,” said Dr Stephen Lim, assistant professor at IHME and the study’s lead author.
“One out of every five child deaths occurs in India. Finding ways to reduce newborn deaths in India is a critical part of achieving global goals on improving child survival.”






Infant Mortality rate diminishes in Bihar, thanks to Cash on Delivery Scheme


The Centre’s scheme of giving cash rewards to women who have their babies in health centres has lowered newborn deaths and still births in the country’s 10 poorest states, says an India-US study, reported in the international journal Lancet.

The study evaluated the centrally-funded Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) and reported that the cash incentive lowered stillbirths by 4 and newborn deaths by 2 per 1,000 live births.

India’s infant mortality rate — newborn deaths per 1,000 live births — was 53 in 2008, with one in five newborn deaths in the world occurring in India.

Launched in 2005, JSY benefits 10 million women every year. It integrates cash assistance with delivery and post-delivery care for woman in 10 states with low institutional delivery rates — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar,

Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan, Orissa and Jammu and Kashmir.

The cash incentives given to these ‘low performing states’ are higher than in other states.

In these poor states, pregnant women in rural areas get Rs 1,400 while the healthworkers who bring them to health centres get Rs 600.

In urban areas, the women get Rs 1,000 and the healthworkers Rs 200.

In richer states, the cash incentive for mothers is Rs 700 in rural areas and Rs 600 in urban centres.

The study was conducted by the Public Health Foundation of India and the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

“The success of JSY in this nationwide analysis, which used two rounds of district-level household surveys, is very encouraging. But more work needs to be done to reach the poorest and most disadvantaged women,” said Dr Lalit Dandona, a professor at both institutes who was part of the study.

For instance, there were wide variations among the states both in implementation and impact. Between 2007 and 2008, some states had just 5 per cent of all pregnant women participating while others had 44 per cent participation.

Dandona also suggested that instead of making all women in the 10 high-focus states eligible for JSY financial assistance, only those below the poverty line should be given the money.

“JSY is the biggest programme of its kind in the world, and its success has huge implications for global health policy,” said Dr Stephen Lim, assistant professor at IHME and the study’s lead author.

“One out of every five child deaths occurs in India. Finding ways to reduce newborn deaths in India is a critical part of achieving global goals on improving child survival.”

How to bring transparency in Govt & political parties functioning

Twenty years of economic reforms have changed India in a way few could imagine when the reform programme was launched in 1991. If, somehow, 2011 could see the launch of serious political reform, how much more can India change? Today, the corrupt stalk the corridors of power even as a committed man of the people like Dr Binayak Sen is convicted as an enemy of the state. What does it say about the nature of the state that it sees a Binayak Sen as its enemy? Can the new year ring in political change that would put people like Sen in charge, while the Kalmadis and Rajas are in the dock?

The big powers with permanent membership of the UN Security Council all visited India in 2010. India is poised to become the fastest growing economy of the world. Its per capita income is growing at close to 7 percent, its workforce is young and increasingly educated, Indian investment is widely wooed and Indian films, Indian food and Indian managers spread their soft power around the world. But scams and parliamentary paralysis dominate the public imagination today. India is a nation that corruption has in its thrall. The challenge is to beat corruption.

The root of corruption, paradoxically enough, is our democratic process. Political activity costs money, lots of it. However, we have failed to institute an open, transparent way of funding politics. So politicians have found non-institutional ways to fund politics, and themselves. Essentially, there are three methods, all of which are immoral and corrupt: loot of the exchequer, sale of patronage and plain extortion.

Diversion of a portion of public expenditure to politicians' pockets is commonplace. Procurement commissions, contractors' inflated bills, etc are common methods of looting the exchequer. Giving out mining leases or ensuring non-interference in power theft are examples of patronage being sold. Collecting money for what should be routine clearance by the government of compliant commercial conduct, whether for conversion of agricultural land for commercial use, environmental clearance or even a simple power connection are examples of extortion by the state.

Since all these forms of mobilisation of resources involve use of the state machinery, they suborn the civil service as well. Since illegal extraction or diversion of money is not liable to strict accounting, political fund mobilisation also doubles as personal enrichment, by politicians, bureaucrats and powerbrokers.

The system can be cleansed only if an open, transparent system of funding political activity is instituted. The laws already permit companies to make political contributions, and these are tax exempt. However, laws requiring political parties to declare the source of their expenditure are lax, if not non-existent.


India has laws that prescribe how trade unions should function. But there are no laws effectively governing political parties. The Constitution talks about groups in Parliament , but is silent on political parties. The Representation of the People Act does have some stipulations about declaration of donations in excess of Rs 20,000 and maintaining accounts. This is not enough.

By deploying information technology, it is possible for any organisation to maintain a record of every paisa it receives and spends, without the process of keeping records becoming an onerous financial or logistical burden on the organisation. It is imperative to amend the laws to require every political party to account for every rupee, if not every paisa, it spends. And the source of funding and items of expenditure should be open to public scrutiny.

Every party should be free to scrutinise the accounts of its competitors. Citizens' watchdog groups could join in, and a statutory body with extensive manpower-the election commission itself or a similar body-could be authorised to verify the challenges to declared income and expenditure of political parties and their functionaries.

A billion cellphones, each with an embedded camera and access to the Internet, could play a major role in bringing transparency to the working of the government and of the political parties.

For the battle against corruption to progress, we need a functional legal system, not the creaking, dilapidated dysfunctional apparatus we have at present. India can no longer blame any scarcity of resources for not having enough judges, court rooms and other infrastructure to truncate the life of any litigation, from initiation to disposal of the final appeal, to, say, 18 months. What is lacking is the political will to change things.

There is far too much cynicism that nothing can change, that politicians themselves will not initiate reform that will block their own path to personal enrichment. This underestimates our politicians and the Indian people at large. Bihar has re-elected Nitish Kumar, essentially for his credible promise of governance that could open the path to enterprise and prosperity. This is not a miracle, just an example of redemptive possibility that cynicism rules out.

Democracy includes women, too

Yet more laws and VIP visits to the hospital beds of the victims or families of the deceased, as the case may be, will not stem the rising tide of crimes against women. Only democratic politics can. Political parties that are serious about the subject have to move beyond blaming the police and the government of the day, understand the issues involved, internalise the values that will make a difference and get its cadre and followers to actively enforce these norms in public life.

In India, it is easy to get inured to the raw deal that women get: female foeticide, neglect of infant girls leading to higher mortality and stunted bodies and brains, girls being withdrawn from school on reaching puberty , child marriages, privileging of sexuality, when it comes to women, over all other attributes as a human being, demands for dowry, often leading to violence, frequently fatal, in the marital home, a widespread notion that male hands have the licence to wander over the woman's body in crowded public spaces - these are unpleasant but commonplace parts of the Indian reality. Yet, some recent incidents shock even those who have slid into weary cynicism.

A Dalit girl in UP is kidnapped, supposedly rescued by an elected representative, raped by the putative rescuer and then framed in false cases and put in jail. Another Dalit girl is attacked when she resists an attempt to rape her: her ears are chopped off and she is grievously stabbed several times. In Kerala, which ranks the highest in social indicators among states, a one-armed beggar pushes a young woman, lone passenger in a women-only compartment of a passenger train, out of the train after she resists his attempt to snatch her purse, jumps out after her and rapes the unconscious and badly injured girl.

These incidents have led to public outrage and media outcry. These tend to be evanescent, lasting till the next outrage or scam hogs the headlines, leaving the basic issues unattended. What are the basic issues? Gender inequality, layered by social inequality, is the basic issue. This gets compounded by poor laws, worse enforcement of the law and lax policing.

The plight of the unfortunate victim of violence in Kerala has raised questions about policing, the propriety of attaching the 'ladies' compartment' at the very end of the train, the failure to extend the length of railway platforms to match the length of trains, how unsafe it is for young women to travel unaccompanied and so on. The ridiculous extension of the discussion is, of course, in the realm of examining the position of the stars before a woman sets out on a journey.

Why not address the basic issue of gender segregation of public spaces, like train compartments ? The act of segregating women into a separate space is based on the presumption that when men and women are placed together, men will indeed misbehave. Only taking such misbehaviour for granted can lead to the prescription of a separate space for women. Does such taking of male misbehaviour for granted send out a signal of helplessness against it, if it does not legitimise such misbehaviour altogether?

Mental disorder apart, conduct in society is determined by social norms, which in turn depend on social values, and the disposition to abide by social norms.

Values that see women primarily as objects of sexual desire, with no right to agency of their own, lead to behaviour known as eve teasing. The opposite value is neither denial of sexuality nor sexual anarchy but democratic equality, the woman's right to be treated on par with men as they go about the business of life, including in sexual choice.


