1. The majority cannot afford a balanced diet
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Context:
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 (SOFI 2020) report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in partnership with other United Nations organisations.
Key Details:
- Basic energy sufficient diet: This takes into consideration only the basic calorie requirements of a person and the required calorie intake is met by consuming only the cheapest starchy cereal available. 2,329 Kcal for a healthy young woman of 30 years is taken as the standard reference.
- Nutrient adequate diet: This involves meeting the required calorie norms and also the stipulated requirement of 23 macro- and micro-nutrients. This diet includes the least-cost items from different food groups.
- Healthy diet: This type of diet, apart from meeting the calorie norm and the macro- and micro-nutrient norm, also allows for the consumption of a diverse diet, from several food groups.
- The Indian recommendation for a healthy diet includes consumption of items from six groups: starchy staples, protein-rich food (legumes, meat and eggs), dairy, vegetables, fruits, and fats.
Observations for South Asia:
- The energy-sufficient diet is affordable to a poor person.
- A poor person is defined as having an income of $1.9 a day.
- The nutrient-adequate diet would require a person with income just above the poverty line to spend his/her entire daily expenditure on food (ignoring other essential needs such as fuel, transport, rent, medicines). Even in such a scenario he/she would not be able to afford the nutrient-adequate diet.
- The healthy diet is totally unaffordable for those with incomes at even twice the poverty line.
- The SOFI Report estimates that 18% of South Asians cannot afford the nutrient-adequate diet and 58% of South Asians cannot afford the healthy diet.
Concerns:
- The analysis of the “cost and affordability of healthy diets around the world” in the SOFI 2020 report has revealed some concerns for India.
- The Indian poverty line is lower than the international poverty line used in the SOFI Report. It corresponds to roughly $1 a day at international PPP prices. This implies that the poor in India cannot even afford a nutrient-adequate diet and even those with incomes of twice the international poverty line cannot afford a healthy diet. This indicates that a large majority of Indians cannot afford a balanced diet.
- The pandemic and the consequent lockdowns would have only worsened the situation. The number of people who cannot afford a healthy diet will have risen as employment and incomes collapsed for the majority of workers in the informal sector.
- The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which offers an additional 5 kg of wheat or rice and 1 kg of gram or lentils a month free of cost to all households with ration cards, though is indispensable during this crisis, is still utterly inadequate to address the challenge of malnutrition.
Way forward:
- This new analysis proves that the problem of poor nutrition in India is mainly the unaffordability of good diets, and not the lack of information on nutrition or tastes or cultural preferences as previously believed. Hence to reduce malnutrition and food insecurity, India will have to address the problem of affordability of healthy diets.
- This could involve a higher allotment of foodgrains to the needy keeping in mind the nutritional requirements.
2. Modern tools, age-old wisdom
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Context:
India – Sri Lanka ties.
Key Details:
Buddhism:
- Religious, cultural and social affinities of the two nations have been a noticeable aspect of the relationship.
- The advent of Buddhism in Sri Lanka during the time of Emperor Ashoka has been a major aspect of the cultural link between India and Sri Lanka.
- There has been a continuous movement of Buddhist monks between India and Sri Lanka.
- The many Buddhist sites in India and the Hindu places of worship in Sri Lanka have attracted people from both countries.
Economic:
- The ancient capital city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka had housed an international community which included traders from India.
- Colonialism by the European powers reshaped the Sri Lankan economy. Labour from south India was brought to Sri Lanka to work in plantations.
- Currently, India is a major trading partner of Sri Lanka and is one of the major export destinations for Sri Lankan products. Sri Lanka continues to remain a major tourist attraction among Indian tourists. Sri Lanka also receives a substantial amount of foreign investment from India.
Proximity:
- Being the closest country to each other, distance or connectivity has never been an issue for the bilateral relationship.
- There has always been a free exchange of ideas, trade and intellectual discourse between the two nations.
Significance of the relationship:
- Sri Lanka’s strategic location makes it an important player in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This would have an impact on not only the economic dimension but also on the security aspect of both countries.
- The socio-economic development of Sri Lanka has remained linked to India given the proximity of India to Sri Lanka.
- India being the closest nation can and has always been the first responder to any urgent needs of Sri Lanka. India being the major naval power in the region played an important role in humanitarian and disaster response post the Indian Ocean Tsunami which devastated Sri Lanka.
- Unlike the Chinese model of capital led investment, India has always emphasized on people owned development in Sri Lanka. This would offer Sri Lanka a sustainable development model as against the debt trap diplomacy of China.
- India can help Sri Lanka with the peaceful settlement of its Tamil issue.
- Sri Lanka which has been witness to terrorist attacks recently can gain from India’s counter-terrorism capability and intelligence networks in the region.
Concerns:
- The asymmetry in terms of geographic size, population, military and economic power has had an adverse impact on the relationship with political parties in Sri Lanka using this to accuse India of Big Brotherly behaviour.
- The Tamil issue in Sri Lanka has been a challenging aspect of the bilateral relationship.
- Recently, Sri Lanka seems to be tilting towards the Chinese. The growing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka seems to be coming at the cost of India – Sri Lanka relations.
Way forward:
- Partnerships with other countries must be sought by each country keeping in mind the non-alliance foreign policies of the countries. Both countries must seek to harmonise strategic and other interests in line with common values and interests.
- There is scope for deepening economic relations between the two countries with Indian capital expertise making use of Sri Lankan resources and location to build business hubs and modern value chains in the region.
- The partnerships across the economic and social spectrum can promote people-to-people bonhomie.