Tackling maternal mortality in India

IFMR Blog points to CIFD's new pregnancy financing product

Women are encouraged to enroll in this product as early as possible during their pregnancy. Women who take-up the product, save regularly over the course of their pregnancy, with the amount of saving left open for the borrower to decide.

Two weeks prior to delivery, the savings accumulated by the woman is given back to her along with the loan since the savings behavior and not the amount of savings, works as collateral. The underlying principle behind this idea is that if a poor woman can forgo some of her current consumption for savings, then she can also forgo certain part of her consumption in future periods for repaying the loan

An immediate question that springs to mind is - what if pregnant women who enroll in this savings-loan programme cut back on consumption of essential foods/inputs that are critical to their health and that of their babies? This is apart from the standard questions about which economic class this product is likely to benefit and who it is likely to exclude.  


The other important question is - why go the credit route when India already has the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) for women living below the poverty line - 

Under this scheme, a cash incentive of Rs.700/- will be paid to Rural Below-Poverty-Line pregnant women who have their deliveries in Government hospitals and PHCs in the state.

The objective of this scheme is to promote institutional deliveries among the rural poor, by assisting them in meeting the expenses in traveling to the hospital town incurred by the pregnant woman and one or two family members who accompany her, loss of wages for the family members accompanying the pregnant woman for up to two to three days, food and incidental costs for the accompanying family members, etc.

Certain states like Andhra Pradesh have also been running add-ons that complement the JSY and provide an additional assistance for use of public hospitals for safe deliveries. This does call into question the state of hygiene, infrastructure and quality of healthcare in India's public hospitals - especially the primary and community health centres. However, recent news reports have claimed that the JSY has made a dent in the rates of maternal mortality in India - conveying to me that the programme is at least being implemented in parts of the country.


CIFD's pregnancy financing product hits the right spot with its savings component. If the credit product sees a strong uptake, it would in a way expose the poor implementation of government health schemes such as the JSY. This also reinforces though, that where possible, there is no alternative  to taking steps to strengthen the public health systems and implementation of government schemes. A credit product, while giving people more choice of health providers, is unlikely to be the panacea for India's maternal mortality problem. 

The 100th monkey phenomenon

Japanese scientists studying monkeys in captivity observed how they all ate sweet potatoes dropped in the mud, along with the dirt. Then, one baby monkey washed it in a nearby stream. Others took their time but slowly followed suit.

is the analogy Leila Seth uses to explain how landmark legislations like the Right to Information (RTI) gradually take root, encouraging RTI activists not to lose heart.

Priceless Sachin

This is not yet another eulogy to Sachin Tendulkar - this is a man who probably is fully aware that nothing he ever achieves will ever be enough to satiate expectations of his fans; yet he has never stopped raising the bar for himself through-out his cricket playing career. 


Along the way, Sachin has also established a reputation for being stable and humble in the face of such overwhelming adulation (and the occasional vicious criticism). Which is why I was slightly bothered to read about a new book on Sachin, which claimed to "feature a page made from paper pulp that includes the master batsman's blood" - a marketing gimmick/stunt that seemed so unlike Sachin. See here and here. 


Which is why, today, I was more than happy to read this clarification on Cricinfo, where Sachin himself explains

“There is no truth in my blood being part of the book. The book is basically a photographic publication that celebrates my life and is not an autobiography or a biography,"

What a relief! 


PS - As for the price-tag of $75,000, that's no big deal. We are a rich country!

The battle...

...for Ghana's oil is well and truly on. In this article titled Oil Democracy - Government of Ghana, by GNPC for the Chinese, the author lashes out at "ideological dinosaurs" who apparently have socialist moorings and are interested in buying of the 25% stake of Kosmos Energy in Ghana's Jubilee Field, only to pass it on to the Chinese -

If Ghana were to successfully buy Kosmos, assuming we do not immediately offload it to the Chinese, our total stake will become 27.5%. Now may be I am terrible at Mathematics, but if one partner (Ghana) cannot afford 2.5% of all costs associated with development and production, how can that partner now afford 27.5%? As an example, our portion of an FPSO-like development and production costs would be $247.5 million. We could not afford to pay $23.5 million but we can afford to pay $247.5 million? Just who do these ideological dinosaurs think they are fooling?

This seemed to have been the dominant stance of the government, in reaction to Kosmos' attempt to sell off its stake directly to ExxonMobil. GNPC in particular, was opposed to this move, accusing Kosmos of having violated its contract and the government backed the national petroleum corp, on the grounds of strategic national interest

GNPC's position is that Kosmos broke Ghana's law by selling Ghana petroleum data. They make references to the Petroleum exploration and production law, PNDC Law 84,section 8 which states that “ A petroleum agreement entered into under this Law shall not directly or indirectly be assigned in whole or in part , by the holder of such agreement to another person without the prior consent in writing of the secretary.”

In an apparent change of heart, Ghana has now invited ExxonMobil to submit a proposal to buy off Kosmos' stake. Waiting now for the Chinese to up the ante...