This is blasphemy as far as traditional society is concerned. But democracy calls for such apostasy. A political party's commitment to democracy is not complete till it actively commits itself to women's equality as well. It is imperative to appreciate the difference between ensuring the security of women , conceived as a noble duty somewhat on par with preventing damage to precious paintings by visitors to a museum, and working for women's rights.

Policing will be a necessary part of both. But policing to enforce a societal norm is different from policing to secure the safety of objects. The democratic movement of Kerala has, quite clearly, failed the women of the state. The youth organisations, trade unions, etc that mobilise themselves on any number of issues do not act to enforce what they all would agree is an acceptable societal norm: women's equality with men.

Things are more difficult outside Kerala. Organisations that can sensitise their own members and society at large, and act to converge conduct towards desired societal norms, do not exist. They have to be created, there is no shortcut.

Political parties that take up women's equality as an integral part of democratic advance are likely to be pleasantly surprised to find a huge vote bank rooting for them. But this calls for a democratic movement, which is different from electoral mobilisation or the magnetic draw of charisma.

Reforming Political Funding

It is welcome that the government has committed itself to reform political funding. But the thinking, in terms of state funding of elections, is flawed. The basic goal in political funding reform should be to achieve complete transparency as to how much parties and politicians spend and how they finance that spending. Reform of political funding is necessary, even if not sufficient , to tackle corruption. Indian democracy is funded by corruption. Politicians take money out of the exchequer , sell patronage and extort money, all in the name of mobilising funds for political activity. They pocket a large part of the collection and pass on the rest to the party and the workers they employ. Since civil servants must collude for misuse of state power , this method of mobilising political funds suborns the bureaucracy and procedural hurdles proliferate as rentseeking opportunities. All the scams rocking the country have this common root.

Finding a new source of political funding away from corruption will not guarantee an automatic end to corruption - that is not the argument. But that will enable non-corrupt politicians and civil servants to fight corruption. All democracies make this traverse from very corrupt to less corrupt ways of conducting public life. The time, it would appear, has come for India to clean up its act on political funding. But precisely how do we go about this? State funding of elections is not the answer. Politics is not just elections. A political party has to keep functioning inbetween elections, its leaders keep travelling, its offices run, its full-time workers have to be paid, its meetings, conventions, etc cost money. All this cannot be funded by the state. For the state to try and fund even a portion of the election expenses of recognised political parties would discriminate against new entrants and restrict competition . Parties can mobilise funds from patrons and wellwishers , but should make that information public. When Sarojini Naidu famously said that it cost the party (the Congress) a fortune to keep Gandhi in poverty , she was setting up a case study on political funding.

Everyone knows that industrialists like G D Birla funded the Congress and the national movement. But it is not clear that they received proper receipts for the money they gave and that the Congress maintained detailed accounts of how precisely they spent the money. This tradition continued after Independence , of industrialists funnelling money to political parties without formal acknowledgement and of parties spending the money without detailed accounting. The difference is that if the purpose was, earlier, to keep one Gandhi in poverty, the money is now used to keep an entire tribe in obscene luxury and insatiable greed. Political expenditure has to be monitored from the ground up. In every locality, explicit political activity can be recorded on a web site, backed with photographs from ubiquitous cell phone cameras. Every party or politician must record, alongside , how much was spent on that activity and where that money came from. This must be open to scrutiny and challenge by rival political parties and voluntary watchdog groups. These locality level figures can then be aggregated at a hierarchy of higher levels, along with activity, expenditure and source of funds at each level, all the way up to the national level.

Each party and politician should be required to account for every paisa they spend or accumulate. At present, only contributions above RS 20,000 are required to be made by cheque. Modern information technology can be deployed to ensure the traceability of every rupee contributed to a party/politician.


One can think of mobile phone-like hand-held devices connected to the telecom network in the hands of tens of thousands of party workers across the country, for recording even small contributions from individually identified donors. A receipt printed out on the device could automatically be recorded at the party's web site and at a central monitoring agency's web site as well. Unrecorded contributions can still be spent on unrecorded activity, of course, but competitive politics should bring to light all such activity, forcing parties to reveal its financing as well. This will raise the cost of collecting money initially, but the benefit would far outweigh the cost. The government can place a bulk order for these devices to achieve economies of scale and then selling them on to parties.

The present ridiculous ceilings on campaign expenditure must be scrapped, not raised. With transparency achieved, public suspicion of excessive money power would cap campaign expenditure where it should be. A central monitoring authority , an expanded and empowered Election Commission , for example, could monitor such claims of expenditure and income, scrutiny , challenge and defence, and reach legally binding conclusions. For this, we need a new law to regulate political parties. We do have laws to regulate trade unions, voluntary organisations , etc but not for political parties. The law should ensure internal elections, audit of accounts, etc. Industry must realise that it is in its collective interest to clean up political funding and make all contributions by cheque. The finance minister can, perhaps, double the deduction allowed for tax purposes, from the present 100% of the contribution. Company accounts are audited , for the common good. So must political party accounts . This is entirely doable , with some political will.

Why blame coalition dharma?

First, the TV news channels quoted AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi as stating that if the Congress-led UPA coalition government could not tackle national problems like rising prices as decisively as Indira Gandhi did, it was because of the compulsions of coalition politics.

Then, when asked at a press-conference on February 16 about the reappointment of A Raja as telecom minister in 2009 despite the allegations of corruption, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicated that he had to accept the DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's choice since "compromises have to be made in the interests of coalition politics".

No one from the Congress has as yet satisfactorily answered the question of why, in the interests of good national governance, the Congress could not have applied the leverage it had in Tamil Nadu where the minority DMK government is in power because of the support of Congress MLAs.

The question is not as simplistic as it sounds. And the answer need not be complicated. The DMK supremo is also the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Despite his advanced age, Karunanidhi is the undisputed leader of the party that rules in Tamil Nadu under his chief ministership. And everyone is aware of that. The Congress, however, is a party where its supremo has appointed the Prime Minister.

And so, we have a PM who has to periodically look behind his shoulder to check whether his decisions are in tune with the wishes of the party chief. It was this grey area which was fully exploited by the former home minister who made it abundantly clear that his primary loyalty was to the party chief and who continued to run the home ministry despite a series of terrorist attacks which culminated in 26/11.

Over a period of time, the party leadership got comfortable with a situation where it had the best of both worlds. The PM was accountable, but not the ultimate decision-maker. The party supremo could overrule the PM but was not accountable. The courtiers in the party played along for their own benefit.

Those who claimed to be loyal to the party leadership kept pointing out to the high command the advantages of the supremo distancing herself from unpopular decisions which could always be attributed to the 'politically naive' PM. At the same time, credit was fully taken in the name of the party leadership for the success of any policy.

This deliberately schizophrenic approach came to the fore as and when results were announced for elections in states. If the Congress did well, it was inevitably attributed to the supremo's leadership. If the Congress fared badly, it was attributed to the party image being affected by the scams perpetrated by alliance partners in the Manmohan Singh-led coalition government.

The basic problem is that the Congress is not a party which develops leadership at the top. It is a party which excels in developing second-rung leaders who will never pose any kind of challenge to the numero uno and her successor in the family. Outside the first family, Congress leaders are good number-two types who excel in anticipating and carrying out the wishes of the supremo and her potential successor.

When it comes to leaders from outside the first family, their motto could contradict the Avis slogan to say, "We may be number-two but we try harder not to be number-one"! Congress CMs generally make it a point not to take crucial decisions but to seek the 'enlightened' advice of the supremo who cannot be aware of the problems in each state and by the time a crisis erupts, it is usually too late to do anything about it.

When the crisis reaches a point of no return, the old CM is promptly jettisoned - call him Rosaiah! - and a new CM is appointed through a standardised almost ritualistic ceremony of the MLAs saying they have full faith in the supremo's leadership and will accept whoever she appoints.

There is a lesson in all this. Instead of blaming the compulsions of coalition politics for the mess the Congress finds itself in, Rahul could perhaps look more closely at the functioning of the party. When setting out on his next talaash (Hindi for search) for future leaders on college campuses, Rahul could ponder on how to empower the existing party leadership at all levels. Merely talking of what his grandmother did as PM is not enough.

Much has changed since the time of Indira Gandhi. She never, for instance, had to contend with a 24-by-7 TV channel news-cycle where each and every sin of commission or omission of those in power is immediately highlighted.

Imposing an Emergency on the country and the media is no longer an option! The complicated condition the Congress finds itself in is reflected in headlines like "PM/Sonia face leadership test". In any other democracy, the headlines would say "Obama approval-ratings fall" or "Cameron faces crisis"!

