Editorial

Discussion
11-March-2024
11-March-2024

We need limits
on election
campaign
spending
Nutritional Crisis
in India
• GS PAPER II
• Issues relating to poverty
and hunger.
Nutritional Crisis in India

● Context:
● Recently, India has ranked poor in a study
calculating the prevalence of Zero-Food Children
across 92 low- and middle-income countries
(LMIC).

● About the Study:

● The research was published in the journal JAMA
Network and looked at 276,379 babies aged six to
23 months in 92 LMICs.
● Data Collection Methods: The researchers gathered
data from demographic and health surveys (DHS)
and multiple indicator cluster (MICS) surveys.
Nutritional Crisis in India

● Period: May 20, 2010, to January 27, 2022.

● India Specific Data: National Family Health Survey's
2019-2021 data was used.

India-Specific Findings:
● Zero-Protein: More than 80% of children in the age
group of 6-23 months had not consumed any
protein-rich foods for an entire day (“zero-protein”).
● According to NFHS-5 data ,close to 40% of children
in the age group of 6-23 months did not eat any
grains (roti, rice, etc.) for an entire day.
● Zero-Milk: Six out of 10 children in the age group of
6-23 months do not consume milk or dairy of any
form every day (“zero-milk”).
Nutritional Status of India

● Child Malnutrition in India:

● Longstanding Child Malnutrition Challenge: The
first National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in
1992-1993 revealed that over half of children
under four were underweight and stunted, with
one in six being excessively thin (wasted).
● According to NFHS-5 data the zero-food
prevalence was 30% for infants aged 6-11
months, 13% among 12-17 months old, and 8%
among 18-23 months old.
Nutritional Status of India

● Global Malnutrition Ranking: The Global Hunger

Index (2022) ranks India at 107 out of 121
countries.
● India’s child wasting rate (low weight for height),
at 19.3%, is worse than the levels recorded in 2014
(15.1%) and even 2000 (17.15%).It is the highest for
any country in the world.
● Stunted Children: According to the fifth round of
NFHS (2019-2021) data from 22 states, only nine
showed a decline in the number of stunted
children, 10 in wasted children, and six in
underweight children.
○ 35% of children are Stunted and 57% of
women and 25% of men are anemic.
Challenges Associated With Nutritional Security in India

● Cropping Pattern and Agriculture Practices: For

instance, the cultivation of rice and wheat often
overshadows the production of nutrient-rich
crops like millets and pulses, contributing to
nutritional insecurity
○ For Example: At the end of fiscal year 2022,
India had over 46 million hectares of land
area for cultivation of rice, whereas area
under cultivation of millets in 2021-22 is
15.48 million hectares
● Insufficient Funding: Many nutrition programs
suffer from budget constraints, affecting their
scale and effectiveness. India’s public health
expenditure is still only about 1.3% of its GDP.
Challenges Associated With Nutritional Security in India

● Regional Disparities: For example, states like

Punjab and Haryana have better access to
nutritious food due to better facilities developed
during the Green Revolution, while states like
Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh face higher rates
of malnutrition due to limited resources.
● Environmental Enteropathy: Poor hygiene and
sanitation lead to a sub-clinical condition called
“environmental enteropathy” in children, which
causes nutritional malabsorption and is the
source of a variety of problems, including
diarrhoea, retarded growth and stunting.
Challenges Associated With Nutritional Security in India

● Social Factors: Low status of women in Indian

society, Poor childcare practices, such as not
immediately starting breastfeeding after birth
and child marriages.
○ Estimates suggest that each year, at least
1.5 million girls under 18 get married in
India, which makes it home to the largest
number of child brides in the world.
○ Infants born to child brides in India
(married before the age of 18) have a
higher risk of malnutrition
● Food Wastage: Around 67 million tonnes of food
is wasted in India every year which has been
valued at around Rs 92,000 crores.
Challenges Associated With Nutritional Security in India

