Global Policy Forum

By Liz Stuart

Udaipur in Rajasthan, north-east India, is best known for the lake on which its famous Palace hotel appears to float. But this year, drought is the main feature of the city and its surrounding villages. Close by this tourist town, people are starving to death because of crop failure due to the lack of rain.

In Kundal village, about three hours drive from Udaipur, there has been no monsoon rain since 1998. For the past 12 months, the 400 families here have eaten nothing other than a broth made of maize soaked in water.

The river where the cattle usually drink is not even a trickle; villagers have to dig down to find water for the animals. But many of their cattle have already died through lack of food.

No villagers here have yet died, but the hand pump, which serves 30 families, is drawing from a rapidly declining watertable. It will take years of rain before this is fully replenished. Reports of deaths in the surrounding areas are seeping out into the local, national and, occasionally, international press.

"When it rains we can pass a trouble-free year. In good times we would have two crops; enough to feed ourselves for 12 months. But now there is very little daily wage labour around. What else can we do but wait for death?" says one villager.

Villagers in this area are used to erratic rainfall: in some areas of the state, the entire annual rainfall comes in one day. The brown slopes of land are dappled with terracing and dams are common. What they cannot cope with is no rain at all.

But Dr Ginny Shrivastava, who runs a community development organisation based in Udaipur, called Astha - and which is funded by Christian Aid - says that drought is not the root of the problem.

She says that economic liberalisation is the real killer.

"Drought should not be having this kind of impact. There is grain available in the country; India even has a grain surplus. But mechanisation means there is less work available in the area, so people simply do not have enough money to buy the food in," she says.

India started opening its tightly restricted markets to international competition and trade at the start of the 90s. Since then, although growth has been strong and millions have moved up the social scale to become middle class, rural poverty has increased.

Even when there is rain, many farmers cannot afford to do their job - liberalisation has meant that subsidies on fertilisers have been removed - and people cannot afford to buy their produce, as inflation has driven up food prices. In this state, 90% of the population works unofficially, so their wages do not increase with prices.

Many farmers are giving up and moving to the neighbouring state, Gujarat, in search of work. Others are left to wait in their villages until they starve to death.

"Of course there must be progress," says Shrivastava. " I'm not advocating that people do backbreaking labour for the rest of their lives. But economic liberalisation has been thrust upon people too quickly in India.

"The reforms here started just 10 years ago: people have not been given enough time to limit the size of the families or to retrain to allow them to adapt to the new reality. It took 200 years for industrialisation to unfold in Europe.

"What's worse is that the poor have not benefited from the reforms. The public distribution system - the safety net which was supposed to protect the poorest - has gradually been eroded. Most of the people who are on the list to receive subsidised food are not the poorest, but are they people who have connections."

The government of Rajasthan has put some measures in place to help its people during this crisis period. Those who are identified as vulnerable are being given drought rations. It has also established a drought relief programme, giving people food in return for their labour to construct roads and dams.

But just one person in a family of up to 12 people is eligible for such a scheme.

Even those who are due help from the government frequently do not realise it. People must register for an inspection visit to verify that their hardship claim is genuine.

Shrivastava cannot make the rain come. But Astha is working to organise villagers to ensure they understand what they can claim and how to claim it. In Kundal, emergency grain is now being received.

But this is still a short-term stop-gap. For emergency food supplies not to be necessary every time there is a drought, local people need to be able to participate in the new economy, not have to fight it.

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