Rural job scheme’s cool, but has its problems

Economics has a strange way of looping back and whacking you on the back of your head. Governments take great pride in formulating grandiose schemes that are purportedly pro-poor but end up hurting the intended beneficiaries.

Sometimes, the intentions are honest but the execution is poor, without much thought given to entire chain of consequences.

With the election bugles having been sounded, speculation is rife about the contents of each party's manifesto. Some of it will be very predictable. For instance, the Congress will definitely try to display two large feathers - one for claiming to have sewn up the nuclear deal with the US and another on the spectacular success of its rural employment programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Time for a quick look at the last one.

The NREGS was implemented nationally through an Act in 2005 to provide a social safety net for the most vulnerable section of rural society. The scheme's operational guidelines define the NREGS goals: "Through the process of providing employment on works that address causes of chronic poverty such as drought, deforestation and soil erosion, the Act seeks to strengthen the natural resource base of rural livelihood and create durable assets in rural areas. Effectively implemented, NREGA (NREG Act) has the potential to transform the geography of poverty."

The Act also stipulates that every worker be paid minimum wages fixed by the state for agricultural workers. This is where economics starts playing up - unseen and unheard. It works in two ways.

One, where market wages are higher than the minimum wage rate (or, even the wage rate fixed under the particular works programme), the demand for labour for NREGA projects is never met fully. But - and this is the fun part of economics - the converse also holds true.

In many cases, where the state has fixed a high minimum wage rate, which then acts as the floor in that localised market, other agricultural enterprises find it difficult to employ labourers at economical rates.

One can argue that providing minimum wages isn't such a bad thing. For one, it provides an administered floor - beyond which wage rates can't possibly fall - to minimise economic exploitation. But, where political compulsions and one-upmanship lead to rising wage rates, it could even affect the cropping pattern of that state and lead to shortages of certain crops.

A recent report by Swiss bank Credit Suisse predicts that many farmers in western Uttar Pradesh are likely to replace their sugar crop with a rice-wheat crop. One of the reasons responsible for the crop-switch is the rural employment scheme.

The report says: "The government's national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGA) has resulted in shortage of agricultural labourers in this region. Migration of labour from eastern UP and Bihar has slowed considerably as work is easily available under NREGA. The average daily labour cost has increased from Rs 50-60 per day to Rs 80-100 per day (NREGA daily wage is Rs100 per day in UP). Labour shortage and cost affect cane more than R-W (rice-wheat). For one, cane requires about 75-90 man days of labour per acre per year, while R-W requires about 60 man days per acre per year. Moreover, many jobs in R-W cultivation is readily mechanisable (harvester combines, threshers, etc, readily available for hire in the region), while cane is not amenable to mechanisation (due to lack of or high cost of machinery in the area or due to lack of technology)."

There is another government policy - ostensibly to insulate poor farmers from the vagaries of an unpredictable marketplace - that is also boomeranging on the people it's supposed to protect. Many years ago, the government introduced the minimum support price (MSP) to assure farmers of a reasonable price for their produce.

The government announces a price at the beginning of each crop cycle, thereby providing an artificial and administered floor price below which market prices can't fall. Sometimes, competitive politics forces the government to announce further price increases in mid-season.

Again, nothing arguable with this noble objective. But, as the report from Credit Suisse says: "Over the last four years, the increases in rice (+61%) and wheat procurement prices (+69%) have significantly outpaced the increase in cane prices (+31%)."

The end consequence of this shift in cropping pattern is already showing up in the inflation indices where, despite the downward pressure exerted by petro-products prices, inflationary pressures exist for food items. For instance, the category "sugar, khandsari and gur" has been showing a very high rate of price rise among all the food categories that are included in the inflation index.

But, that is not all. These same high procurement prices also result in food prices rising across all categories. Since the poorest - the NREGA target - have no access to the public distribution system (which is well documented), the high MSP for staple food items leaves daily-wage-earning rural poor with a lower disposable residual income for healthcare, clothing or any other contingency.

So, should NREGA doles be indexed to minimum wages or inflation rate, or even MSP? You can bet your bank passbook that there will be lots of research coming up on this, but what's going to be even more interesting is to see how the NREGA beneficiaries vote.

Can’t do away with middlemen

Somewhere between the late eighties and the early nineties, a new word - "disintermediation" - was silently introduced into our collective consciousness and vocabulary, especially in the context of the financial sector. It was a bit like how the words "paradigm" and "synergy" have attached themselves, uninvited and somewhat unobtrusively, to our conversations.

Disintermediation is no longer restricted to the financial sector and it is changing many parts of our familiar world. Many other unfamiliar parts will also alter immutably. But, yet, there might still be some parts of this world that will continue to require a middle tier.

Disintermediation, when it was introduced into the Indian market jargon, simply meant savers taking their hard-earned savings directly to those who needed it most - that is, companies setting up projects - instead of lending it to intermediaries (such as banks), which then eventually lent it to the companies. The word was used repeatedly in the perspective of developing the Indian capital markets. It is another matter that in the meantime a larger number of intermediaries have reinforced their presence in the capital markets.

But, beyond the framework of the capital markets, the word "disintermediation" found new currency during the internet boom and, once the dust settled, in all kinds of consumer offerings. The term also inspired new theories on organisational structure and management strategy. What disintermediation simply meant was cutting out the middle-man from - or delayering - a company's supply chain or distribution networks. For example, Michael Porter's value chain concept became the foundation for re-engineering corporate structures to e-commerce applications.

Two examples of disintermediation are threatening to change two industries beyond recognition. Reams have already been written about Apple's iTunes and how this business model has changed the music industry. Apple realised early on that the internet would modify the music distribution business forever. That model - which has the sale of hardware layered on the software promise - has now become the defining template for music distribution.

It peeled off many layers - such as, the music stores and the distributors, all of whom meant additional costs for the ultimate customer. But, there are further changes coming, which drive the disintermediation process further and promise to even do away with the need to buy hardware to access the software.

A new service called "Spotify" allows users to hear songs of their choice from a virtual jukebox, all free, provided they agree to listen to 20 seconds of ads between 30 minutes of uninterrupted music. The songs can only be heard, not downloaded, reducing the piracy threat for music companies. The promise becomes attractive, given the easier access to the internet today, especially through mobile phones. It not only does away with the need to carry an iPod around or manage shelf-space overflowing with CDs, but it also has music labels signing on to offer their music. The service is still developing, but it has already created a buzz.

The second example is "Kindle", an e-book reader launched by Amazon, which is now in its second version. It would be instructive to remember that Gutenberg's invention freed ordinary people from the tyranny of priests and godmen, when he made available printed copies of the holy texts and scriptures at affordable prices.

That was disintermediation 101. With Kindle-2 comes the second phase. With the help of the net, readers can download books, magazines and newspapers on their e-reader, which can then be read at leisure. Most importantly, if Amazon becomes a publisher also (which is not too distant a likelihood), the Kindle would have eliminated - in one stroke - the whole middle kingdom of agent, publisher, distributor and book shops.

Sure, the Kindle-2 still has a long distance to travel - readers are unlikely to give up the printed, paper version completely in favour of a Kindle (at least, not yet), or eschew the option of browsing in a bookshop. But, the field has been set and a game is certainly afoot. Watch this space to see how traditional publishers respond to this challenge, especially with Google and Sony also adding their hats to this e-space.

But, despite the seeming invincibility of disintermediation as a business process, a few things in life will always come with middle-men. For instance, our desire to live a life of good health is no longer within our control. Doctors have taken over every aspect of our health and maintain a stranglehold over the whole medical well-being business. With all of us leading complex lives, there is no way we could even begin thinking of a disintermediated surgical procedure.

There is another category which we love to hate and yet cannot eliminate from our lives - politicians. Post 26/11, many embittered citizens asked resentfully whether we needed politicians at all. The emotional outburst at that moment was understandable, but we elect politicians to govern on our behalf. If they're abolished, we have to police ourselves, clear the garbage, or finance and oversee road-building through mosquito-infested swamps. The least we could do is elect the right guy and then monitor his work, his questions in Parliament or the quality of his debate. Since we have to live with this devil, we might as well keep an eagle eye on him.

Get real on bank licences

The suspense over new banking licences will soon be over. With finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announcing that the RBI is planning to issue the guidelines for new banking licences before the close of this financial year, presumably, it is only a matter of days before the RBI comes out with its final guidelines. It has already issued two draft papers inviting comments; so, the motions have been gone through and according to news reports, the final version has gone to the finance ministry for vetting. Ostensibly, new bank licences are needed to ensure competition and promote financial inclusion. The FM, in his Budget speech last year, was emphatic on that score.