● Politics of Distribution: According to Amartya

Sen, hunger usually arises from food distribution
problems, or from governmental policies in the
developing world, and not from the
insufficiency of food production. Corruption,
leakages, exclusion-inclusion error etc. makes
PDS inefficient.
● Climate Change and Natural Disasters:
Frequent droughts, floods, and other climate-
related events lead to food shortages.
○ For Example: States like Maharashtra and
Kerala have experienced adverse effects of
climate change, affecting crop yields.
Challenges Associated With Nutritional Security in India

● Lack of Diversity under Public Distribution System (PDS):

The PDS lacks more nutritious foods such as coarse grains,
pulses, etc.
○ India’s protein consumption falls far below the
recommended daily intake of 48 grams per day
suggested by the Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR).
○ The recommended dietary allowance of protein for an
average Indian adult is 0.8 to 1 gm per kg body
weight.
● Cultural Practice: For example, a study in rural Rajasthan
found that women eat last and consume lower quantities
of nutrient-rich foods compared to other family members,
resulting in compromised nutritional security.
Steps Taken by the Government

● Direct Targeted Interventions: Government

implements several schemes and programs like
Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls
and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
under the Umbrella Integrated Child
Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as direct
targeted interventions.
● POSHAN ABHIYAAN: It aims to prevent and
reduce prevalence of stunting, underweight and
anemia among children (0-6 years) and
reduction in prevalence of low birth weight in
the country by involving panchayati raj
institutions/village organizations.
Steps Taken by the Government

● Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) Strategy: It was

launched in 2018 with the objective of reducing
anaemia prevalence among children,
adolescents and women in the reproductive age
group.
● Poshan Vatikas: A programme to support
development of Poshan Vatikas at Anganwadi
centres to meet dietary diversity gap leveraging
traditional knowledge in nutritional practices
has also been taken up.
Steps Taken by the Government

● Fortification of Food: Encouraging the

fortification of staple foods with essential
nutrients. For example, in Karnataka, the
government mandated the fortification of edible
oils, wheat flour, and salt to improve the
nutritional status of the population.
● Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs): For
example, the Akshaya Patra Foundation
partners with the government in various states
to provide nutritious mid-day meals to
schoolchildren, addressing both hunger and
malnutrition.
Way Forward

● Improving Agricultural Productivity: By

ensuring scientific usage of water by means of
drip irrigation and precision farming, cultivate a
healthy environment with mixed crops, crop
rotation, and bio fertilizers and using modern
techniques like poly houses, green houses, shade
houses and others.
● Universal Maternity entitlements and child care
services: Enabling exclusive breastfeeding,
appropriate infant and young child feeding as
well as towards recognising women’s unpaid
work burdens.
Way Forward

● Strengthening Public Systems: Enhancing the

efficiency of the Public Distribution System,
ICDS, and healthcare services is paramount.
○ For Example: The computerization of PDS in
Chhattisgarh exemplifies how technology
can curb corruption and improve service
delivery.
● Increased Budgetary allocations: Adequate
budgetary allocation can help to tackle the issue
of nutritional security. Research suggests that $1
spent on nutritional interventions in India could
generate $34.1 to $38.6 in public economic
returns, three times more than the global
average.
Way Forward

● Nutrition Education and Awareness: Public

awareness campaigns can educate people about
the importance of a balanced diet, hygiene
practices, and breastfeeding, etc.
○ Example: My plate for the day to prevent
hidden hunger is a nutrition awareness
poster released by National Institute of
Nutrition, Hyderabad.
○ Other awareness campaigns include Eat
Right Campaign, Right To Food, etc
● Strengthen Inter-Departmental Convergence: In
this regard, approach undertaken by
Bangladesh can be replicated in India.
Way Forward

