Righting the wrongs: beyond affirmative action

_The core of India’s malnutrition puzzle lies in institutional functioning. There are succssful examples, though few_ While, the programmatic and institutional challenges are many, all is

not lost. Other than the federal policies, provisions and constitutional guarantees, committed civil society organisations, resurgent Dalit movements are challenging the norm and scripting

success. Almost all civil society organisations which have demonstrated impact insist that working on empowerment, with local community and governance structures, in a rights and

entitlements framework is an essential model. But the importance of fostering a zero tolerance to discrimination and building a society where fault-lines of caste are eroded soon is the

absolute first step. Hence the national leader, Dalit icon and Indian constitution’s original author, Shri BR Ambedkar’s call, “Educate, Agitate, Organise!” How to reduce child malnutrition

is not a mystery. The causal determinants are well known, driven by interaction between food intake, health status and provision of child and maternal care. Moreover Indian government had

been active for decades in food policy and has a long standing programme like ICDS. The core thesis is that malnutrition is not only a dimension of current (and future) inequalities but is

also casually related to unequal institutional structure. The elite capture of policy-making spaces, and implementation mechanism and the tendency of local officials transforming themselves

into small-time local elites ensure the lack of public services to the marginalized and the perpetuation of discrimination. That Laxmanpur-Bathe, which witnessed massacre of 58 Dalits, had

all the high-caste accused acquitted after 15 years of protracted trial and the media chose to black-out the incident instead of giving it wall-to-wall coverage and outrage, shows a

concerning elite capture of the media too. As long as pivotal democratic institutions and public service delivery mechanisms are prone to elite capture, the Dalits getting adequate services

and more, would be a chimera. It is not merely income vs nutrition but the overall spending and its reach to the needy plays significant role in it. The core of India’s malnutrition puzzle

lies in institutional functioning. Given the nature of the problem, India’s public resources and examples of relative success within India (say in Tamil Nadu) public action has the potential

to be effective. However, if the thesis is correct, effective change will be primarily about transformation of institutional structures and processes rather than just techniques and

management. Prioritizing politics and power is more important than technical fixes. Supporting data-generation, people’s movements, pro-small farmer, pro-food producer policies would go a

long way in making policies and programmes pro-nutrition, like rain-fed agriculture, support price for millets (which are semi-arid tropics, small farmers/marginal farmers’ produce).

Harnessing data revolution 1.0 is as important before clamouring for a data revolution 2.0. The public discourse around data deficit and data dishonesty and need for greater and better

investments in data-generation has been on a peak, both from health, economics and development practitioners. But what happens when some of the most robust data-sets are either not asking

the key questions around disaggregation or not releasing the unit-level data in time when they are relevant for effective planning? During the course of writing of this paper, various

challenges were encountered with data re-analysis which has consequent call for action. For example, while NFHS trend analysis was possible, in cases like frontline staff home-visits and

access to safe drinking water, comparision was impossible because the questions had changed from NFHS 2 to NFHS 3. Similarly accessing raw data free of cost for further analysis also seems

like an uphill task. Considering the intimidating nature of institutions in India towards normal citizens in general and Dalits/Adivasis, specifically, investment needs to be made in

service-provider attitude to serve under a rights and entitlement framework and move away from a patronage and clientelism world-view. Similarly, marginalized communities, including Dalits,

need to be provided with a template/benchmark of best services/inclusive and effective for them to organize, mobilize and agitate for the best food, nutrition and public health programmes.

Community level awareness and advocacy for mobilizing the demand side is important. From Odisha to Gujarat, states with integrated planning, have displayed more impactful results. The

provisions under Integrated Approach to Planning with leverage from central assistance, Special Component Plan (SCP) etc display that a good plan will be equally matched by resources too.

Karnataka’s Nutrition Mission is also an encouraging move in the same direction. SCP and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) require contextualized bottom up planning and resource enhancement and pooling

from the federal level. Unfortuantely planning capacity is woefully lacking and coupled with the perverse practice of states reporting pro forma allocation and diverting central assistance

to non-Dalit/non-Tribal purposes gives rise to a toxic cycle of failure. Hence investing in building planning capacity, bringing transparency in fund sought and used for Dalits and Adivasis

and integrated planning at every step, will go a long way in ensuring success. The latest Lancet nutrition series, June 2013, offers some inspiring examples of integrated planning under the

Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement and in countries like Senegal, Malawi, Guatemala et al. Such models need to be reviewed and best practices adapted. Mexican Oppurtunidales has been a

trail-blazer globally and has lessons to offer India when coupled with their Social Protection schemes. Three key factors crucial for building and sustaining the momentum and for converting

that momentum into results, are: