Ensure quality food

Unhygienic meat and foods containing harmful dyes are being sold openly in the market. Yet, this has never been a matter that merited the attention, leave aside concern, of the government even though this problem has been highlighted time and again by the media. Even though the Central Food Laboratory is doing its best, the present system suffers from a terrible lack of monitoring and the absence of proper equipment to identify inedible food items. As a result, many shopkeepers, butchers and vendors -- especially during festivals -- have been found selling unhygienic meat and prohibited food stuffs in the market.

The practice of mixing inedible dyes — especially in sweetmeats — which are normally used only to dye clothes and to colour paper has become so widespread that most of the sweetmeat items on the shelves are actually hazardous to health. Another worrisome food item that needs mentioning here is meat. Butchers selling unhygienic meat is also a common sight. The way animals are slaughtered and transported and the manner in which meat shops display the product need to be changed to ensure proper hygiene. Meat is an item that must be managed scientifically, but no efforts have been made in this direction.

There is no way consumers can tell how safe the food items they buy are, but suffice it to say that there is not a single market where meat, fish and vegetables are separately maintained with proper care. The least the government can do in this situation is to at least warn consumers about the risk or safety of foods available in the market. But this is sadly not happening. As a result, the largely unaware consumers have had to suffer the unscrupulous ways of traders who deal in foodstuff. Authorities such as VDCs, DDCs and municipalities, which are concerned with monitoring foods, and which are supposed to see to it that adulterated foodgrains, sweetmeat containing prohibited ingredients and unhygienic meat are not sold, have done nothing to prevent their sale. This clearly shows a total lack of concern on the part of authorities. What is worse is that even consumers who are conscious of the health hazards such foods contain have not raised their voice to pressurize the authorities to take action against such practices. Obviously, as long as there is no strong consumer movement in the country, these practices will continue.

Food Act of 2023 covers 84 consumable items only. Food Regulation-2027 which has been enforced in 36 districts also states that local government bodies have to ensure quality food items to all consumers. It is however surprising that the government has failed to cover meat, fish, vegetables and fruits in the Act. Unregulated food items such as these have done much harm to consumers. Apart from this, the Ministry of Agriculture which has set up regional food laboratories in the country’s five development regions, has not provided proper equipment to test food items sold in the market. Failure to implement regulations effectively has also made things worse. Shopkeepers have used dyes to polish cereals, pulses and some vegetables even though this is prohibited under the food regulation. Unless the government ensures quality food — fish, meat, vegetables and fruits to consumers, public health will continue to remain under threat.

Sustaining anti poverty moves

-By Sushil R Mathema

Notwithstanding the planned  development efforts for over four decades since 1950’s, and explicit poverty alleviation programmes/projects for about two decades since 1950’s including social sector development and micro finance programmes, poverty incidence in Nepal still remains high, deep-rooted and pervasive. Nepal’s level of income at US $ 210 per capita is one of the lowest in the world. With the population growing at 2.5 percent per annum, the real per capita income grew by just 1.4 percent during 1995-99 compared to an increase of 3.1 percent during 1991-94. As the agricultural sector grew by an average of 2.3 percent during the period, per capita agricultural income is believed to decline by 0.2 percent revealing the adverse impact of sluggish national growth in poverty reduction.

Apart from sluggish economic growth, with stagnant agriculture, high population growth and skewed income distribution, major causal factors contributing to incidence of poverty were identified as many of those political and socio-cultural factors such as lack of good governance and discrimination by gender, ethnicity etc. Geophysical factors pertaining to poverty in aggregate resources, landlocked between the huge neighbours and also the administrative impediments such as inefficiency in decentralization process, and non-clarity in Act and Regulations accounted for larger section of the population remaining under poverty level. But recently, voices have been raised that there is a missing link in the programmes addressed to poverty alleviation.

The estimate of Nepal Living Standard Survey, 1996 puts the poverty level at 42 percent, a downsize by seven percentage points from the level of 1992. Of them, about 17.1 percent are counted as ultra poor or the poorest of the poor. The impressive growth of national economy at around 5.1 percent during the Eighth Five year Plan appears to be instrumental in reducing the poverty level to a certain extent. On the social sector, the average expected age of a Nepali is also relatively short although it has increased from around 45 years in 1953 to 56 years in 1997 (Ninth Plan, NPC). Infant mortality per thousand has declined from 142 in 1980 to 75 in 1997. Maternal mortality per hundred thousand is 475 in 1997. As of 1997, adult literacy rate is also low (48 percent) and the gap in literacy rate between males and females is as high as 52 percent. Besides, there exists a strong relationship between poverty and the status of women. Gender disparity is still evident in the country. Females put in substantially longer work hours with the average workload being about 77 hours per week. Females on average have about 40 percent more work -load than males. Likewise, the overall primary school enrolment rate is 80 percent among boys compared to 61 percent for girls (Nepal Multiple Indicators Surveillance, 1996 -NPC).

