Whitewashing Kalahandi

While the RMRC director K. Satyanarayana asserts that “the usual image of starvation in Kalahandi is not true”, for the people of Kalahandi the RMRC findings are more than a 2400-calorie question. It is a matter of survival, and the need to battle the misconceptions that the findings may have generated.

RMRC’s revelations are intriguing, given the fact that Kalahandi is one of the four poorest pockets in the world, and also that there has been no welfare programme that could ensure such a quick turnaround.

Not surprisingly, the study has shaken both the medical fraternity and the voluntary sector. “How could this sudden miracle happen, and almost overnight?” says Bharat Bhushan of Jankalyan, a voluntary agency working in the area. Adds a retired tehsildar: “The infant mortality average in Kalahandi is 140 as against the State average of 103. How do you justify the claim that people here are better off?”

The RMRC study raises questions because of its timing and the choice of survey area. The study was conducted between June 1996 and January 1997, leaving out the crucial months between February and May when reports of starvation deaths mostly trickle out. According to the Satyanarayana, 15 clusters were picked at random from 200 gram panchayats. NGOs claim that many of these villages are not representative. Although the report does not contain the list of villages, it is apparent that several villages of T. Rampur and the Khariar-Sinapli belt — notorious for hunger deaths — are missing.

But Satyanarayana denies that it was deliberate attempt to leave certain areas. He says that the list of villages was provided by the health department and his centre just picked a few grama panchayats.

Kalahandi is a land of paradoxes. While its fine quality rice is a favourite outside the district, people here do not get sufficient rice to eat. Its average annual rainfall is more than satisfactory, yet the area is plagued by frequent droughts.

And it is in Kalahandi that a good or even a bumper harvest is no guarantee of survival through the year.

Nature’s eccentricity is displayed in abundance in the region. An area that reels under prolonged heat suddenly experiences bursts of rains and even flash floods.

A village, which may be drought-hit one year, may produce a bumper crop in the next. Ironically, such bumper harvests only bring distress. Even if the production is high, after all the expenses are deducted, the total output is much lower than what the family needs.

A sample study of the last ten years (1986-1996) done by Lokdrusti, a volunatary agency, indicates the erratic pattern in the region. If it is not a good crop, then it is drought and devastation. The study has shown that a bumper harvest for a marginal farmer means comfortable living for four to five months.

But a major chunk of the produce goes to the money-lender or the village headman, who loans the seeds and money during bad periods.

Hence, the results of a good crop do not last long.

In remote villages, once the harvest is exhausted the poor survive on a diet of wild roots, tubers and leaves. It is a myth that the tribals get sufficient protein from this intake.

The Government often talks of a good network of PDS, but the irony is even if rice is available in a few pockets, the poor just cannot afford it. This lack of purchasing power further drags them into a debt trap.

Voluntary agencies and health officials working in the area have questioned the findings.“When the parents are not getting enough food, how can the children get a nutritious diet?” says an official. The daily per capita calorie intake of a woman in Kalahandi works out to about 1,167. The normal intake, as envisaged by the Indian Council for Medical Research, is 2,400 calories, when one is engaged in `sedentary work’. Even if one is doing nothing the entire day, the body needs 2,200 calories. On the other hand, those doing heavy manual work, like the rural folk, require around 3,000 calories.

According to dietary experts, a 1,170-calorie diet a day can sustain a healthy body for a few weeks at the most, after which the slow but steady deterioration begins. From the children to the aged, the people here survive on a semi-starvation diet, which not only cuts life expectancy drastically, but also makes them incapable of carrying out their daily work.

The malnourished children do not have strong enough immune systems to battle diseases like gastro-enteritis, respiratory infections and meningitis. The result is a slow road to death.

The State Government recently cleared the district-based sub-project on Reproduction and Child Health.

In its report, the district health department talks of the “uniquely backward nature and high infant mortality”, to justify the selection of Kalahandi for the World Bank-approved sub-project. This itself contradicts the RMRC findings.