24 Aug 2020: UPSC Exam Comprehensive News Analysis

E. Editorials

Category: SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Women, uninterrupted

The editorial talks about the serious ramifications of the pandemic on women’s lives.

Issues:

• Global reports of inability to access contraceptives and abortion services during the long lockdown have surfaced.

Read more on this topic: 13^th August 2020 CNA: Study finds poor access to abortion drugs.

• The reports warn of dire consequences, such as unwanted pregnancies, an increase in domestic violence, and maternal mortality.
  • As per a recent estimate by Marie Stopes International (MSI), out of the 2 million women who missed out on services between January and June, 1.3 million were in India alone.
  • According to WHO, a recent survey of responses from 103 countries found that 67% reported disruption in family planning and contraception services.
  • United Nations Population Fund  (UNFPA) projections indicate a barrier to access modern contraceptives, with continued lockdown and consequent unintended pregnancies.

Indian Scenario:

• India listed abortions as essential services under the lockdown, but the disruption of transport services hampered access to centres of care, and lack of awareness about these services being available during this period was a factor.
• A study in six states by the Foundation for Reproductive Health Services India showed a severe shortage of medical abortion drugs in pharmacies.
• Almost 30% of the respondents seeking an abortion said that the clinic in their area was closed, according to the MSI report.
• The need for contraceptive services remains high in India, with over 1 in 3 women (35%) reporting a need for contraceptive advice, as per the MSI study.

Way forward:

• The core of the issue is the shift in health care services to cater to COVID-19 related emergencies, and lockdown disruptions.
• Services to facilitate abortion and contraception must be made available in the cities and rural areas.
• Providing uninterrupted abortion and contraceptive counselling, devices and care services are essential to safeguard the reproductive rights of women, and protect them from abuse.
• These essential services must continue through measures such as telemedicine, incentives to local clinics to open their doors.
• The need of the hour is resolving drug supply chain disruptions and improving access to health care.
• Countries that do not prioritise women’s health-care needs will bear the heaviest of burdens.

Category: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Repeal and reform

The editorial discusses India-Nepal bilateral relations.

Recent developments:

• Nepal Prime Minister made a friendly gesture towards India by telephoning the Prime Minister of India to convey greetings on India’s Independence Day.
• This was followed by a meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Project Monitoring Committee chaired by the Indian Ambassador to Nepal and the Nepal Foreign Secretary.
• The committee was set up to review progress in a large number of bilateral cooperation projects.

Unilateral actions:

• Founded on the age-old connection of history, culture, tradition and religion, India-Nepal relations are close, comprehensive and multidimensional and are pronounced more in political, social, cultural, religious and economic engagements with each other.
• However, the Nepali side has upset the status quo by taking a series of unilateral actions.
• A relatively minor dispute involving about 35 square kilometres of territory around the Kalapani springs, was expanded to claim a large wedge of Indian territory towards the east, measuring nearly 400 square kilometres.
• The expanded claim was incorporated into Nepal through a constitutional amendment and a revised official map.

This issue has been covered in the 24^th May 2020 CNA: Why are India and Nepal fighting over Kalapani?

Way forward:

• India should be willing to engage in talks with Nepal on all aspects of India-Nepal relations. But any talks on the Kalapani issue should be limited to the area which was the original subject for negotiations and Susta.
• To agree to talks which include the unilateral changes will create a very bad precedent not only in India-Nepal relations but in managing India’s borders in general. This is irrespective of Nepal presenting historical documents or maps which support its claims.

Category: ECONOMY

1. More evidence of India’s food insecurity

The editorial throws light upon how the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report and lockdown distress have renewed focus on food security in India, which has the world’s largest food insecure population.

What’s in News?

• The estimates presented in the report show that the prevalence of food insecurity increased by 3.8 percentage points in India between 2014 and 2019.

Indicators:

• The SOFI report presents the most authoritative evaluation of hunger and food insecurity in the world.
• Since 2017, SOFI presents two key measures of food insecurity:
  • The conventional measure – Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU)
  • A new measure – Prevalence of Moderate and Severe Food Insecurity (PMSFI).
• Both of these are globally-accepted indicators of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Target 2.1 to end hunger and food insecurity.

Distinction between PoU and PMSFI:

• While PoU is focused on estimating the proportion of population facing chronic deficiency of calories, the PMSFI is a more comprehensive measure of the lack of access to adequate and nutritious food.
• Estimates of PoU are based on food balance sheets and national surveys of consumption.
  • Given that consumption surveys are done infrequently in most countries, these estimates are often based on outdated data and are revised when better data become available.
• In contrast, the PMSFI is based on annual surveys that collect information on experiences of food insecurity (such as food shortages, skipping meals, and changing diet diversity because of a lack of resources).
  • The PMSFI uses the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), a gold standard in food security measurement developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), for estimating globally-comparable prevalence rates.

Key Findings with respect to India and Issues:

• Many countries have started conducting their own FIES surveys. Unlike most other countries, the Government of India neither conducts official FIES surveys nor accepts estimates based on FAO-GWP surveys.
• Although FAO-GWP surveys are conducted in India, India is among the few countries that do not allow publication of estimates based on these surveys. Consequently, as in the past years, estimates of PMSFI for India are not published in SOFI.
• These estimates can be derived for India, taking a difference between estimates of the number of food insecure people for South Asia as a whole and for South Asia (excluding India).
  • 27.8% of India’s population suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity in 2014-16, 31.6% in 2017-19.
  • The number of food insecure people grew from 42.65 crore in 2014-16 to 48.86 crore in 2017-19.
  • India accounted for 22% of the global burden of food insecurity, the highest for any country, in 2017-19. It is also noteworthy that while the PMSFI increased in India by 3.7 percentage points during this period, it fell by 0.5 percentage points in the rest of South Asia.
• Also, India has not released the latest National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) consumption expenditure survey data for 2017-18.
• Withholding of consumption survey data by the government has meant that SOFI continues to use outdated data for the variability of food intake, making PoU estimates for India untenable.

Causes of suffering:

• The significant rise in food insecurity is a clear manifestation of the overall economic distress during this period marked by a deepening agrarian crisis, falling investments across sectors and shrinking employment opportunities.
• The latest PLFS data have shown that the unemployment rates in recent years have been higher than in the last four decades.
  • It is widely believed that demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax were two prime causes of economic distress during this period.

Way forward:

• COVID-19 pandemic has brought renewed focus on the problems of hunger and food insecurity. With a sudden loss of livelihoods, a vast majority of India’s poor are faced with increased food insecurity, hunger and starvation.
• It is critical for India to conduct a national survey on food insecurity to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security of different sections of the population.