Prajarajyam's Strategy towards current problems

The following issues gives a good sense of where Chiru party stand on many fundamental issues we are facing. We also hope that this would spark dialogue and after you’ve finished reading it, you get in touch with Chiru campaign team and give us your thoughts on the policies you find here. It’s time to put government back in your hands, where it belongs. If you want to have policies that are good for people of Andhra Pradesh then the people should help the party to shape those policies.

Agriculture

THE PROBLEM

The extreme agrarian distress in Andhra Pradesh achieved national prominence when it resulted in the dramatic increase in suicides by farmers in the region. These have occurred in substantial numbers for around seven years now, but the causes leading to such desperation have been documented by some sensitive journalists and local activists in the state relatively recently. The present government in the state - which came to power essentially because its leaders showed themselves to be aware of the severity of the problems in the countryside - has therefore made agricultural regeneration the most important priority. It is becoming increasingly evident that the difficulties confronting agriculture in Andhra Pradesh are complex and multifarious, and will in fact require a complete reversal of the earlier economic strategy followed in the state, if these problems are to be adequately addressed. Of course, what has happened in rural Andhra Pradesh has been particularly severe. The state of Andhra Pradesh had become almost a laboratory for every extreme form of neo liberal economic experiment, with a massive shift towards relying on incentives for private agents as opposed to state intervention and regulation of private activity, in virtually all areas. Ironically, this decline in the state's role took place at the same time that the state government was incurring massive external debts from bilateral and multilateral external agencies. Many of the problems in the economy of the state - in agriculture as well as in non-agriculture - can be traced to this reduction of the government's positive role and the collapse of a wide range of public institutions affecting the conditions facing producers.

Agrarian crisis in Andhra Pradesh

Table 1: Annual rates of growth of rural employment
per cent per annum	Total Usual Status	Total Daily status	Agri Usual Status	Agri Daily Status
1983 to 1987-88	1.04	2.01	0.07	1.53
1987-88 to 1993-94	3.15	83.73	3.66	4.39
1993-94 to 1999-2004	0.06	80.03	0.55	-0.03

Total agricultural employment in terms of Usual Status occupation barely increased atall between 1993-94 and 1999-2000, while in terms of Daily Status (which as a flow measure is a more accurate indicator of labour demand conditions) actually declined.


Education

The education of India is now being shaped in her classrooms

Education Commission -1964-66

This is how the Education commission described the role of education in social and economic transformation of India. While the development planners rightly recognized that expansion of education facilities has to be accompanied with significant improvements in quality and relevance of education at all levels, the outcome is quite disappointing. At the international level, the development experience in social sectors

show that a literate society has enormous gains over an illiterate society and no illiterate society has ever been able to modernize and progress. We are now transiting to a knowledge society where the quality and relevance of education would play a crucial role in economic development. Poor quality of teaching learning and systemic level inefficiencies affect the learners as well the society in many ways. The long-term implications include lower productivity levels of the perspective workforce, resistance to modernization and perpetuation of inefficient production systems where cost benefit ratio adversely affect the economic sustainability of production processes.

Facts and Figures

a) Total Average Drop out rate of students in Class I to X for the period 1997 -2007 is around 65%!!

b) Female Literacy rate in Andhra is around 50%, which is cause of concern.


Corruption

THE PROBLEM
Corruption is generally defined as the misuse of public authority, and political corruption is here defined as corruption in which the political decision-makers are involved. In addition to a review of the various definitions of corruption a classification of the various forms of corruption (bribery, embezzlement, fraud and extortion).Andhra Pradesh has the dubious distinction of being one of the most corrupt of all Indian states. Make hay while the sun shines is the order of the day for all Politicians, Officials etc. Corruption has spread like the HIV virus in every department, with the blessing of the political masters. The symbolic raids conducted by the anti-corruption squads once in a while, are only to fool the gullible public. The palatial mansions built by the IAS/IPS officers and the politicians in Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills stand as a testimony to the ill-gotten money amassed by those in power.

Facts and Figures -

a) India ranks 78 in the world as the least corrupt nations in the world according to a report.

b) Deposits in Banks located in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries

Top 5

India---- $1456 billion
Russia----- $470 billion
UK-------- $390 billion
Ukraine--------- $100 billion
China------ $96 billion

India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world COMBINED.

Public loot since 1947…!!!
Developed countries could achieve all around development because of enacting laws that prevented Politicians, Judges, IAS/IPS, Officers from having nexuses and corruption.


Poverty

The concept of poverty is multi-dimensional (viz., income poverty and non-income poverty) where it covers not only levels of income and consumption, but also health and education, vulnerability and risk; and marginalization and exclusion of the poor from the mainstream of society. In Andhra Pradesh also, there has been lot of debate on the measurement of poverty and identification of the poor. The official poverty ratio for rural areas is 11% in the year 2004-05. This number on income poverty for rural areas looks unbelievable as compared to the relatively low levels of human development in rural A.P. The alternative estimates based on Deaton’s methodology and including the additional expenditure needed for health and expenditure shows that rural poverty in A.P. could be around 25% in 2004-05.

At the macro level there is a need to have broader inclusive growth policies to reduce poverty and inequality. There are strong social, economic and political reasons for achieving broader and inclusive growth. Socially, lack of inclusive growth leads to unrest among many people. There is also economic argument. The measures which raise equity also promote economic growth. In other words, there is no trade-off between equity and growth. Lastly, the political argument is that no government in a democracy can afford to ignore large sections of workers and non-working population. It is increasingly clear that the process of development in A.P. must become more socially and economically inclusive. This is important for reducing exclusion, social tensions, inequality and improve overall economic development. Therefore, focused government interventions, enlightened civil society including NGOs are important for the success of macro pro-policies, sectoral interventions, and targeted poverty alleviation programs and to go beyond Millennium Development Goals. The macro policies like fiscal, trade, financial, industrial, agricultural etc. should be pro-poor. In other words, we need to have macro pro-poor policies and people centric policies for reducing poverty in A.P.


Health Care

In the 1951 census, although Andhra Pradesh had almost the same population size (31 million) as Tamilnadu, the difference in population size between the two States has increased to 11 million in the 1991 census: Andhra Pradesh with a population of 66.5 million and Tamilnadu with a population of 55.8 million. Although Andhra Pradesh has achieved decline in fertility to some extent in recent times, not withstanding low female literacy and high infant and child mortality, the State is not as favorably placed as its neighboring States in terms of decline in fertility rates. In fact, Andhra Pradesh has experienced the most rapid population growth amongst the four Southern States during the decade 1981 to 1991. It is clear then that the State’s programs and strategies require review, and that there is an imperative need for the development of new policy initiatives in this area of great human and social concern. Population policy, by definition, is a deliberate effort on the part of Government to bring about a change in the size, structure and distribution of population to a level that helps to improve the standard of living and quality of life of the people.

Some Facts and Figures –

a) The Child Mortality Rate -CMR (1.4 age group) for the State at alarming 22.4.

b) The Infant mortality rate - IMR (0.1 age group) for the State at 66 per 1000.

c) The median age at marriage for females in Andhra Pradesh are 15.1 years close to most ill administered state Bihar(14.7) and way back than our neighboring states of Tamilnadu and Kerala.

d) Total Fertility rate is well ahead of National target at 2.3.

"The health care problems facing the system are large - but not intractable if business, government and civil society work together to solve them “said the report published by McKinsey Quarterly on Indian Health care.
Further, public-private collaboration for better insurance coverage, widespread health education and better disease prevention could improve the health care system. The report, titled A Healthier Future for India, pointed out that subsidizing health care and insurance for the country's poor people would be necessary to improve the system


Administration

A main reason why AP/India ails is because that the activists of India do NOT take interest in enacting changes in Indian administration that are less prone to nexuses and nepotism. And they keep wasting time in searching for Kalkies (good leader), Kalki Groups (good organizations) and blame national character, blame culture, blame lack of moral values etc. so law that promote nepotism, nexuses stay. To improve AP/India, it is necessary and sufficient to enact changes in administration that are less prone to nepotism and nexuses. That’s all. We do NOT need to curse culture, do not need to curse history and do not at all need to give any moral education.

Enacting the following changes would ensure less corruption and nepotism in offices

a) Enacting National or State ID

b) Moving to Jury system

c) Enacting indexing system to track criminals and corrupt officials

d) Enabling citizens to recall or replace CM, MLA,IAS,IPS, MRO,SI,DEO etc

e) Enacting laws that would make Govt officials accountable to the public.

f) Publishing wealth disclosures of Govt Employees.


Social Empowerment

This section gives a good sense of where Chiru party stand on many fundamental issues we are facing. We also hope that this would spark dialogue and after you’ve finished reading it, you get in touch with Chiru campaign team and give us your thoughts on the policies you find here. It’s time to put government back in your hands, where it belongs. If you want to have policies that are good for people of Andhra Pradesh then the people should help the party to shape those policies.


Women and Child Development and Empowerment

“Without empowerment there cannot be growth,” Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank President

Women constitute more than half of AP population so one could not achieve any growth unless this section is not empowered.

Following are the various issues where the Govt needs to concentrate in order to empower women –

a) Child Marriage, Trafficking of Women and Children

b) Child Labor

c) Exploitative Social Practices

d) Gender Violence

e) Food Security

f) Health Insurance for the Poor

g) Disabled Persons

h) Land Access for Tribals and the Poor

i) Improved Farming Practices

j) Economic Empowerment

k) Political Empowerment

Facts and Figures –

a) Ratio of Literate females to males among 15- to 24-year olds is at around 0.72

b) Maternal Mortality Ratio (per 100,000 live births) is around 130

c) Population with access to latrine/toilet facility is at around 28%

d) Women in Wage Employment in the non-agricultural sector is around 27%

e) Andhra Pradesh is the country's largest center of trafficking in women.

f) HIV/AIDS is highly prevalent in AP with women being the most members affected.

Source – World Bank stats and HIV/AIDS manual


Political, Economical, Social Reforms

The Indian system has completely failed to provide proper life to the common man. There is still about 30% of population under poverty in the country. The lack of political will by all political parties to enact reforms in political, economical and social fields can be termed as the main cause why India is still ailing from the west.

Facts and Figures –

a) Many MLA and MP have criminal background.

b) The participation of women in the government is about 30%.

c) The 8% growth rate the Govt boasts about is ONLY for 8% of the population.

d) The Govt controlled industries occur heavy losses and employees salaries are not hiked for years.

e) Govt employees salaries are not hiked regularly which makes them resort to bribes to feed their families.

f) Many social evils like Dowry harassment, Child marriages, atrocities on Dalits and BC happen on a regular basis.

g) The government has come into the hands of brokers and lobbyists who control the Govt policies. This way common man is being denied the portion of natural resources.



Industrial Growth

This section gives a good sense of where Chiru party stand on many fundamental issues we are facing. We also hope that this would spark dialogue and after you’ve finished reading it, you get in touch with Chiru campaign team and give us your thoughts on the policies you find here. It’s time to put government back in your hands, where it belongs. If you want to have policies that are good for people of Andhra Pradesh then the people should help the party to shape those policies.

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