"We need to ensure that the banking system grows in size and sophistication to meet the needs of a modern economy. Besides, there is a need to extend the geographic coverage of banks and improve access to banking services." RBI's discussion paper on entry of new banks echoes this view. "It is generally accepted that greater financial system depth, stability and soundness contribute to economic growth. But beyond that, for growth to be inclusive requires broadening and deepening the reach of banking. A wider distribution and access of financial services helps consumers and producers raise their welfare and productivity."

The only difference between the FM and the RBI's position seems to be one of emphasis. While the FM seems to regard the need for new bank licences as driven equally by the need for more sophisticated (?) banking services and financial inclusion, the RBI seems inclined to view it more as a means of ensuring greater financial inclusion. RBI governor D Subbarao is on record that financial inclusion will be one of the main criteria on which licences will be given.

Either way, access to sophisticated banking and financial inclusion are the main drivers for issue of new bank licences. Take them one by one. First, the FM's concern that we need to have banking services that 'meet the needs of a modern economy'. As on March 31, 2009, we had 27 public sector banks, seven new private sector banks, 15 old private sector banks, 31 foreign banks, 86 regional rural banks (RRBs), four local area banks (LABs), 1,721 urban cooperative banks, 31 state cooperative banks and 371 district central cooperative banks.

So, we certainly don't lack numbers! And nor, it would seem, do we lack modern banking services, given that virtually every major foreign bank in the world has a presence in India. Hence, access to sophisticated banking products is not for want of sophisticated players. They are already here. What about financial inclusion? Here the position is less encouraging.

Less than 50% of Indians have access to formal banking. Today more Indians have a mobile telephone than a bank account! If you allow for the fact that many Indians in metropolitan and urban areas have more than one bank account, the picture becomes even more disturbing with rural and semi-urban areas vastly under-banked. The far more pressing case for issuing more bank licences, therefore, is to remedy this imbalance and promote financial inclusion. Will new banks do that? If yes, the case rests and there is nothing more to be said. We must licence more banks. If not, there is no case for new bank licences; at least, not on the grounds of financial inclusion.

So, let's go back to the mid-1990 s when 10 new banks were set up in the private sector (two more came up after the revised guidelines of 2001), ostensibly for the same reasons bandied about today - to promote competition and increase coverage. However, not all survived, leaving a total of seven new private sector banks on date. Seven out of 12 is not bad but it is not a score card that bolsters the case for new bank licences, especially in the light of what the 2008 crisis has taught us of the serious systemic consequences of bank failure. But we could still overlook that if the larger cause of greater coverage were served. Has it?

No. Data shows new private sector banks had only 6.5% of their branches in rural areas as on March 2010. In contrast, nationalised banks had 31.6% of their branches in rural areas while State Bank of India had 32.7%. Meanwhile, the share of rural deposits and advances has come down from 10.8% in March 2006 to 9.2% in March 2010 and 8.4% to 7.5% over the same period. Therefore, whatever else the reason for issuing new bank licences, financial inclusion cannot be one. Neither can access to state-of-art banking products. So, what can? Corporate lobbying? Perhaps! But that does not mean the sector should be closed to entry. Rather that the fit-andproper test must remain the only yardstick and the RBI the only arbiter of that.

CWG: Lessons in governance

By the time this article appears in print, the CWG will be over. Thankfully so for many Delhiites, who found their lives completely disrupted for almost one month of traffic restrictions and unwarranted city shutdowns. Worse of all, for some reason, the last day of the games was declared a public holiday although the games are being held only in Delhi.

The justification? Security. This is logical. If one could close down the country for some time and declare Sec 144 everywhere, it is certain that incidents of terrorism would be limited.

As logical as closing down a national university and all schools in the capital because the CWG needed their facilities. Last heard, the main demand seems to be for the b US drivers of these schools but most of them have already taken off for their enforced vacation. As the media has already successfully said all that there is to say about the CWG, I will try to see what lessons are to be learnt from the point of view of governance in general.

Lesson 1 - the problem is leadership: Some TV channels seem to have personalised the issue by concentrating on Mr Suresh Kalmadi and what he did or did not do. Even more ludicrous, the focus then shifted to the secretary-general of the CWG, who has been seriously afflicted with a 'foot in the mouth' disease.

Whether it is the organisation of the stadia, choice of volunteers or sale of tickets, it is clear that had the government chosen any random individual to head the organising committee (OC), he or she could not possibly have done a worse job.

But you cannot get leadership and competence out of those who have never demonstrated any organisational abilities. Yet, very little discussion has focused on who, in 2004, thought it fit to hand over the task of organising these games to such incompetent individuals and who should actually be held responsible for the poor performance of Mr Kalmadi and his cohorts.

Lesson 2 - failure of governance: Between the Delhi government , the sports ministry and the OC, it was clear that none was willing to own up responsibility for non-completion of projects. This is like a typical government project where there are so many signatories from different ministries that one cannot say who took the final decision.

But the CWG had to be viewed as an event management exercise which is not in the domain of government competence. As a comparison with the 1982 Asian Games makes clear, the multiplicity of authorities was a major cause of the breakdown in organisation of the CWG.

Lesson 3 - foreign investors' perception will be unaffected:Some media reports seemed to imply that the handling of the games might affect investor perception. This view was also supported by some in the government who felt that it was imperative that the games 'be held at all cost' to maintain India's integrity as an investment destination.

Nothing could be further from the truth. India's success as an investment destination has more to do with growth rates and the recessionary woes of the OECD countries than with the organisational abilities of Mr Kalmadi or the government.

Lesson 4 - the problem is not corruption: The exposure started with revelations from an innocuous Indian gentlemen in London and his links to equally innocuous members of the OC. The media then went to town about the problem of corruption in government contracts.

As young people today would say, 'get a life!'. Look at developed countries like the US or Japan or 'fairly developed' countries like South Korea: kickbacks in high-level government contracts is common to all democracies. They also exist in communist countries, but are not publicly visible.

The real problem with the CWG was the failure to deliver on facilities even after the corruption. But then, what else can one expect when the OC is headed by a politically defunct Congressman. Is he expected to keep other active politicians at bay? Did one seriously expect Mr Kalmadi to have control over thousands of crores of public money?

Lesson 5 - bidding for the Olympic Games: For once, this writer agrees with Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar , but for different reasons. The mandated autonomy of the IOA implies that Mr Kalmadi will again be in charge. Forget other reasons, that will guarantee that the games cannot (and should not) be given to India; so, why waste time over this issue? The bottomline?

The snafus that accompanied the CWG are a classic example of failure of governance. More specifically, a failure of institutions. The IOA is an institutions best viewed as a sinecure for discarded politicians and not one which has any expertise in event management. Till such times as institutions of governance are established in sports management, CWGtype fiascos are bound to recur.

While the obsession with cricket is probably unwarranted, its organisational systems need emulation by other sports bodies.

Competition, cartels & civil aviation

The high fares charged by airlines for last-minute customers is not a mirage. I know of someone paying up to Rs 70,000 for a one-way fare from Port Blair to Delhi! This case is particularly unfair for an area where air is the only mode of access to the mainland given that sea transport is time-consuming and often not possible due to weather conditions. The high fares of domestic airlines also seem particularly unfair, given that international airlines offer hotels, stay and travel for the same price to some destinations in southeast Asia. Obviously, the fares are not related to cost of operations considerations. After public outrage, the minister has promised to look into the matter. It is not surprising that airlines have responded by a reduction in spot ticket prices in recent days. The government is indeed big brother to industry.

Yet, that does not seem the way to go about this and smacks too much of government arbitrariness. It is also clear that any formal directives by the ministry may well be thrown out by the courts. In addition, the DGCA is still a government unit and not an independent regulator along the lines of the SEBI , TRAI, etc. The setting up of a sectoral regulator for the aviation industry is still awaited.

Yet, even in the absence of a true sectoral regulator, a far more promising approach is to use the Competition Commission of India (CCI) which has been set up to regulate cartels. Is the pricing policy of the airline industry related to anti-competitive practices in the context of Sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act, 2002? It is in this light that the CCI recently issued a notice to Jet and Kingfisher why their code-share agreement should not be termed anti-competitive. In the light of this, I will, in this article, look at the issue of competition and some jurisprudence in the context of the civil aviation sector.

The main point is that the judicial correction (the only long-term solution) to pricing in the aviation sector must depend on showing that the airline industry has been collusive in price determination. To show this, the CCI needs to show that provisions of Sections 3 and 4 of the 2002 Act have been violated. To do this three issues must be considered.