It is also interesting to note that the incidence of poverty is being more pronounced in rural areas (40 percent of total households) and ecologically highest in mountains (63 percent) with the variation in incidence of poverty across the region worsening over time does cast doubt on whether in real sense, the poverty in rural areas has been reduced. The ratio of rural/urban incidence of poverty is reported to go up to 2.60 in 1996 from 2.2 in 1977 implying that the relative incidence of poverty in the rural areas has increased over time (HRD, 1998). This entails that Nepal poverty alleviation programmes along with its economic reforms launched in mid eighties and follow up of economic liberalization in early nineties have remained virtually ineffective in eradicating the poverty incidence in rural areas. Nepalese manpower having declared official unemployment rate of 4.9 percent while of 14 percent mentioned unofficially elsewhere and around 81 percent of total population being compelled to depend on agriculture provides enough room to the possibility of increase in poverty level if agriculture sector is not properly addressed by the government programmes. As a matter of fact, relatively better impact observed in non-agriculture sector as a result of the liberalization process and reform measures has, widened the gap between the poverty incidence between rural and urban sectors. This is evidenced by the noteworthy development in the growth of non-agriculture sector, which has averaged at more than 6.0 percent during 1990’s. In terms of human development perspective also, a study has concluded that Nepal has a high level of poverty- the highest among the South Asian countries.

In the recent budget for 1999/00, a poverty alleviation programme called “Bishweswar with the Poor” was brought in under which a concessional loan assistance of Rs 30,000 at five percent interest rate is provisioned. But, if one looks at the budgetary allocation under this heading, a better mobilization and subsequent management of ample of resources is required to successfully run such programme. There seems to be a dire need of national policy aimed at capturing the poverty alleviation programme at grassroots level such that local people are motivated to actively participate in such programmes. Many donor -funded programmes along with the national perspectives have been running in one way or other with the sole objective of reducing poverty in the country. And, of all other dimensions, credit component has been given special importance to run such programmes. The mushrooming of many number of programmes directed at same one objective has triggered the confusing environment as to prioritize the areas of development as well as sectors. In the past, there was virtually no assessment and evaluation regarding the overall contribution and effectiveness of foreign aid in poverty alleviation. The task is perhaps bestowed upon the poverty cell recently created in National Planning Commission which needs to be strengthened to make it more effective as to the aspect of conducting regular and periodic monitoring, evaluating and recommending policies and reforms with respect to the poverty. There is also a need of poverty measurement and mapping to see the effect of growth performance as well as to develop baseline indicators and poverty profiles which should flow on at least a regular periodic interval to assess acceleration efforts as well as other policies and programmes.

It has been felt that in spite of much focus given to poverty reducing policy programmes, allocation of budget to this sector has to be more intensified and a separate heading of poverty alleviation programme (medium term to long term) needs to be injected in every social as well as economic development periodic programmes of the government networking from grassroots level to the central apex body. The government has, nonetheless, stressed on activating poverty alleviation programmes in every plan. Targeted to sustain minimum basic needs of the people, even the Ninth Plan is designed to gear mainly on the strategic programmes addressed to a long -term goal for poverty alleviation. It has stressed on the implementation of the 20-year Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP), which is regarded as the backbone of overall development. But effective implementation of APP has been reportedly hindered by many impediments such as its concept shadowing on catering target group and lack of coordination among the line agencies etc. It indicates that there is absence of linking the objective with the mode of programme for poverty alleviation, which has unnecessarily generated non-targeting and mis-targeting at the implementation level. Moreover, inadequate prioritization of such programmes without having any strong authority to monitor its impact on rural poor has misguided the essence of achieving goal of poverty alleviation in many of the related projects including donor-funded. Growing concern is also in the air that some poverty alleviation programmes totally dependent on foreign aid seem unlikely to sustain once the aid is phased out. A hot cake example is of micro-finance programmes, one of the core components of poverty alleviation programme, which suffers from various issues and problems. The incidences of overlapping of programme location areas, high operating costs, high interest rate and mushrooming of own micro-finance module at alarming rate by financial intermediaries both domestic and international and its definite time-bound nature are some of the issues that have plagued this programme raising the question of its sustainability in future.

