Aadhar, Hunger Deaths and the Political Economy of Our Times

Few days back, the entire nation was shocked by the stunning news of a young girl, Santoshi Kumari in Simdega district of Jharkhand, dying of starvation after being denied food for not having Aadhaar-linked ration card. Shockingly, Santoshi died after starving for eight days and as she was dying, she kept asking bhat bhat (for rice) her mother. Santoshi’s family had not received any rice from the public distribution system for several months before this horrifying death, as their ration card had not been electronically linked with Aadhaar number.

Santoshi’s shocking death is nothing atypical in the state of Jharkhand, as many people have been victims of this crazy and callous Aadhaar madness and cruel deprivation of food entitlements by the Government. Aadhaar-based biometric authentication is now compulsory in majority of ration shops in Jharkhand. Further, it requires internet connectivity, a working
point of sales machine, and successful fingerprint recognition and this system of biometric authentication often fails. A recent survey, by a group of independent researchers including noted economist Jean Dreze, of Jharkhand villages where biometric authentication is compulsory, showed that the exclusion rate, defined as the proportion of cardholders unable to avail their food rations is 36%. The worst sufferers of this exclusion are most vulnerable sections of society like elderly couple and widows. Jharkhand govt have made the situation worse by ordering mass cancellation of ration cards not linked with Aadhaar in the state in March, 2017. Further it is not disclosing the list of cancelled cards for public scrutiny.

Now, in the wake of the disclosure of Santoshi’s death, the Jharkhand Government, in an act of absolute tokenism and also to divert attention from the real issue, has suspended the auxiliary nurse midwife of the area, claiming Santoshi died of Malaria!

Both the Jharkhand and Central Government have shown criminal insensitivity to these hunger deaths even knowing that the public distribution system is the lifeline for the rural poor in our country. Most dangerously, the Modi Government desperately wants to make the biometric authentication compulsory for the public distribution system in the entire country, following the shameful Jharkhand model in clear violation of Supreme Court orders.

Intensified hunger is the only logical outcome of this absurd biometric authentication policy in the public distribution system, which will make the existing grave hunger problem even worse.

• According to the data of the recent Global Hunger Index (GHI), India ranks 100 of 119 countries in 2017, with a score of 31.4 of 100 (with 0 being best and 100 the worst), India’s 2017 GHI falls at the high end of the “serious” category.

• Countries doing better than India on hunger reduction include India’s neighbors such as China, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (ranked at 29, 72, 84, 88 respectively).

• While the planet has reduced hunger by 27% since 2000, the corresponding number for India is only 18%.

• More than a fifth (21%) of India’s children suffers from low weight and height, reflecting acute undernutrition.

• The GHI report comes after the latest 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS) which showed the proportion of children between 6 and 23 months who received an adequate diet was 9.6%.

The GHI report undoubtedly exposes the disturbing state of affairs behind the lofty rhetoric and tall claims of Modi’s “Digital India” and “Make in India”. Chronic deprivation – lack of access to food, drinking water, sanitation and housing – combined with this recent absurd and cruel exclusion in the name of non-possession of Aadhaar card has rendered sizable sections of our population permanently vulnerable to acute malnutrition, hunger and death.

On one hand, we are witnessing the cruel exclusion of the rural poor from the public distribution system through the absurd Aadhaar policy, on the other hand, there is huge surge bonanza for corporates through Tax Exemptions, Loan Waiver and Bail out. • Revenue loss due to Corporate Tax exemptions rose from Rs. 53,000 cr in 2013-14 to Rs 83,492 crores in 2016-
17. (‘Revenues Foregone’ statements of 2016-17 Central Budgets). • On NPA/Bad Loan owed by corporates to banks, Modi years are witnessing a steep fall in the recovery rate of ‘bad loan’ from 22% in 2013-14 to 10% in 2016-17 (Indian Express, 3January 2017)! • In contrast, there is a huge jump in the amount of ‘bad loans’ being written off- the total amount of written-off bank loans to corporates during Modi years (2014-17) stand at more than Rs.1.88 lakh cr (Indian Express, 7 Aug, 2017).! This is nothing short of a massive Bank-Loan Scam far exceeding UPA’s 2G scam of 1.76 lakh crore! (Indian Express, 7 Aug, 2017). • And now, the govt has stepped in with Rs. 2.11 lakh crore to ‘recapitalise’ the emptied banks with tax payers’ money! Indeed, banks need to ‘bailed out’, so that they can extend further credit to the very same corporates who never paid back and the lootcycle of your and my money continues through the banks! • Pandering to the corporate has reached such a level that PM Modi’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam said in an address in Kochi on 14 March 2017, “The Government should waive the loans of big corporates; this is proper and this is the way capitalism works”. Two things are very clear – whose interests
the Modi government defends at all costs – and who is the target of its attacks! The people’s money is being handed over to a few favoured corporates and people’s right to food is snatched away.