Nitin Sethi, May 12, 2011
NEW DELHI: The health and women & child development ministries have refused to give an affidavit to the Supreme Court on how many children die of hunger in India every year.
UNICEF says 50% of all the deaths of children aged below five years are from malnutrition. That works out to 2,438 children dying every day for lack of food. But no one in the government is ready to stick its neck out and say it or differ from these statistics.
This put the Additional Solicitor General appearing for the government in a piquant position on Wednesday when he informed the court that the ministries were unwilling to sign on the affidavit stating such figures. When he requested the apex court to give directions, the SC bench instead asked the ASG to convene a meeting of all the ministries and get an affidavit filed by them by Friday.
For the ministries, the concern would also remain that if the affidavit is filed in their name, they too would be pulled into the case where the government and its bodies have often had to hear harsh words from the apex court and defend their record at solving the child malnourishment problem. It would be a tough task considering that the petitioners have been citing data such as Bangladesh's much better record despite their much lower economic growth levels.
Earlier, the Planning Commission had pleaded itself into the case defending the government's poverty line. It had contended that anyone spending more than Rs 20 a day in cities and Rs 15 a day in rural India was not poor as per its formula.
For the government, the court calling for such figures has gained significance and created worries at the highest level. The petitioners in the case had marshaled together such information to demand that the government universalize the distribution of subsidized food in the 150 poorest districts. They have been asking for a wider food security net while the government has been taking a more minimalist approach keeping the fiscal subsidy burden in mind.
The government in its on-going tussle with the National Advisory Council has already once rejected this proposal.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-12/india/29535404_1_affidavit-ministries-apex-court
NEW DELHI: The health and women & child development ministries have refused to give an affidavit to the Supreme Court on how many children die of hunger in India every year.
UNICEF says 50% of all the deaths of children aged below five years are from malnutrition. That works out to 2,438 children dying every day for lack of food. But no one in the government is ready to stick its neck out and say it or differ from these statistics.
This put the Additional Solicitor General appearing for the government in a piquant position on Wednesday when he informed the court that the ministries were unwilling to sign on the affidavit stating such figures. When he requested the apex court to give directions, the SC bench instead asked the ASG to convene a meeting of all the ministries and get an affidavit filed by them by Friday.
For the ministries, the concern would also remain that if the affidavit is filed in their name, they too would be pulled into the case where the government and its bodies have often had to hear harsh words from the apex court and defend their record at solving the child malnourishment problem. It would be a tough task considering that the petitioners have been citing data such as Bangladesh's much better record despite their much lower economic growth levels.
Earlier, the Planning Commission had pleaded itself into the case defending the government's poverty line. It had contended that anyone spending more than Rs 20 a day in cities and Rs 15 a day in rural India was not poor as per its formula.
For the government, the court calling for such figures has gained significance and created worries at the highest level. The petitioners in the case had marshaled together such information to demand that the government universalize the distribution of subsidized food in the 150 poorest districts. They have been asking for a wider food security net while the government has been taking a more minimalist approach keeping the fiscal subsidy burden in mind.
The government in its on-going tussle with the National Advisory Council has already once rejected this proposal.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-12/india/29535404_1_affidavit-ministries-apex-court
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