A recent study by World Bank suggests a two-pronged approach to poverty alleviation. First is to improve the allocation, targeting and efficiency of public investments and expenditures. Second is to make efforts towards better mobilization of communities to address priorities and help implement and monitor service provision effectively. But the success of such programmes largely depend upon how they are designed in accordance with the local need, people’s genuine participation, their absorption capacity in terms of their educational standard and health status and finally the corruption free environment in the execution of such programmes.

As I heard it

-By Amar Pradhan

On my usual route back home to Thapathali, I boarded a local bus the other day. As the bus waited to get more passengers, a conversation in front shot into my ears. They were three of them, probably reviewing the government’s performance during the last six months.

One of them was perhaps explaining the reason for the government’s non-performance. “How can you expect the government to perform when PM is not given a minute’s peace?” he seemed to ask with a little annoyed look.

“Who is disturbing our Prime Minister? asked another. But before the first one could reply the third guy who so far was reading a newspaper chimed in,” Don’t you know what keeps our PM busy - it’s the responsibility of the whole nation. How can a PM relax when the whole nation is looking up to him with so many expectations?” he asked pointing to a picture of the PM attending some seminar.

At this, the first one grew concerned and the bus started to move. Obviously, he meant to say something else. Drawing his forehead together, he quickly corrected his partner.” No, I don’t mean that. What I’m saying is our PM is constantly disturbed by this bug called media.”

I heaved a sigh of relief. It wasn’t Y2K.

“What’s wrong with the media? Isn’t it carrying the PM’s messages?” the second one asked again.

That’s where the trouble lies, I murmured inside.

“Carrying messages!” the first man spoke out in an unconvinced tone. “Do you call this carrying messages when all they do is distort his quotes?”

“Ever since he took office, the media has been at his throat,” he continued. “First they said the old man has a special liking for his lady aide. What’s wrong with that? If Clinton can walk scot free, can’t our PM even keep a lady aide?”

A laughter went through the bus and a few of the heads turned to look towards the gentleman speaking. This seemed to inspire the man even more. He started talking at the top of his voice. “Media also hurt the PM by saying that he hasn’t given any thought to Parsa people, who the media has portrayed as the force behind the PM’s present post.”     

The man then ceased to speak but only temporarily as the bus made a long wait at Bhadrakali-Singhdurbar bypass.

But just as the bus started to move, he started again. “Apart from the constant bickering among his own partymen, our PM has to go through this continual journo-assault,” he said as the bus took the turn towards Maitighar.

“The media made the PM a scapegoat in the `Bale’ case as well. When all that the PM did was reiterate the police statement, the media jumped to the conclusion that PM had saved the minister,” he was saying while his two friends were nodded in approval.

But he didn’t stop at that point.  “And then in the ‘corruption speech’, the media wallahs broke all norms by putting in black and white what the PM had never spoken out through his tainted teeth.”

A laughter broke out again. I couldn’t help admiring the laymen’s sense of humour.

And then he spoke about the latest IA hijacking and how PM was made the scapegoat once again. “When the old man so innocently admitted about Nepal’s lax security, the media is hell bent on making the PM the villain. Can you imagine journos saying the 76 year old is
too naive to handle diplomatic situations...

The bus stopped at Thapathali, he continued, but I quietly  walked out.

Between the lines

-By Kuldip Nayar

The millennium : Pride or promise ?We Indians are unhappy. We are not  happy about our country. We are nervous - or gloomy - or apathetic. And as we look towards the future - our own future and the future of nations around us, we are filled with foreboding. The future doesn’t seem to hold anything for us except conflict, disruption or confusion.

Yet, as we approach the end of the millennium, we should raise our head high because India is no more a geographical entity. It is a nation that had defined its boundaries, called India. It has stayed open and democratic despite military regimes around it rising and falling.

Time is a mute witness to the spell that India cast on the outsiders who came to enslave it but eventually made it their home. The Huns, the slave rulers or the Mughals, all were absorbed in the composite culture, as the Buddhists and the Jains were hundreds of decades earlier.

The rulers and their subjects became the warp and woof of the same tapestry, drawing strength from the different threads that had become interwoven over the years, resulting in a texture which has come to reflect diverse shades in a smooth, sturdy fashion. And as the Ganges has taken into her lap a multitude of different streams, whether in spate, placid or dirty, so has India assimilated the strange and the strong from several regions. Both the river and the country have remained undefiled, pure.

I have lived only a tiny part of the millennium. I remember the British empire because I was caned by a white soldier. I was then still at school, a bystander at a protest march against foreign liquor, when I was sucked into a crowd as it was charged by lathi-wielding troops. The country was the cause that millions of people pursued throughout the 1930s and 1940s until partition, and independence became a reality on August 15, 1947. I became part of that stream of people that flowed from Pakistan into Amritsar, the city of the Golden Temple.