First, has cartelisation led to 'abuse of dominance'? This is the biggest problem as sheer dominance (as in the MRTP days) is not enough. While jurisprudence in India on this issue in non-existent, there is plenty of evidence from antitrust legislation in the US and Europe. First, what constitutes dominance? By and large, a market share of 50% is enough. But what constitutes 'abuse'? Here, it is necessary to show that airlines colluded (by correspondence or discussions) to fix prices. Here, the CCI would need to access relevant documents from the industry or find a 'whistleblower'. This seems to be the main method used in application of the Sherman/Clayton Acts in the US and Article 101 of the European Treaty.

But in addition, two other issues need to be determined. What is the 'relevant product' and what is the 'relevant geographical area' where the anti-competitive behaviour is implied? The relevant product, of course, is airline ticketing but the 'relevant geographical area' is not so obvious. For airlines often jack up prices in one area where competition is not so intense: you can hardly fly cheap to Mumbai to get to Port Blair! Here planning of route lines is a crucial issue.

It is not possible in the limited space to take up the issue of anti-competitive behaviour of airlines in detail. But the evidence from other countries shows that collusive pricing is fairly common. Recently, Martin Holland NV and 10 other airlines were found guilty of coordinating surcharges on cargo to and from the US. All pleaded guilty. Again, the alliance of BA, AA and Iberian Airlines was declared uncompetitive unless it made its landing slots available to competing airlines. There are many such cases of collusive behaviour (even in the last few years). The jurisprudence also indicates what are the most uncompetitive practices of airlines. Price fixing is right on top.

Yet, the most anti-competitive case was surely the mergers of Jet-Sahara and Kingfisher-Deccan some years back. Readers may verify that immediately after fares were raised by the airlines. Yet, as the CCI could not act against mergers (and still can't) no legal action was permitted.

Jurisprudence shows that airlines are prone to cartelisation. Yet the action must come after judicial scrutiny and consequent penalties rather than phone calls from the minister and meetings with ministry officials. The fares may come down now but is this a case of winning the battle and losing the war? Or maybe Mr Tata was right in calling India a 'banana republic'? It is time to seriously activate our regulatory institutions

Tax issues: Ring out the old!

As Zenobia Aunty begins to type this column, she realises that she has completed a decade of interacting with her loyal readers. She raises her cup of tulsi tea to toast them. This is a time for reflection. While a decade may have passed since this column first rolled out, there are so many issues in tax land that remains unresolved.

For instance, litigation in the tax arena as regards the classification of payments on import of shrink-wrapped software continues. At the judicial level, the tax orders are largely in favour of the foreign recipient as the judiciary seeks to distinguish between a copyrighted article and exploitation of a copyright. Software licensing to the Indian payer is treated as a transaction of a copyrighted article and thus not a royalty payment.

However, at the lower levels, the going is tough for the foreign recipient or even the Indian payer. Faced with the prospect of being treated in default, the Indian payer seeks to withhold tax at source, even when it is technically not subject to tax under the tax treaty. To compound the problem , if the foreign recipient does not have a permanent account number ( PAN )), tax has to be withheld at the higher rate of 20%. It is also likely that the home country of the foreign recipient may not allow a foreign tax credit on the ground that the tax was wrongfully withheld in India.

Recently, professionals were a bit taken aback with a ruling given by the Delhi income tax tribunal, in the widely published case of Microsoft . While holding that the payments made by the Indian payer would be subject to withholding tax as the payment for licence of the software was royalty, the tribunal also went ahead to observe that reliance cannot be placed on the OECD commentary in interpreting a tax treaty and that a later provision in domestic laws would override tax treaty provisions. Thankfully, the Mumbai income tax tribunal followed suit with a few favourable decisions, upholding the distinction between a copyright and a copyrighted article. Yet, uncertainty continues to loom large.

Let us take another instance. Indian companies are often subcontracted work by their foreign parent and other overseas group entities. The Delhi income tax tribunal , in another instance, has held that the relationship of the US entities with its Indian subsidiary to which it had subcontracted or assigned software development or call centre services resulted in a permanent establishment in India.

More so, since the Indian subsidiary had not been remunerated on an arm's length basis, the Delhi income tax tribunal largely upheld the approach adopted by the tax department of attributing profits to such permanent establishment of the US entities based on a proportion of Indian assets to global assets.

Looks like foreign entities wanting to do business with India need to pay more detailed attention to these ongoing issues . While it may be time to ring out the old, in tax land, the existing issues never seem to die.

But one must also look forward at emerging business scenarios, for instance e-commerce or the even more nascent cloud computing. A prominent feature of business activities conducted via the internet is that it is impossible to pinpoint where that activity is taking place. The physical location of the business activity has traditionally been the crucial factor in determining where the permanent establishment is located and thus in which country the profits can get taxed.

In the context of a computer server, the OECD in its commentary has made several observations. If an enterprise that carries on a business through a website has the server (in another country) at its own disposal - it owns or leases and operates the server, it could result in a permanent establishment exposure in such other country. In most cases, it is likely, especially given the lack of usage of personnel manning the server that the all substantial assets and risks would be at the head office level and negligible profits alone could be attributed to the server created permanent establishment. But yes, attribution of profits would be a tricky matter.

If this were not enough, cloud computing will blur the boundaries further. However, it is likely that a cloud computing solution may help reduce the tax exposure arising through permanent establishment creation, as in essence it would mean that a foreign entity is merely using the services of the cloud computing provider and the cloud computing provider is not its dependent agent so as to constitute a permanent establishment.

As Zenobia Aunty looks back on the existing tax issues and foresees some new tax issues emerging she exclaims: There is never a dull moment in tax land.

Greater clarity is required over royalty payments to overseas companies on software licensing by the Indian payer
In subcontracted work, clearer guidelines are required for determining a permanent establishment in India
As regards emerging business scenarios, cloud computing will create more tax challenges

A case for housing reform

Corruption is a worldwide phenomenon, a tall political leader is said to have rationalised, which seemed to suggest that give-and-take of the domestic variety was generally par for the course and nothing really to be worked up about. That was then, in the sclerotic seventies characterised by intransigent non-reform in policymaking and a panoply of rigidities. Fast-forward to the here and now and the latest WikiLeaks disclosures seem to even point at monetary inducements being readily offered to buy votes in Parliament during the crucial non-confidence vote against the government over the Indo-US nuclear deal. The allegations have been denied outright; the charges are unproven and not provable either, goes the official explanation , as the dispatches of representatives of sovereign states in foreign lands enjoy diplomatic immunity. But such a position is based on mere technicalities.

It cannot be gainsaid that the scope for corruption is widespread here and the degeneration appears all pervasive in public life. And there seems perverse incentive to cut corners and resort to corrupt practices , including reportedly forgery of commercial pilot licences . But to express disgust about malpractices and corruption within and beyond legislative halls would hardly herald change and reform. The way ahead to tackle corruption is to thoroughly reform the root causes for opacity and give-and-take , such as continuing non-reform in the funding of elections by political parties and routine lack of transparency in real estate and housing transactions. We need to plug the institutional lacunae and drawbacks that seem to prevent good governance , including in electoral funding and routine incompliance in the housing market .

Now, when it comes to reform of political funding, the tallest in the land say it requires political consensus (which presumably is absent at present). But we surely do need proactive policy to plan and follow through with reform of the housing sector, to bring about the much-needed transparency in buy-and-sell initiatives across the board. Now, the growing economic power of cities is a worldwide phenomenon. But the point is that the urban housing market here is wholly distorted with glaring rigidities, gross anomalies and sheer anachronisms . The mavens estimates that India is likely to have about 45% of its population living in urban areas within the next two decades -up from just about 30% now -and the projections suggest major shortfalls in access to potable water, affordable housing and public transportation in our cities sans sound policy design in the medium term and beyond. What's required is substantial increase in housing stock and infrastructural services, so as to discourage rent-seeking .

It is notable that the recent High-Powered Expert Committee has been estimating the investment requirement for urban infrastructure services in the next couple of decades . The committee pegs the investment requirement for urban infrastructure services for the next 20 years at Rs 39.2 lakh crore at 2009-10 prices, with the bulk of it - 44% - proposed to be earmarked for urban roads. The expert take is that there is a huge investment backlog in the segment pan-India . Next, infrastructural services like water supply, sewerage and storm water drainage would require another 20% of the funds, or Rs 8 lakh crore. A smaller corpus, Rs 4 lakh crore, is allocated for urban renewal including redevelopment of slums. The figure appears to be a gross underestimate, given that over half the population in Mumbai, for instance, already resides in slum-category housing. Note that funds requirement for sectors like power distribution have been excluded, as they are beyond the very scope of the report.

The expert panel vouches for a switch to a mayoral system in our cities to rev up accountability , and incentivise proactive policy to shore up muchneeded investments. The present system of state government bureaucrats directly in charge of urban renewal seems sub-optimal , the report avers. The objective of policy ought to be to step up funds flow with innovative mechanisms and actualise investment in trunk infrastructure to boost the housing stock and, so, considerably reduce the massive gap in supply. In parallel, what is essential is to liberalise and increase the floor area ratio (FAR) in our cities, and not just in the city centres, to increase supply of affordable housing.

A McKinsey report last year estimated that with reform of FAR norms and attendant policy and governance reform such as a national mortgage guarantee fund, it should be possible to increase the supply of affordable housing 10-fold , or 20 lakh dwelling units ayear. In tandem, the latter report also suggests that 30% of all affordable housing be available to rent. The bottom line is the need to improve transparency in real estate investment and put paid to the high-cost regime in housing, high stamp duties and the like, to purposefully improve living conditions, networks and foster innovation as well.

Average life expectancy: Emerging Indians still live a shorter life

For a country that likes to believe that it is about catching up with the West or even the advanced Asian nations, India has a long way to go before it matches them on average life expectancy. An average Indian was expected to live 63.7 years in 2008, but most Asians live longer, 71.6 years.

And those in the Organisation of Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) nations live as long as 79.2 years. The Japanese live 82.7 years, the South Koreans 79.9, and the Chinese 73.1 years.

So what do these numbers tell about the health of Indians? After all, life expectancy at birth is one of the best known measures of a population's health status. In India's case, infant and child mortality rates continue to be very high, and so does maternal mortality rate, even though significant progress has been made since the 1970s, when the average life expectancy was less than 50.

Increased government intervention combined with better access to healthcare, rising living standards, better nutrition, and improved water and sanitation facilities have reduced the mortality rates at all ages. As have higher national income, improved lifestyles and increased education, notes OECD's Health at a glance, Asia-Pacific, 2010.

Overall, socio-economic status and educational background of women play an important role in life expectancy, with improvements in education and living conditions of mother contributing to infant and child survival, it adds.
India's record on maternal mortality is disappointing when compared with the Asian average as well as with the more developed Asian nations and OECD.

Maternal mortality rate, or MMR, in India was estimated at 230 deaths per 1 lakh live births, compared to the Asian average of 162, China's 38, South Korea's 18, Japan's 6 and OECD's 12.

What's worse, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia together account for about a quarter (1 lakh) of the total maternal deaths across the world. India recorded 63,000 maternal deaths in 2008. The corresponding number for China was only 6,900.

Given the poor state of women's health, it should not surprise that infant mortality rate in India is 52 per 1,000 live births, even after 51% decline in infant mortality rate between 1980 and 2008. In comparison, the Asian average has declined to 30 and that of OECD to 5.

However, the progress notwithstanding, of the 8.8 million infant death across the world, Asia-Pacific region accounted for about 2.9 million deaths in 2008. About, two-thirds of these deaths occurred in the neonatal stage. On the whole, south and south-east Asia recorded higher infant mortality while eastern Asian countries have lower rates, with causes being diarrhoea, pneumonia and undernutrition.

Again, on under-five mortality rate, India compares poorly with many of its Asian neighbours, with 69 deaths per 1,000 live births. The Asian average is 39, and that for China is 21 and Sri Lanka 15. The report notes that major causes for adult mortality are AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, injuries and unsafe sex.


The health of the nation would also depend on the spending on healthcare, both by the state and the individual. India's per-capita spending on healthcare is just $116 in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. In comparison, Australia spends $3,448, that of OECD is $3,060 and Japan $2,751. The Asia average is $526 and that of China $259. Clearly, India needs to step up its spending on healthcare to improve the health of its people.

It is not enough to say India's annual average real growth in per-capita health expenditure during 1998-2008 at 4.6% is nearly on a par with the Asian average (4.9%). During the period, spending in China rose 9.2%. So, the Chinese have longer life expectancy.

IMF's Independent Evaluation Office shies away from solution

As a mea culpa, it could not have got better. Or should that read 'worse'? But as an exercise in soul-searching, the report of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the IMF's performance in the run-up to the financial crisis, released mid-February, could not have been more thorough.

Or more deserving of attention! But February is a month when most of India is fixated on the Union Budget looming ahead. So the IEO report was almost completely ignored by business dailies here despite the fact that it is a remarkable piece of work. And, as a freshly-minted member of the G20 club charged with overseeing safe-landing the global economy, we have a vital role in ensuring the report gets more traction, and more important, is acted upon. But first, what is the IEO?

It was established in 2001 after the Asian crisis with a mandate to conduct independent and objective evaluations of the IMF's policies and activities. The idea was that a frank and informed postmortem would improve the Fund's ability to draw lessons and integrate improvements into its future work. The Office is fully independent of the IMF's management and operates at arm's length from the board of executive directors.

The director is an official of the Fund, but not a staff member, and the majority of full-time IEO personnel are from outside the Fund. This is not a matter of detail. No internal body would have been as scathing of the IMF's performance. Consider. In a Box titled, What was the IMF saying about Iceland in 2007-08, the report says the IMF's discussions with that country's government under Article IV found Iceland's medium-term prospects 'enviable', adding 'the banking sector appears wellplaced to withstand significant credit and market shocks.'

All this, just months before Iceland's banks collapsed like a house of cards! That is not all. The IMF, we in India have tacitly accepted , has one set of rules for the developing world and another for its patrons in the developed world. But you don't expect to see that in a report fathered by the IMF, even if by an Independent Evaluation Office! And here lies the strength of the report: its honesty. 'The quality of bilateral surveillance,' it admits, 'varied greatly among other member countries.

In contrast to upbeat messages to the largest systemic financial centers, some smaller advanced and emerging market countries with similar vulnerabilities received repeated warnings about the buildup of risks in their domestic economies.' A case of double standards? You bet! The IMF's ability to correctly identify mounting risks was hindered by a high degree of groupthink, intellectual capture, a general mindset that a major financial crisis in large advanced economies was unlikely, and incomplete analytical approaches.

Groupthink or the tendency among homogeneous, cohesive groups to consider issues only within a certain paradigm and not challenge its basic premises is not unique to the IMF. It happens everywhere. All the more reason to guard against it! But that is easier said than done, as anyone familiar with the parable of The Emperor's New Clothes would agree .The prevailing view among IMF staff, a cohesive group of macroeconomists, mostly educated in US universities was that market discipline and self-regulation would be sufficient to stave off serious problems in financial institutions. They also believed that crises were unlikely to happen in advanced economies, where 'sophisticated' financial markets could thrive safely with minimal regulation of a large and growing portion of the financial system.

The IMF staff was uncomfortable challenging the views of authorities in advanced economies, being overly influenced (over-awed?) by their reputation and expertise; a case of intellectual capture, the report concedes. So, while they had no problem lecturing developing countries, they were was wary of doling out tough talk to developed countries. Many believed there were limits to how critical they could be regarding the policies of the largest shareholder since '... you're owned by these governments (read: the US)'.

More dangerously, staff perceived that in case of disagreement, the IMF management would end up endorsing country authorities' views. None of this is a particularly encouraging read at the time when the G20 seems to have lost its way and the IMF, to all intents and purposes, has regained its position as numero uno.

True, there has been some tinkering at the margin with voting rights in the IMF Board and advanced economies have been included in the Fund's 'Vulnerability Exercise' and 'Early Warning Exercise'. There is also increased research on macro-financial linkages and financial stability assessments have been made a mandatory part of surveillance for 25 most systemic financial sectors. However, as the report points out, similar views were articulated after previous crises;but were either not implemented or implemented indifferently. Why? Because of a phrase we in India are hearing more and more these days: 'governance deficit'.

The report accepts this but finally settles for more of the same. So, it suggests creating a risk assessment unit reporting directly to the management, changing the insular culture of the IMF by inducting outside analysts, encouraging staff to be more candid, etc. And shies away from more crucial reform that alone can deliver better governance: root-and-branch overhaul of the Fund's voting rights to reflect the new realities of the 21st century world.

The TB terror

Two per cent of the Indian population is infected with tuberculosis, making it about 20 million patients. There are two deaths occurring every three minutes from TB in the country

Tuberculosis, commonly called TB, is an illness that usually affects the respiratory system. However, it can infect any part of the body. It spreads by close contact through coughing and sneezing thereby adopting the airborne route to get the primary infection. The ongoing AIDS pandemic has worsened the scenario, as immunosuppressed HIV-infected persons are highly susceptible to this bacterium.

