If you note down some of the greatest stories around the world—fictional or not—you will notice a pattern. Most antagonists lost the game because their priorities messed up somewhere in the process. Ravana shifted his priority from winning the battle to his ego, the hare in the famous race lost the battle to the tortoise because resting took over winning. In short, priorities define your success or failure in a certain role that you hope to play.
Can Sanitizers Replace Food?
Today, we are talking about a similar battle of priorities that will probably define the government that we have chosen. While this was announced on 20th April 2020, here I am raising this issue precisely a month and week later—because I was hoping to be proved wrong. On 20th April, our government announced that excess stock of food grains, under the access of Central government can be converted into ethanol, based on NBCC policy.
This announcement has been made to use a “small fraction” of grains to make ethanol for hand sanitisers. Breaking it for simplicity, NBCC stands for National Biofuel Coordination Committee, which in consultation with Ram Vilas Paswan (Cabinet Minister for Food and Public Distribution), made this decision considering the following facts:
- Currently, India has 77 million tonnes of food crop in stock. This is four times (nearly) of the buffer stock that is required by our country viz 21 million tonnes.
- In a normal scenario, this bumper stock being converted into ethanol would probably count as great news for the biofuel industries, and in general for the country’s economic growth.
- As per food experts estimation, the current stock would last India 4-5 months maximum if the current scenario of decreased economic activity continues.
- With the worst locust attack in 26 years in India, we can expect massive damage to the crops across India. This coupled with enough hardships courtesy the lockdown, farmers are expected to be badly impacted.
If you have managed to see a shift in priorities of the government till now, congratulate yourself. However, for those still looking out for harder facts, I have more. Recently, I worked closely with around 150 workers (arguably a small sample size). Almost 80% of these workers were hungry, starving and craving refuge to reach their respective villages. Sitting in UP, coordinating in Maharashtra, I could only send their details to on-ground warriors amidst my friends.
These friends have worked independently with close to 15000 migrant workers from Aurangabad alone. Most of them were hungry above anything else. Our government’s Gareeb Yojna assured 5 kg wheat or rice to every person free of cost. The fine print keeps the scheme contingent to those who own Ration cards and/or are registered under the National Food Security Act.
By government estimate, that number accounts for roughly 80 crores, but about 12 crore people are still not registered under the scheme. These distorted digits aren’t alone. They are coupled with international food organisations announcing imminent food crisis around the world, considering the massive drop in economic activity.
On enquiring about the food surplus being used for feeding the hungry, starving population of this country, Ram Vilas Paswan passed the baton to state governments. He asked them to purchase it from the Central government at a certain subsidised price and distribute it as they deem appropriate. This is in conjunction of him discarding the idea of universalising the public distribution system (PDS) as a whole. There remains another aspect to the PDS.
A family might have its members scattered over the country. Ration card allows the holder access to grains, etc., guaranteed for his family. However, his son/ daughter sitting in another state cannot use the same card to withdraw ration for himself, thus making access to grains all the more difficult for those unfortunate families.
The Government And A Failing Democracy
It’s a mockery—a mockery of the fact that a democracy, which is supposed to run for the people and by the people, is perfectly okay with replacing food with sanitisers. The democracy that believes in investing in a future prospect of government earning is way more advantageous as compared to an immediate need to feed its people. It’s a mockery, because who exactly do they plan to sanitise once corpses begin showing up in lakhs?
Yes, comorbidity exists. It’s the government and a failing democracy that needs to justify deaths of those dying of starvation before Covid-19 could even get to them. This change in priorities should be defining where and who exactly is to be held accountable when economics still don’t stand favourable for a country this large. While there are eminent discussion panels hosted to nitpick on various announcements by the government, this one needs an immediate red flag.
In the words of Shekhar Gupta from The Print, “Never underestimate the power of bad ideas”, and this one is taking the cake so far.