I still vividly remember crossing the border. It was daylight. As I looked out, I saw people huddled in trucks and on foot passing us in the opposite direction. They were Muslims, I saw the same pain-etched faces -- men and women -- with their belongings bundled on their heads and their fear stricken children trailing behind when passing through Pakistan. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs had left behind their hearths and homes, friends and hopes.

We stopped to make way for the caravan crossing into Pakistan. Some of us stood in silence to see them -- just to see. None spoke -- neither they nor we. But we understood each other. It was a spontaneous kinship. Both sides had seen murder and worse, both had been broken on the rack of history, both were refugees.

The first thing I did after reaching Delhi was to go to the Birla House where Mahatma Gandhi was staying. I saw him from a distance, pacing up and down on the verandah, leaning on the two girls who were supporting him on either side. I wanted to have his ‘darshan’, a glimpse of the person who had given India back its pride and who had released us from foreign bondage. It was his influence that saw the appointment of Lord Mountbatten the last British Viceroy, as the first Governor General of an independent India. It indicated a process of conciliation in the midst of the transfer of power to India and Pakistan. The Indians instantly pardoned the British for their acts of omission and commission. This trait of forgiveness had helped the nation go through several vicissitudes so as to become a pluralistic society.

I think the greatest asset of India is its spirit of tolerance. That has made us secular even in our natural inclination. When the Babri masjid was demolished, doubts and fears engulfed me. But when I found that the party which talked Hindutva had to forsake its agenda to come to power, I realised that the inherent strength of India -- the sense of accommodation -- had asserted itself. I have no doubt it will stay in the next millennium, although the nation will have to be vigilant against fundamentalists of all religions. What I fear in the next millennium is the increase in violence. Whether it is of the left or of the right, violence cannot possibly lead today to a solution of any problem, because it is too destructive. It is not the approach of tolerance, of feeling that perhaps others might also have some share of the truth.

My feeling is that the Kashmiris in the valley, the Nagas in the northeast, the Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar would have achieved more if they had confined themselves to non-violence. It is absurd to imagine that the socially progressive forces will win through conflict. In Germany, both the Communist Party and the Socialist Democratic Party were swept away by Hitler.

Many years ago India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru drew the attention of state chief ministers to the use of violence by agitators to press their demands. He quoted from a letter by Yehudi Menuhin, the famous violinist:  “To me, India means the villages, the noble bearing of their people, the aesthetic harmony of their life; I think of Gandhi, of Buddha, of the temples, of gentleness combined with power, of patience matched by persistence, of innocence allied of wisdom, of the luxuriance of life from the oxen and the monkeys to the flame trees and the mangoes.” Menuhin thought of the innate dignity and tolerance of the Hindus and their tradition. “The capacity of experiencing the full depth and breadth of life’s pleasures and pains without losing a noble resignation, of knowing intimately the exalted satisfaction of creation while remaining deeply humble, are characteristics peculiar to these villages,” Menuhin wrote in his letter.

Perhaps Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee should write to the heads of political parties to draw their attention to the peaceful approach which Gandhi taught us. There is an erroneous impression going round that a principle can only be stoutly defended by the language of violence and by condemning those who do not accept it. Whatever we may think, the world has arrived at a stage in India when an attempt of forcible imposition of ideas or rule over any large section of people is bound ultimately to fail.

The passage of time has not dimmed what Menuhin wrote. Today, more than ever before, it is necessary to remember that fascist methods cannot sort our problems. It is reprehensible that the central government should be considering another TADA-like measure to face what it considers violence. The Law Commission has proposed amendment to the existing laws to make a permanent Anti-Terrorist Law. Whatever the name, it shows political failure of the government. The measure will once again be used to restrict personal freedom and liberty.

With great difficulty the country got rid of TADA. Similar legislation will once again give the police the same draconian powers which, in fact, disenchanted people more than terrorism. To say, as the Law Commission has said in a paper, that there is “a legal vacuum” following the lapse of TADA, is to admit that the government cannot administer through democratic methods.

I felt gratified when Vajpayee intervened to stop the Gujarat government from going ahead with the bill against ‘conversion’. He realised that it might be used to terrify the minorities. For him to become a party to another TADA does not make sense. He should know how MISA was misused by Mrs Indira Gandhi because he too was its victim to some extent during the emergency. For liberals to be taken in by the authorisation elements is the biggest danger in the next millennium.