● Learn from International Experience: Thailand

has been one of the most outstanding success
stories of reducing child malnutrition in the
period 1980-1988 during which child
malnutrition (underweight) rate was effectively
reduced from 50 percent to 25 percent.
○ This was achieved through a mix of
interventions including intensive growth
monitoring and nutrition education, strong
supplementary feeding provision, high rates
of coverage ensured, Iron and Vitamin
supplementation and salt iodization along
with primary health care.
When Gandhi
first met Tagore
• GS PAPER I
• Modern Indian history from
about the middle of the
eighteenth century until the
present – significant events,
personalities, and issues.
When Gandhi first met Tagore

● Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and

Rabindranath Tagore shared an enduring
friendship that lasted from 1914-15 till the
latter’s demise in 1941.

● They met for the first time in West Bengal’s

Santiniketan on March 6, 1915 — mere months
after Gandhi’s return from South Africa.
● Gandhi spent nearly a month in Santiniketan
and left a profound impact on Tagore’s idyllic
school.
When Gandhi first met Tagore

● To date, Santiniketan celebrates ‘Gandhi

Punyaha Din’ on March 10 every year to
commemorate the meeting.
● On this day, the school’s working staff
(janitors, gardeners, cooks, etc.) get a day off,
while students and teachers carry out the
chores — an ode to Gandhi’s teachings on self-
reliance.
Meeting of two of India’s greatest, Gandhi and Tagore

● In 1915, Tagore was already world-famous.

● He had won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913
and was all the rage in the West.
● Gandhi, however, was still to become the leader
he would eventually be.

● But it is not as if Tagore did not know about

Gandhi at all.
● His elder brother Jyotirindranath met Gandhi in
1901, and an article written by Gandhi was also
published in the Tagore family journal Bharati
after the meeting.
Meeting of two of India’s greatest, Gandhi and Tagore

● Tagore was apprised of Gandhi’s work in South

Africa by C F Andrews, a British social reformer
and a common friend.
● It was Andrews who arranged for the meeting in
Santiniketan after Gandhi’s return in 1915, the
first of many stays at the school.

● Founded in 1901, Santiniketan was established by

Tagore as a residential school and centre for art.
● It was “based on ancient Indian traditions and on
a vision of the unity of humanity transcending
religious and cultural boundaries,” according to
its description on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Meeting of two of India’s greatest, Gandhi and Tagore

● As Gandhi recalled during a 1940 speech in

Santiniketan: “It was here that the members of
my South African family [students of his Phoenix
School] found warm hospitality in 1914, pending
my arrival from England, and I too found shelter
here for nearly a month.”
● (as quoted in historian Sabyasachi
Bhattacharya’s The Mahatma and The Poet:
Letters and Debates between Gandhi and
Tagore 1915-1941, 1997).
Meeting of two of India’s greatest, Gandhi and Tagore

● Accounts of the meeting on March 6 are rare.

● One such account, from Gandhi’s aide Kaka
Kelkar, noted the duo’s contrasting appearance.
● “His [Tagore’s] tall, stately figure, his silvery
hair, his long beard, his impressive choga …
[made] a magnificent picture… in almost
comical contrast, stood Gandhiji, in his skimpy
dhoti, his simple kurta, and his Kashmiri cap.
● It was like a lion confronting a mouse,” he said
(as quoted in mkgandhi.org).
Great minds who didn’t think alike

● After the first encounter, the Gandhi-Tagore

friendship blossomed.
● They became close pen pals and would meet
multiple times over the years. However, this was
not a friendship of exactly like minds.
● The duo disagreed with each other on all kinds
of things.

● “They had differences on fundamental

philosophical questions, which led to
disputation about many political, social, and
economic matters,” Bhattacharya wrote in his
introduction to The Mahatma and The Poet.
Great minds who didn’t think alike

● For example, in the aftermath of a devastating

earthquake in Bihar in 1934, Gandhi called the
calamity a “divine chastisement for the great
sin we [upper castes] have committed against…
Harijans”.
● Tagore did not agree.
Great minds who didn’t think alike

● “If we associate ethical principles with cosmic phenomena, we shall

have to admit that human nature is morally superior to
Providence… For, we can never imagine any civilised ruler of men
making indiscriminate examples of casual victims… in order to
impress others dwelling at a safe distance who possibly deserve
severer condemnation,” he wrote to Gandhi (and later published)
in protest.

