Editorial 1: Don’t outsource development
Context: International NGOs and the perils of outsourcing development
Agenda Driven International NGOs (INGOs)
- International NGOs (INGOs) have pushed donor-driven agendas that have often harmed local communities for decades.
- Tanzania and Kenya: INGO-led conservation displaced Maasai communities.
- Bolivia: Water privatisation in Cochabamba, backed by INGOs, restricted access, leading to public outcry and policy reversal.
- Similar patterns have emerged in India, where INGOs promoted projects with conditions that ignored local realities, undermining development goals.
INGO and Female Foeticide in India
- Interventions by INGOs led to an increase in the incidence of female foeticide in India.
- Western narrative tends to focus on how cultural preferences in India have fuelled this tragic practice, it conveniently ignores the historical role of British colonial policies and Western NGOs in perpetuating gender imbalance on an industrial scale.
- British land reforms in the late 18th and early 19th centuries directly increased infanticide among land-owning castes.
- British perpetuated the narrative that female infanticide was rooted in India’s cultural backwardness.
- After Independence, the narrative was perpetuated by INGOs pushing donor-driven agendas, reflecting the same colonial mindset.
- Their interventions, driven by Malthusian fears of overpopulation, ended up worsening female foeticide.
- Between the 1950s and 1980s, INGOs such as the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Population Council played a central role in introducing sex determination technologies to India.
- The introduction of amniocentesis tests at AIIMS, which were initially meant to detect fetal abnormalities, quickly became tools for determining foetal sex.
INGOs’ Push for Population Control
- By the 1960s, India’s population was seen as a major global concern, and Western experts identified it as a test case for population management.
- In 1975, egged on by INGOs, 59% of India’s Health Ministry budget was directed toward family planning, with little left for pressing needs like tuberculosis and malaria.
- By 1965, personnel from the Ford Foundation alone in Delhi rivalled the US embassy staff in size, and the Rockefeller Foundation had its largest presence outside the US in New Delhi.
- The economic leverage these INGOs wielded cemented their control. By the 1960s, India was receiving $1.5 billion annually in aid, much of it conditioned on population control measures.
INGOs invading Intellectual Space
- INGOs established strongholds in prestigious institutions to make pliable Indians to fight the intellectual battle on their behalf.
- Population Council established India’s first demography centre at the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, while Western funding focused heavily on AIIMS.
- Rockefeller Foundation had embedded advisers at AIIMS since 1958, and the Ford Foundation began backing the institution in 1962 with a $1.7 million grant.
- Nudged by these INGOs, at AIIMS, doctors openly promoted the use of sex determination technology.
- By 1978, over 1,000 female foetuses had been aborted at AIIMS alone, and between 1978 and 1983, an estimated 78,000 female foetuses were aborted nationwide as sex determination spread to other government hospitals.
- INGOs were fully aware of what they were promoting and funded the import of ultrasound machines to India.
Decline in Child Sex Ratio
- In 1951, the ratio stood at 943 girls per 1,000 boys, close to the natural sex ratio of about 950. The ratio decreased to 941 in 1961, 930 in 1971, and 934 in 1981. By 1991, it had further dropped to 927.
- The most significant decline occurred in 1971, closely coinciding with the introduction of sex-determination technologies and amniocentesis tests in India during the late 1960s.
- Access: States with easier access to sex-determination tests saw sharper declines in the female-to-male ratio.
- Example: By 2001, early adopters like Punjab and Haryana experienced drastic drops in their child sex ratios (Punjab to 876 and Haryana to 861). Both states are close to Delhi, the headquarters of these INGOs.
Conclusion: Gender imbalance in India is just one example of how external agencies, even when they have good intentions, can cause lasting harm. Therefore, local policymakers must exercise caution and scepticism when considering advice from INGOs and consultancies.
Editorial 2 : A Change in Stance
Context: RBI’s shift to neutral and open doors for a trim in rates
Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)’s Decision
- The members of newly reconstituted monetary policy committee in its first meeting voted 5-1 to maintain status quo on interest rates.
- Last Meeting: This decision is in line with that taken at the last committee meeting in August, although then two external members had voted in favour of a cut.
- Change of Stance: All committee members have voted in favour of changing the stance from withdrawal of accommodation to neutral.
- This has opened up space for the MPC to begin easing policy rates in subsequent meetings.
- The change in stance comes after the European Central Bank, Bank of England, and more recently, US Federal Reserve, have pivoted, beginning their rate cut cycles.
Why the Change in Stance?
- The decision to change the policy stance could be attributed to greater confidence in navigating the last mile of disinflation.
- It comes from greater confidence over the trajectory of food prices.
- Food Prices: RBI expects food prices to ease.
- Agricultural production is expected to be healthy on the back of a good monsoon season and there are growing prospects of a good rabi season.
- Sizable buffer stocks of foodgrain.
- Inflation: RBI has retained its forecast for the year at 4.5%. It has now projected inflation to trend lower to 4.3% in the first quarter of the next financial year.
Growth
- RBI has projected the economy to grow at 7.2% this year.
- Drivers of growth, consumption and investment are gaining momentum.
- Private Consumption: Rural demand is trending upwards and urban demand is holding steady.
- Investment: After the contraction seen in the first quarter (due to Lok Sabha Elections), government capital spending is rebounding and private investment continues to gain steam.
Conclusion: RBI’s change in policy stance to neutral hints at rate cut in December meeting but circumstances like unexpected weather events and worsening of geopolitical conflicts could lead to higher inflation and a rethink of policy.