Hunger in a land of plenty

Even as a controversy rages over whether there were starvation deaths, what is clear is that the plight of the people of Kashipur in Orissa has worsened over the years. Prafulla Das reports.

KASHIPUR BLOCK of Orissa's Rayagada district is a drive of nearly 500 km from Bhubaneswar across a region of idyllic green and brimming water bodies. But the picture-postcard surroundings hide a harsh reality. Hunger.

Even as a controversy rages over the alleged starvation deaths in the area, what is clear is that the plight of the people, mostly tribals, has only worsened over the years. The Government godowns are overflowing with grain but the people have no money to buy it. They have no money because they get no work. Health care facilities too are almost non-existent.

Since June-July this year, when the monsoon struck, the people have gone without work. The tribals supplemented their meagre rice supplies with mango kernels, ragi and tamarind seeds.

Then deaths began to be reported from the region. Since the last week of July, over 20 people have died in Kashipur. While the State Government maintains food poisoning, fever, and dysentery were the causes, its critics blame it on food scarcity and the resultant starvation.

Why do the people in Kashipur eat mango kernels? The authorities claim it is part of the tribals' traditional diet. The tribals, however, are divided on the issue. While a section says it is a traditional food source, another says the food shortage forces people to boil mango kernels and drink the soup.

The District Collector of Rayagada, Mr. Bishnupada Sethi, maintains no one has died of starvation in Kashipur. ``By no stretch of imagination can these deaths be called starvation deaths.''

Of the 21 deaths that took place between July 27 and August 28, Mr. Sethi claims the first of the seven deaths in Panasguda village were due to food poisoning and the four deaths in Bilamal village were due to consumption of poisonous mushrooms. Four deaths in Pitajodi village were also due to food poisoning, and six in Badamaribhatta, Tikri-Jhadia, Upar Jhiri and Tala Jhiri villages were due to various diseases, he says.

Asked if people would eat mango kernels if they had enough food, Mr. Sethi says this was being consumed by the people in other parts of Rayagada and the neighbouring districts as well. About 64,000 of the one lakh-odd people of Kashipur were covered under various social security schemes, and food-for-work programmes had started in as many as 65 villages, claims Mr. Sethi, adding that there was no question of anyone dying of starvation in his district.

The Chief Minister, Mr. Naveen Patnaik, who visited Kashipur a few days ago, says that there was no shortage of food in the area and that PDS rice was readily available. He said that those who died in the region had collected their quota of PDS rice.

Maintaining that the deaths were due to food poisoning and diseases, Mr. Patnaik says the charges of starvation deaths were politically motivated. ``Truth will always come out,'' he says.

A medical team from the MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur, which visited Kashipur and investigated about 15 deaths, also concluded that the deaths were due to food poisoning, according to the State Government.

But the fact remains that Kashipur has only grown poorer over the years. Out of the 31,321 households in the block, the number of families living below the poverty line has increased from 15,662 in 1992 to 24,482 in 1997. The State Government has so far not been to issue BPL ration cards to the 8,000-odd families added to the BPL list in 1997. This is because the State-level list of 1997 is yet to be given a final shape.

It is said the authorities are delaying the implementation of the list due to shortage of funds. The State Government is already spending over Rs. 53 crores a year towards subsidy in providing BPL rice at a cheaper rate to the people in the tribal-dominated areas of the State.

But food insecurity looms. And the tribals of Kashipur, with little work in hand, are increasingly getting vulnerable. Their rugged terrain together with the near total absence of irrigation in the district have made the going worse.

The scantily-clad, ill-fed children scampering around the tiny hamlets are proof that little has changed for Kashipur's tribals though there has been a lot of hue and cry over their plight. Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister visited Kashipur in 1987 after reports of alleged starvation deaths in the area. His visit had led to the launch of the Orissa Tribal Development Project in Kashipur in 1988. Though a sum of Rs. 60 crores was spent, no perceptible improvement is visible.

The State Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), Mr. Hrushikesh Panda, says the project has failed to achieve its primary objective of increasing the income level of the people, particularly the tribals. The project, implemented during 1988- 97, had created a large number of contractors who made easy money with the help of some dishonest bureaucrats and engineers.

In many cases, it was found that the works had been executed without a tender and the contractors had been hand-picked by the project authorities. There was not a single tribal among the contractors. Only recently has the State Government asked the Vigilance Department to investigate the matter.

As charges and counter charges fly on the question of starvation deaths, the truth lies somewhere in between. Critics of the Government insist the tribals eat mango kernels out of compulsion. Others feel it is more a part of their traditional eating habits, developed over decades to cope with persistent food scarcities. Now the State Revenue Minister, Mr. Biswabhushan Harichandan, has announced that the tribals can exchange mango kernels for rice.

Mr. Panda says ``the eating of mango kernels is not the issue, because they are eaten by almost all families in this area.'' He says hygiene is poor in the Tribal hamlets and that appears to be the most likely reason for infection/food poisoning.

Significantly, the Congress leader and Rayagada Zilla Parishad president, Mr. Bijay Gamang, also feels that the recent deaths have nothing to do with starvation. ``The deaths may have occurred due to contamination of food.''

The tribals form 65 per cent of Kashipur's one lakh-odd population. Another 20 per cent are Scheduled Castes. There are quite a few rich households in Kashipur, but none of them are tribals. Many Government posts lie vacant. The block was without a BDO for five months. Many posts of doctors and health workers were vacant for long and were being filled up only now.

No one seems to have been able to grasp Kashipur's myriad problems in totality as yet. In the case of the Government, the policies have been more or less the same for the past few decades. Worse, the welfare programmes have been hampered by irregularities in their implementation.The less said about the politicians the better. Congressmen had always denied starvation deaths in the State in the past. They are now claiming that the recent deaths in Kashipur were due to starvation. Maybe those in the power now too are behaving like those in power in the past.

Some of the voluntary agencies, right now trying to generate funds in the name of the hapless tribals by attracting international donor agencies, too may take it easy once the money starts flowing in and the heat dies down. How the money is spent will largely remain under wraps.

Accountability is the key to solving Kashipur's woes. The one thing that could save Kashipur is that the Government officers posted in the area should be made answerable to the people and there should be social audit of the Government's work at regular intervals. For, why should anyone in the country go hungry?

``We will leave no stone unturned to solve the problems of the poor tribals,'' says Mr. Patnaik. Let us hope the promises will be kept this time at least.

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