Poverty and Malnutrition in
Sri Lanka: Who is to blame?
By Garvin Karunaratne,
Ph.D.
Former Government Agent, Matara District, member of the SLAS
I refer to the recent paper written by Tisaranee Gunasekera blaming
the incidence of malnutrition on the present Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
She states:
“Undermining the Future
When 13.5% of children below five years of age suffer from chronic
malnutrition and at least 30% of children below five years of age suffer
from anaemia, it signals a crisis far more devastating than the Tiger
crisis. When 19.6% of school children suffer from chronic malnutrition
and 21% suffer from anaemia, it can cause far greater damage to the
Lankan people than even the Tigers can. When 33.3% of adolescents suffer
from acute malnutrition and of this almost 23% suffer from anaemia as
well, it can undermine the Lankan economy far more effectively than
Tiger bombs and Tiger guns can. When over 30% of pregnant mothers suffer
from anaemia, the danger it poses to the future of Sri Lanka is infinitely
graver than the danger posed by the Tigers’ separatist project.
These latest figures by the Health Ministry need to be considered in
conjunction with previous official figures on deteriorating nutritional
levels in Sri Lanka. According to the Household Income and Expenditure
Survey of 2006/7 only half of Sri Lanka’s population receive the
minimum daily calorie intake of 2,030. Jean-Yves Lequime, the deputy
head of WFP in Colombo has warned that “Sri Lanka has a significantly
higher child underweight rate than would be expected on the basis of
its [annual] per capita GDP [of US$1,599]… Indeed, Sri Lanka has
a child underweight rate that may be three times as high as what would
be expected from a country with Sri Lanka’s level of infant mortality.”
According to the UNICEF 14 percent of children under five in Sri Lanka
showed signs of wasting (acute underweight) and stunting (chronic underweight)
while 29 percent of children younger than five were underweight for
their age.
These are figures to alarm any sensible government concerned about
the future of the country it governs. They warn that our stock of human
resources, our most valuable asset, is being depleted at a rate that
is unaffordable, economically, politically and socially. They warn that
unless immediate remedial measures are taken, a third or more of the
next generation of Sri Lankans will be weak and malnourished, less capable
of educational and physical achievements, more vulnerable to sicknesses.
This is a danger far more comprehensive and permanent to the future
of Sri Lanka than even the threat of the Tiger. (Incidentally this health
and nutritional crisis must be infinitely worse now, given this year’s
stratospheric rise in cost of living). If this trend towards social
devastation is to be impeded, immediate action is necessary.”
Whilst agreeing with Tisaranee that there is malnutrition
is prevalent in Sri Lanka today, I would tend to disagree that it is
due to the present Government.
Perhaps the statement I made at a Seminar in London in 1992 would
shed some light as to what happened in Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka boasts of almost reaching self sufficiency, quoting the low
imports of rice. Perhaps Sri Lanka has become closer to self sufficiency
in rice by the abolition of the Food Ration Scheme and by the substitution
of the Food Stamp Scheme in its place. There are three methods of reaching
self sufficiency. One method is by increased production. Another by
reducing the population. A third is by reducing the purchasing power
of the people, where the people due to the lack of money cannot buy
food available on the market. The non availability of food for the lowest
segments of the population is evidenced in the increased malnutrition
that has been recorded in the findings of the 1980/82 Nutritional Status
Survey conducted by the US Center for Disease Control. Atlanta, Georgia.
This Survey established that there was a 64% increase in wasting in
the rural sector over the 1975/76 survey. Wasting refers to the weight
for height study. The height for age study indicates whether growth
has been stunted. These are the two indicators for malnutrition. Sahn
says that “the prevalence of concurrent wasting and stunting is
also higher in 1980/82 than in the 1975/76 survey.(Sahn:1987:813) A
Sen has reported that in the case of Sri Lanka the removal of rice subsidies
has led to an increase in child mortality.(Sen:1987:172) What really
happened is aptly explained by Sahn: “Calories intake is markedly
higher in 1969/70 than in any other survey year. More interesting is
the steady decline from one survey period to the next in calorie intake
among lower income households, especially from the bottom three deciles
of the population.. This decline especially between the 1978/79 and
1981/82 Central Bank surveys occurred while the intake among higher
income groups was generally rising.(Sahn:1987;815)
Thus On the whole the evidence is to the effect that
poverty has increased in the period after 1977.(Karunaratne: How the
IMF Ruined Sri Lanka(Godages,2006):60)
I can make a definite statement that the increase in poverty and malnutrition
in Sri Lanka is directly related to the abolition of the Rice Ration
Scheme which provided rice at a very low price to people. At times the
ration was free. Perhaps the answer to the rising cost of living today
lies in establishing a Rice Ration Scheme.
Thus it is incorrect to blame the present Government for the prevalence
of malnutrition. The United National Party is directly responsible for
the poverty and the malnutrition that is so characteristic of Sri Lanka
today.
Today the price of a barrel of oil is at $ 139 and the present increase
in the cost of living is directly related to that increase. The answer
to the energy crisis is in our hands and we are capable of solving it
easily within a short period of a year or two if only we are prepared
to install a thousand wind turbines. The wind is there in tremendous
force in Deniyaya, at Hayes, in Madugoda , at Hunnasgiriya, at Ohia,
at Ramboda-all places where I have spent years in travel and stay. However
it is perhaps a travesty of fate that the authorities are trying to
install wind turbines at Hambantota at Kalpitiya where there is hardly
any wind power. I lived two years at Hambantota. The coal and fuel lobby
is that strong! Many countries like India, Germany and the USA are concentrating
on wind turbines while our experts are trying to prove that wind turbines
will not work by installing wind turbines at places where there is no
wind. When will we ever learn. Set up the lost Land Development Department
of the Fifties and the thousand wind turbines can come up within six
months. That is the record of work of my colleagues who worked fourteen
to sixteen hours a day in the Fifties!.
Another reason for the high cost of living is also due to the fact that
the infrastructure that we had put in place to offer a high price to
producers and simultaneously to offer consumers goods at cheap rates-
the Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing, the Paddy
Purchasing Scheme and the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment were all
closed down during the regime of the United National Party that played
poodle to the IMF teachings that has created the ruination of our economy.
It is also important to note that the CWE was closed
down during the period that Ranil Wickremasinghe was Prime Minister.
Thus the cause for the poverty and malnutrition in Sri Lanka is not
due to the present Government. If anyone is to be blamed it is Prtesident
Jayawardena who was taken for a ride by the IMF and no other than Ranil
Wickremasinghe.
Garvin Karunaratne
Former Government Agent, Matara District, member of the SLAS
June 26, 2008
References:
A Sen, Poverty and Famine, quoted by Roger Riddel, Foreign Aid Reconsidered,
John Hopkins, 1987,
David E. Sahn, “Changes in the Living Standards of the Poor in
Sri Lanka during a
period of macro economic reforms” in World Development, June 1987.
Garvin Karunaratne; How theIMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternate Programs
of Success, Godages, 2006
|