The co-morbidity of both these diseases is so alarming that invariably it leads to fatal consequences. This is the most common opportunistic infection among people living with HIV. In 2007, WHO recommended that countries with high co-infection rate should develop TB-HIV collaborative activities through Integrated Counselling and Testing Centers (ICTC).

Even today, 129 years after its discovery, tuberculosis remains one of leading causes of death of several million people, mostly in third world poverty-stricken developing countries. The gross estimation of WHO is that two billion persons, one-third of world's population, are infected by this bacterium. The number of cases had become so enormous that in the year 1993, WHO had to declare a state of Global Emergency on this disease.

Our country is no exception to this epidemiological data; where 2 per cent population is infected, amounting to about 20 million people. It is one of the leading causes of mortality in India — 330,000 deaths each year — nearly 1,000 every day, which amounts to 2 persons dying every 3 minutes. These deaths can be prevented with proper diagnosis and treatment. Patients can be cured and the battle against this scourge can be certainly won.

This is one of the curable diseases if detected timely and managed properly. The standard recommended length of drug therapy is six months, which may be extended in some of the unusual cases. However, if there is delay in establishing diagnosis, irreparable damage takes place. Hence it may not be curable at an advanced stage.

Sometimes, even if diagnosis is timely made, the patient may not take the full course of treatment with prescribed doses. It turns into multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), where first-line drugs (isoniazid and rifampicin) become ineffective. The situation is already so grim and above all there is now an emerging threat of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) since 2006, where patients do not respond to the first line as well as the second line of anti-tuberculous drugs (fluoroquinolones and at least 1 of 3 injectables — capreomycin, kanamycin and amikacin). Such cases are now being reported from India also. The XDR-TB has really posed a big challenge before the medical fraternity and the ailing community.

In our country, the National TB Programme (NTP) was started in the year 1962 and the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) in 1997, after pilot testing from 1993-1996. It included Directly Observed Treatment Short course (DOTS), which is being implemented to tackle this menace. The WHO-recommended DOTS strategy was launched formally through the RNTCP. Since then DOTS has been widely advocated and successfully applied. The RNTCP has covered the entire population of the country by March 2006. This programme has achieved the global target of 70 per cent case detection for the first time while maintaining the treatment success rate of more than 85 per cent in our country.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, has now come up with the DOTS-Plus programme, which refers to DOTS that add five essential components for MDR-TB diagnosis as well as treatment. These are:

* Sustained government commitment;

* Accurate timely diagnosis through quality assured culture and drug susceptibility testing;

* Appropriate treatment utilising second-line drugs under strict supervision;

* Uninterrupted supply of quality assured anti-tuberculous drugs; and

* Standardized recording and reporting system.

There is full integration of DOTS and DOTS-Plus activities under the RNTCP so that patients with MDR-TB are both correctly identified and properly managed under the prescribed recommendations. In the RNTCP DOTS-Plus vision by 2012, it is aimed to extend these services to all smear positive retreatment cases and new cases who have failed an initial first-line drug treatment and by 2015, these services will be made available to all smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis cases registered under the programme.

The writer is Professor and Head, Department of Microbiology, Govt. Medical College Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh



Key facts

* TB is one of the leading causes of mortality in India— killing 2 persons every three minute, nearly 1,000 every day

* The strategy of Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) is based largely on research done in India in the field of TB over the past 35 years.

* Since 1997, after successful piloting DOTS has been implemented in India as the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP). In the RNTCP, the proportion of TB cases which are confirmed in the laboratory and the cure rate are both more than double that of the previous programme,

* The operational feasibility of DOTS in the Indian context has been demonstrated, with 8 out of 10 patients treated in the programme being cured, as compared with approximately 3 out of 10 in the previous programme.

* Multidrug -resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) is a result and symptom of poor management of TB patients.DOTS has been shown to prevent the emergence of MDRTB and to reverse the trend of MDRTB in communities in which it has emerged.

* TB is the most common opportunistic infection among people living with HIV.

* Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) has covered the entire population of the country by March 2006.

* Every patient who is cured stops spreading TB, and every life saved is a child, mother, or father who will go on to live a longer, TB-free life.



Together we can eliminate it

The 24th of March every year is observed as World Tuberculosis Day all over the globe. This occasion provides an opportunity to the governmental as well as non-governmental organisations to create public awareness programmes highlighting the magnitude of the problems and devising solutions related to the ongoing pandemic of tuberculosis entailing the strengthening of the control measures.

World TB Day commemorates the historical date in the year 1882 when Robert Koch announced the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative bacterium of tuberculosis, in one of the meetings of doctors in Berlin (Germany). This used to be was considered a dreaded disease at that time. It used to kill millions of people, as the case fatality was 1 out of every 7 persons, not only in Europe but other continents as well because neither its cause nor any specific treatment was known. This breakthrough discovery on this day paved the way for diagnosing and later on curing this 'incurable disease' of that era.

For the next hundred years, this day was not remembered in any capacity. However, in 1982, while commemorating the 100th year of Koch's discovery, the first World TB Day was observed by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD), which was subsequently joined by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The basic idea of the international event was to educate the public at large about the devastating medical and economic consequences of tuberculosis, its effect on the developing countries and its overall continued tragic impact on global health.

Every year a theme is decided for this day focussing on to how to get rid of this disease and throughout that year a concerted worldwide campaign is initiated to achieve the set goal. The theme of this year is 'TB Elimination : Together We Can' which is more than a slogan and its campaign will be sustained focussing on to people everywhere who are doing their part 'on the move against tuberculosis : transforming the fight towards elimination'.

It is a reminder of the collaborative efforts on eliminating tuberculosis by educating health care workers and volunteers who play a crucial role in identifying symptoms of this disease. It is about highlighting lives and stories of people affected by tuberculosis: women, men and children who have taken tuberculosis treatment; nurses; doctors; researchers; community workers — anyone who has contributed towards the global fight against this dreadful disease.

Every patient who is cured stops spreading tuberculosis and every life saved is a child, mother or father who will go on to live a longer, disease-free life. WHO is working to cut tuberculosis prevalence rates and thereby deaths by half by the year 2015. Eventually by 2050, the global incidence of this disease is expected to be less than or equal to 1 case per million population per year. The day is not far when we will be able to celebrate this occasion, as the disease will ultimately be eliminated from the face of the globe. Our vision is a world free of tuberculosis.

The TB terror

The TB terror

Buffett for the underprivileged

SOON after Warren Buffett visits India, comes an announcement of a Rs 1,540-crore pledge towards charity by GMR Group chairman G R Rao. Call this the Buffett effect. When the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, one the richest men in the world, asks billionaires, or just millionaires, to open their wallets, they do so. Americans have a saying: “Put your money where your mouth is,” and Buffet certainly has. In 2006, he pledged most of his fortune to charity. The primary recipient of his largesse was the Gates Foundation. He also gave to the four charitable trusts created by his family—the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Susan A. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation. Along with Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Buffet has led the trend of billionaires donating a significant part of their wealth to charity.

In India, too, there have been some notable donations recently, like the Wipro chairman Azim Premji who gave over Rs 8,000 crore, and HCL founder Shiv Nadar who gave Rs 580 crore for education. Notable instances of corporate social responsibility include the Infosys Foundation and the Rs 500-crore initiative by Reliance Industries. Traditionally, industrial houses like the Tata, the Godrej and the Birlas built hospitals and educational institutions. Overall, however, India lags behind nations like the US and the UK, which give 2.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent of their GDP for charity. The Indian figure comes to a miserly 0.6 per cent.

Many of those who give do not merely give away their money; they monitor its use and even set up institutions that would help to make the change that they want to make. We must realise that it is better to leave our children a better society than to merely leave them with wealth. People clever enough to make billions have done so; it’s high time we did so, too!

No more ‘misery tax’

ONE proposal in the Union Budget for 2011-12 which had attracted sharp all-round criticism was the 5 per cent service tax on diagnostic tests and treatment in air-conditioned private hospitals with more than 25 beds. Displaying commendable sensitivity to public feelings, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has rightly agreed to roll back the proposal that would have fetched a Rs 700-crore annual revenue for the exchequer. It is amazing that a seasoned and pragmatic political leader like Mr Mukherjee has to be told that an air-conditioned hospital is no longer a luxury but a necessity, that the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals does not grant accreditation unless a hospital has central air-conditioning and that poor villagers have to mortgage their assets to get treatment during an emergency since government hospitals are often crowded and mismanaged.