● But Gandhi held firm. In a spirited rejoinder published in his

weekly magazine Harijan, he wrote: “ … If my belief turns out ill-
founded, it will still have done good to me and those who believe
with me… it would be terrible, if it is an expression of the divine
wrath for the sin of untouchability and we did not learn the moral
lesson from the event and repent for that sin.”
Great minds who didn’t think alike

● Not all disagreements were so profound. In one

of the more famous stories about their
interactions, Gandhi once told Tagore that to
fry puri in oil is “to turn good grain into poison”.
● Tagore retorted: “It must be slow poison… I have
been eating puris all my life and it has not done
me any harm so far.”

● As Bhattacharya remarked: “Both were

unsparing in their debate and, indeed, it cannot
be said that either of them was very successful
in persuading the other towards a path of
convergence of views.”
Common ground and mutual respect

● Regardless, both Gandhi and Tagore welcomed

criticism and disagreement and held a deep
regard for each other.
● “The differences on public issues never affected,
as far as one can judge from the letters [between
Gandhi and Tagore], their personal
relationship,” Bhattacharya wrote.

● Tagore referred to Gandhi as “Mahatma” (Great

Soul) as early as 1915. While it is widely believed
that he bestowed the title onto him, there is no
documentary evidence of the fact.
● Gandhi, meanwhile, readily adopted the
salutation of “Gurudev” (Teacher).
Common ground and mutual respect

● Moreover, as Gandhi would himself say in 1945,

on his last visit to Santiniketan, “I started with a
disposition to detect a conflict between Gurudev
and myself but ended with the glorious discovery
that there was none.”

● While this quote may paper over some real

differences, it highlights that there was also
common ground — most notably in the well of
influences which they drew from and what they
believed in.
Common ground and mutual respect

● As C F Andrews wrote to Tagore in 1914, shortly

after meeting Gandhi in South Africa: “I had no
difficulty in seeing from the first Mr. Gandhi’s
position and accepting it; for in principle, it is
essentially yours… a true independence, a
reliance upon spiritual force, a fearless courage
in the face of temporal power, and withal a deep
and burning charity for all men.” (as translated
from Prasanta Kumar Pal’s Ravi-Jeevanee, Vol
VI, 1993).
We need limits on
election campaign
spending
• GS PAPER II
• Salient features of the
Representation of
People’s Act

RANGARAJAN R.
We need limits on election campaign spending

● During the run up to the general elections to Lok

Sabha of 2004, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-
led government put out advertisements with the
tag line ‘India Shining.’
● The campaign led to a controversy over the use of
public money.
● Reports state that an estimated ₹150 crore was
spent for this campaign, arguably one of the
biggest government-sponsored advertisement
campaigns until then.
● Over the past two decades, this trend has caught
up with both Central and State governments
spending a lot on advertisements before elections
to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.
Limits on spending

● In a democratic country, it is essential for a

government to spread awareness about its
schemes and policies.
● In the first few decades in independent India,
this was primarily done through public
meetings.
● In the last three decades, awareness has been
spread through advertisements on print and
electronic media, which have a wide reach.
● However, at present, government
advertisements published or broadcast before
elections tend to be campaigns of the ruling
party and establish personality cults.
Limits on spending

● According to the Information and Broadcasting

Ministry, the Central government had spent
₹3,020 crore on advertisements between 2018-19
and 2022-23.
● It must be noted that the amount spent was
significantly higher at ₹1,179 crore during the
election year of 2018-19 as against ₹408 crore in
2022-23.
● This expenditure is likely to rise in 2023-24 as
the general elections are due in April-May.
● The Supreme Court through its orders in May
2015 and March 2016 laid down guidelines for
the regulation of government advertisements.
Limits on spending

● Even then, ruling governments have an

advantage before elections when it comes to
publishing advertisements that disturb the level
playing field.

