Editorial 1: Man of science and humanity
Recent Context:
- Recently, India’s eminent agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan passes away
- He is most widely known for working with Norman Borlaug to usher in the Green Revolution in India in the mid-1960s when India was facing back-to-back droughts.
- Millions would have died of starvation if the country had not experienced the Green Revolution.
- India was already termed as a “ship to mouth” economy, as the country was importing 10 million tonnes from the US under P.L.480 scheme. And India had no foreign exchange to pay for it.
Role of MS Swaminathan in green revolution
- It was at that time that Swaminathan worked hard to convince our political leadership to import 18,000 tonnes of seeds of high-yielding dwarf wheat varieties, Lerma Rojo and Sonora-64, from Mexico.
- The seeds had to be indigenised to local conditions. With Kalyan Sona and Sonalika, the new indigenised wheat varieties, India changed its agriculture paradigm under Swaminathan’s leadership.
- His contribution had a far-reaching impact. India experienced a wheat and rice revolution. This gave the country much-needed respite and confidence to turn the tables on food security in a short time.
- As a result of his effort, India emerge as a significant exporter of cereals. In the last three years, 2020-21 to 2022-23, India exported 85 million tonnes of cereals contributing to global food security.
- Currently, nearly Forty per cent of global exports of rice come from India.
- The seeds of this transformation were sown by Swaminathan and his team of Indian agri-scientists, working closely with Borlaug. They deserve all the credit and our gratitude.
MS Swaminathan as an administrator and recognising his contribution
- It is well known that Swaminathan was a geneticist as well as an administrator.
- He headed the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and later became the Director General of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
- He was rightly awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987, which incidentally was set up by Norman Borlaug, who had received the Nobel Peace Prize, as there is no Nobel Prize for Agriculture.
- Borlaug then set up an institution to recognise contributions to agriculture – the World Food Prize is a product of his endeavours.
- Swaminathan was also conferred the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan for his outstanding contributions.
- He also received several other awards like the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award and the Indira Gandhi Prize.
MS Swaminathan recommendation on MSP for farmers
- His efforts to improve productivity and profitability in agriculture went beyond technology, the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) which he chaired and submitted five reports from.
- One of NCF’s key recommendations was to have minimum support prices (MSP) for farmers based on the cost of production plus 50 per cent return.
- The right cost later became a matter with different governments. One view was interpreting it as the comprehensive cost, which includes not only out-of-pocket expenses of farmers (Cost A2) but also imputed wages of family labour (FL), imputed rent on owned land and imputed interest on owned capital.
- The UPA government did not accept that. The NDA government went halfway and accepted at least a 50 per cent return over Cost A2+FL. But we still hear that market prices do go below even that in many parts of the country at harvest time.
- The government does not have the wherewithal to ensure that all those commodities get MSP. But it’s also debatable to what extent the policy of restricting markets (export controls, stocking limit) for farmers is justified.
Conclusion:
- Though many dreams of Swaminathan remain unfulfilled, it is expected that younger generation would conduct more research not just in technologies to raise productivity and will work on pricing policies to improve farmers’ profitability. The challenge is bigger with climate change and depleting natural resources. May Swaminathan’s inspiration guide us all.
Editorial 2: Parliament to workplace
Context:
- There are two significant facts that shows the vulnerabilities of women in India
- First, India is among the countries in the world where women’s representation in politics is the lowest. According to the Election Commission of India, women accounted for only 10.5 per cent of all members of Parliament in 2021, lower than in sub-Saharan Africa (26 per cent), and our neighbours such as Nepal (34 per cent) and Pakistan (20 per cent).
- Second, Indian women’s engagement in the labour market (the labour force participation rate) is abysmally low at about 25 per cent, relative to the global average of almost 50 per cent (as per World Bank estimates).
- The recent landmark legislation mandating the reservation of a third of parliamentary and assembly seats for women is potentially a game changer for attaining gender equity in political voices in the country.
What are the channels through which women’s participation in the political arena can translate into their economic empowerment?
- As a first step, the factors that have kept women’s economic engagement low in India.
- The gendered division of labour within the household, which places a disproportionately high burden of domestic work on women;
- the social norms that emphasise marriage rather than careers for women;
- the lack of safety and perceived high risk of sexual violence compounded by an absence of reliable and safe public transport infrastructure that restricts women’s physical mobility — have been highlighted as some of the more salient factors constraining women from supplying their labour.
- On the other hand, recent research points out that the ongoing structural shifts away from agriculture and changes in agricultural technology have pushed women out of farms — a sector that has historically accounted for the largest share of women’s labour.
- The absence of alternative opportunities in the non-farm sector implies that these women drop out of the labour market entirely.
- Increased political representation of women has some immediate implications for loosening the supply-side constraints to women’s labour force participation in India — both directly and indirectly.
Political empowerment of women results into progress in other spheres of life
- More women are likely to enter the political fray — potentially rising from engaging with local issues to a seat in the state and national legislature.
- Evidence from the reservation for women sarpanches in Gram Panchayats indicates that women political decision-makers are more likely to emphasise and prioritise issues that align with the preferences and concerns of the electorate — sanitation, education (anganwadis) and health.
- The resulting increased emphasis on the provision of such essential public services can potentially reduce women’s time in the drudgery of daily domestic work (for example, collecting water, firewood, and child care) enabling them to take up productive work opportunities from within or outside the home.
- Similarly, if women political leaders vocalise concerns related to public safety and law and order, besides emphasising policies that bring a gender lens to urban infrastructure and transportation planning, it can potentially improve women’s physical mobility and thereby access to work opportunities further away from their homes.
Women’s participation in the political arena can translate into their economic empowerment?
- Women’s reservation in Parliament and state legislatures is also likely to have indirect impacts on increasing women’s labour supply in the longer term.
- Evidence from gender quotas in panchayats suggests that exposure to women political leaders weakens traditional gender stereotypes of their role in society and within the home.
- Greater public visibility of women creates a role model effect for younger women, raising their aspirations.
- Quotas for women in assemblies and Parliament can amplify the visibility of women political leaders as policymakers, potentially raising the intrinsic value of having a girl child and thereby parental investments in their human capital — education, skills and health.
- An entirely new generation of women with not just higher aspirations but also the requisite credentials could then enter India’s labour market.
- Women political leaders may be more amenable to introducing legislation that enforces gender parity in pay and work conditions in the formal sector, besides stressing policies that expand work opportunities for women in the manufacturing sector.
Conclusion:
- Needless to say, if women’s political representation engenders heightened sensitivity and brings a gender perspective to everyday decision-making by policy-makers, it has the potential to transform not just the social but also the economic lives of India’s women.