Had the tax not been axed, a heart surgery would have cost Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 more and for cancer patients the cost of treatment would have escalated by Rs 20,000. Hospitals would have passed the tax burden on to patients. Calling it the “misery tax”, Dr Devi Shetty, a Bangalore-based cardiologist, had led a protest by citizens outside the Governor’s residence and observed March 12 as the “Misery Day”.

There may be hospitals making hefty profits, tempting finance ministers to grab a slice of these but healthcare in India needs large government and private investment. There is an acute shortage of staff and infrastructure. Government doctors prescribe medicines which patients buy from private shops. There is a risk of getting expired or spurious medicines. Since the cost of treatment is multiplying rapidly, health insurance must cover larger sections of society. Private insurance firms are growing fast and, like private hospitals, tend to indulge in questionable practices. To discipline the health sector, there is need for a regulatory authority. Even as private hospitals flourish, the government cannot abdicate its responsibility of providing access to efficient and affordable healthcare to ordinary citizens.

Learning from Japanese crisis

IT would be a “tragedy of errors”, to use a Shakespearean metaphor, if India’s nuclear power programme — an area of advanced science where India is on the forefront world-wide — is slashed in response to the crisis brought about by nature’s fury in Japan. That would be a big blow to Indian economic development, opening power generation to the ravages of crippling environmental pollution from coal-based thermal plants, and still leave a big void in the target that nuclear power generation was expected to provide — a target of 63,000 MWe during the two decades ahead.

That, of course, does not mean that India and the world can minimise the lessons of the nuclear crisis in Japan, unleashed by a monster tsunami in the wake of a massive earthquake. On the contrary, there are vital and very timely lessons that need to be imbibed by all countries — India certainly — that intend to use nuclear energy for economic advance. But in order to avail of these lessons, an objective, knowledge-based approach is required, not panicky knee-jerk responses.

It has rightly been stated by the Prime Minister in Parliament, and emphasised by top scientists, that the Indian nuclear establishment has all along given primacy to safety parameters — reactor design, double containment construction shielding the reactor vessel, elevating safety features progressively, etc. The result: India’s nuclear power plants have now a passive safety system that shuts down reactor operations automatically even on a single fault. It is also true that the Indian reactors have successfully withstood both the tsunami onslaught in 2004 and the earthquake that devastated Bhuj in Gujarat in 2001. Barring the turbine fire accident at Narora in the first phase of indigenous reactor construction, the Indian reactor operations over three decades have set up a unique safety record.

And yet the nuclear crisis in Japan is a stern warning. All the existing safety parameters have to be re-examined and further strengthened. It must be accepted that Indian nuclear establishment’s safety attainments are not enough. A more stringent approach to all facets of safety of reactor operations is called for. And the lessons from Japan’s nuclear crisis need to be assiduously learnt. Some of these lessons can easily be pin-pointed.

First, the cooling system — the system that failed to perform in the Fukushima reactors, since there was insufficient electricity back-up after the tsunami resulted in botching up electricity availability. The lesson from Japan for India and the world is to insulate the cooling system that has a key role to perform once the reactor shuts down in an exigency. The Indian nuclear establishment has notable attainments of indigenous technology in building coolant channels. They have to extend R & D in this area in order to insulate the cooling system from all possible natural disasters, just as much as operational hick-ups.

Second, the Fukushima site was particularly vulnerable, being in the most dangerous seismic zone. Even if this may not be applicable to India, the site selection committee must apply more stringent criteria for all future nuclear projects. Gujarat’s Kakrapar reactors have been rated (in 1998) among the best in the world. But notwithstanding the fact that they withstood the ravages of the Bhuj earthquake of 2001, future reactor sites must avoid earthquake-prone locations. Another criterion should be to avoid the east coastal zones despite Kalpakkam reactors having withstood the tsunami depredation in 2004. Experience has shown that it is the east coast areas that tsunamis have done the maximum damage.

Third, reactor design selection is of key importance in the safety parameters. The safety features have been progressively enhanced in modern reactor designs. The Indian indigenous PHWR reactors have enhanced safety features. Yet there should be no complacency; the Indian nuclear establishment needs to upgrade safety features of the new 700 MW PHWRs whose construction is being undertaken. Possibly, the Indo-Canadian nuclear cooperation agreement inked recently may enable joint research to this end.

It is equally important that in the selection of reactor designs of imported light water reactors, a very high degree of technological perfection is sought. These reactor designs have to be of proven record, and nothing but the best has to be accepted.

Our sympathies with the Japanese people notwithstanding, it should be accepted that the Japanese nuclear authorities of the Tokyo Electricity utility have been complacent, if not callous, in this regard. The Fukushima reactors were based on 1972 vintage GE boiling water reactor design, and their lifespan was fully exhausted. And yet, early this year before the devastating earthquake struck Japan, the Fukushima reactors’ life-span was extended by another 12 years. And this without any technological upgrading, ignoring the extreme vulnerability of the seismic zone in which these reactors were located, thereby displaying the grip of commercial motives that pervade the Tokyo Electricity utility.

We note that Tarapur 1 and 2 reactors are of a similar GE boiling water design, and of even older vintage. But it must be said to the credit of the Indian nuclear establishment that technological upgrading has all along been injected into the GE design and the consequence is the success story that we have at Tarapur. In fact, Tarapur 1 and 2 reactors are not what the GE left behind and, with American sanctions imposed on Indian nuclear facilities for 30 years, it was Indian nuclear capability alone that kept these reactors functioning so well. However, even Tarapur 1 and 2 have long completed their life-span, and have been given a second five-year extension. For how long? The NPCIL must determine the life-span of these reactors, keeping stringent safety audit in view.

Fourth, and perhaps the most important factor in the quest for safety, is the need to elevate the status and capability of the Nuclear Regulatory Board. As of now, the AERB is subservient to the AEC whose operations it is supposed to watch — with vigilance and a critical eye. Even though the AERB is an adjunct of the AEC, its status as a watchdog needs to be upgraded. The Indian nuclear regulatory body should function somewhat like its counterparts in France and the United States: equivalent in status to the Atomic Energy Commission. The second requisite for the nuclear watchdog to effectively safeguard nuclear operations from transgression is to add to its knowledge pool by close linkage with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

All said and done, it needs to be recognised that extracting energy by splitting the atom is a knowledge-based technology, which requires constant upgrading. It has both plus and minus points. Radiation is a hazard if allowed to spin out of control. Its strong counter-balancing plus points are: (a) that nuclear energy is perhaps the only large-scale energy source that can fill the void of fast depleting fossil fuels, already being priced out, threatening inflation and the fabric of the economy; (b) it is the only non-pollutant alternative to fossil fuels that threaten catastrophic climate change, posing the biggest challenge to mankind.

It is for these reasons that nuclear energy has become a critical requirement of India’s growth plans. The fact is that India’s growth projections and the corresponding energy needs are unsustainable without large tapping of nuclear energy. The target of 63,000 MWe of nuclear energy capacity by the year 2032 as visualised in the Integrated Energy Policy takes these factors into account. It is a tough goal, but the attainments of India’s nuclear establishment are paving the way for realising this goal.

Tackling child abuse

IT is heartening that the Centre has tabled the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. This was long overdue since child abuse has not only increased in the country over the years but is also having a deleterious impact on child psyche. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau show that the number of cases of sexual offences against children has risen from 2265 in 2001 to 5769 in 2008. The gravity of the problem can be gauged by the fact that two out of every three children are physically abused. The Bill has some unique features to protect children against offences of sexual assault, harassment and pornography. It provides for imprisonment up to seven years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for those found guilty of sexually assaulting children. Sexual assault will also include fondling the child in an inappropriate way, which would invite a punishment of a minimum of three years in jail. The Bill, which will now be sent to the Standing Committee for examination and scrutiny, envisages establishment of special courts for trial of such offences.

Significantly, the Bill provides for treating sexual assault as an “aggravated offence” when it is committed by a person in a position of trust or authority over a child, including public servants. This is a very important provision because studies by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, UNICEF and Save the Children, an NGO, reveal that most of the time the sexual abuse was perpetrated by someone known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility. Not surprisingly, most children did not report the abuse to anyone. Studies reveal that only 53 per cent of children reported having faced some form of sexual abuse.

The Bill is expected to fill the gap in Indian jurisprudence. Though 19 per cent of the world’s children live in India, the country has no special law at present to tackle the menace of child abuse. The Indian Penal Code does not spell out the definition of child abuse as a specific offence. Nor does it offer legal remedy and punishment for the offence. Moreover, the IPC laws are rarely interpreted to cover the range of child sexual abuse. Even the Juvenile Justice Law does not specifically address the issue. Despite all its merits, the Bill would help the country only if it is strictly enforced by the authorities after due enactment by Parliament.