● A famous quote from Hamlet goes, ‘more

honoured in the breach than in the observance’.
● That is meant for customs and laws that are
better off being ignored than being followed.
● In the Indian electoral context, however, it has
become a norm to breach the limits on election
expenditure.
● In fact, this breach is considered as one of the
essential traits for winning an election.
Limits on spending

● The election expenditure limit for candidates is

₹95 lakh per Lok Sabha constituency in larger
States and ₹75 lakh in smaller States.
● It is an open secret that candidates of all major
political parties breach this limit by a wide
margin even when we do not consider the illegal
distribution of cash and gifts to voters.
● In States notorious for this corrupt electoral
practice, the official limit is not even a fraction
of the actual election expenditure.
Limits on spending

● In India, there are no limits on the expenditure

of political parties during elections.
● The official expenditure declared by the BJP and
Congress for the 2019 elections was ₹1,264 crore
and ₹820 crore, respectively.
● However, a report by the Centre for Media
Studies (CMS) states that political parties spent
about ₹50,000 crore during the elections with
the BJP spending about 50% of this amount and
the Congress about 20%.
● The report suggests that 35% of this money was
spent on campaigns, while 25% was distributed
amongst voters illegally.
Limits on spending

● Most of this funding comes from corporate

houses and businessmen.
● This creates an unholy nexus between donors
and elected representatives.
Limits on spending

● The elections in other large democracies such as

the U.S. and U.K. have also become costly
affairs.
● However, it is the opaque nature of most of the
donations coupled with the distribution of cash
for votes that weakens the process of free and
fair elections in India.
● The Supreme Court has struck down the electoral
bonds scheme that will remove opacity in legal
donations.
● But this is akin to putting a band-aid on a
bullet wound as the majority of the funding
continues to be in unaccounted cash.
Towards a level playing field

● The Indrajit Gupta Committee (1998) and the

Law Commission report (1999) advocated state
funding of elections.
● This means that the government will contribute
money to political parties or candidates for
them to contest elections.
● The feasibility and mechanism for
implementing this measure is doubtful in the
present context.
● It requires consensus among all the political
parties and discipline in following the norms of
such state funding.
Towards a level playing field

● Nevertheless, the issue of the burgeoning cost of

elections can be sidestepped only at our own
peril.
● The CMS pegs the likely expenditure during the
2024 general elections at ₹1 lakh crore.
● In this regard, certain practicable steps for
creating a level playing field and ensuring free
and fair elections can be implemented if there is
political will.
● These are based on the report, ‘Proposed
Electoral Reforms’, submitted by the Election
Commission of India in 2016.
Towards a level playing field

● First, government advertisements should be

banned six months prior to any general election.
● Second, the law must be amended to state that
a party’s ‘financial assistance’ to its candidate
should also be within the limits of election
expenditure prescribed for a candidate.
● Third, there should be a ceiling on expenditure
by parties.
● This may be kept at not more than the
expenditure ceiling limit provided for a
candidate multiplied by the number of
candidates of the party contesting the election.
Towards a level playing field

● Finally, additional judges can be appointed in

High Courts for speedy disposal of election-
related cases that would act as a deterrent
against the violation of norms.
● These reforms would require bipartisan political
support to be effected.
● However, unless they are implemented, the
massive expenses of election spectacles will be
borne by us, ‘We the people’.
● Examine the underlying causes of malnutrition in India and
propose comprehensive strategies to address this challenge
effectively.

● Analyse the potential for misuse of government advertisement

expenditure, especially during the pre-election period. Discuss
measures that can be adopted to regulate such expenditures in a
manner akin to electoral spending, to ensure transparency and
fairness.