NREGS wages in focus once again

An article in India Together argues for a return to the old system of wage payment in cash in the NREGS with some heavy romance -

By transparent mechanisms like muster roll maintenance and cash disbursement in full public view, designs of community control like choosing work and conducting social audits by gram sabhas had discouraged corruption and also exposed embezzlement by the local elite who controlled local matters. The poorest lot -- labourers, landless, and small and marginal farmers, the potential beneficiaries of MGNREGA -- had even started challenging feudal domination. Maybe, had this trend continued, it could have possibly led to greater social transformation through gradual decimation of feudal dominance.

So long as the cash payment of wages was in place, despite its limitations, it was within the grasp of the common lot and hence, under their control. In such a system, the victims might have not had the courage to question the local elite like sarpanchs, contractors, or the panchayat staff. But in the long run, they could not have tolerated their hard-earned money being bungled up by others.

The author clearly is skeptical of making payments through banks. And I felt it is a touch arrogant to claim that people on the ground cannot comprehend the institutional wage payment system and therefore, wouldn't be able to monitor the programme.

Aside from this, the article does make a final valid rant -

When certain shortcomings of this mode of payment came to the fore, a new system of mobile bank payment through biometric smart card is being experimented in some districts. Though initial observations show good results, only time can tell its real impact. The concern is: the more the system becomes complicated in vital components like wage payment, the more it drifts away from the common people's understanding. In such cases, the government, social activists, and the media occupy the centre-stage and debate and discuss to sort out the issues. Ironically, the poor stand on the periphery as they have little say on matters that affect them the most.  

In the high seas

230-year old champagne found in Baltic Sea

"It was lying on the ocean floor at the depth 55 metres, where there is constant temperature of four degrees (Centigrade), and it is absolutely dark. It is the best storage conditions. Pressure inside the bottle remains unchanged, and prevents water and salt from getting into (the bottle). Only sparkling wine can survive in salty water," a restaurateur and wine expert, Mr Carl Jan Granqvist, said.

Buying peace and security

"Nowhere is the case clearer of why well-spent aid overseas is in our national interest than in Afghanistan. The UK is there to prevent the Afghan territory from again being used by al-Qaida as a base from which to plan attacks on the UK and our allies. While the military bring much-needed security, peace will only be achieved through political progress backed by development."

Andrew Mitchell on UK's foreign aid priorities

What's up in Rwanda?

Texas in Africa links to an article by Timothy Kalyegira in The Independent, questioning whether Rwanda deserves the status of an African success story. Using examples of out-break of ethnic tensions in Europe and the turn of events involving Amin in Uganda, Kalyegira argues that

"...in 2010 Rwanda has started making news and attracting attention more for what is usually associated with repressive police states than with rapid economic growth and good governance"

Pan Butamire, writing in The New Times rebuts, saying

Be it in the sector of services, health, education, justice, name it; be it in reconciliation, social welfare and others; in all areas improvements in the last 16 years have been remarkable. That fact is there for all to see and it defies denial.

Yet, Timothy Kalyegira is puzzled “to see Ugandan journalists constantly praising Rwanda because street lights work and the roundabouts along the Kigali city network have flowers.”

But again, he doesn’t stop to think that they may be seeing something he is not. They are seeing that the cleanliness and orderliness of Kigali are only a symptom of a society that has got a grip on what they want to be and are working hard on it, thanks to a leadership that is guided by the aspirations of its people.

You are right, Kalyegira, “a state is not just about buildings, street lights or a functional civil service.” You are only wrong if you don’t know that Rwandans agree with you on that point.

Rwandans do not dabble in impressions; they function. If seeing Rwanda makes you think of the pictures of Namibia, Mauritius, Seychelles, Morocco and the other countries you cite, it’s not because it is a happenstance: those African countries are on the move forward.

Meanwhile, there's more bad news from Rwanda. I know very little about Rwanda. Lots to read up on...

Comment is not free

The evidence is clear: in The New York Times, 85.8 per cent of the articles that dealt with a country other than the U.S. called waterboarding torture or implied it was torture, while only 7.69 per cent did so when the U.S. was responsible. Similarly The Los Angeles Times characterised the practice as torture in 91.3 per cent of its articles when another country was charged with waterboarding, but in only 11.4 per cent of articles when the U.S. was the perpetrator.

From The Hindu's opinion piece today, reporting on Torture at Times: A Study of Waterboarding in the Media, by students of Harvard University.


Focusing on the collusion between the media and the state, the article concludes with - 

If there is one thing that this accumulating evidence suggests, it is that a rot has afflicted the U.S. print media — the rot of complacency born of an institutional intimacy that is antithetical to the very core principles of a free press. However given how deeply entrenched the media-government relationship is already, this may not be a rot that can be stemmed

As the comments point out, Noam Chomsky has been, for long, drawing attention to this phenomenon through his work.

And on a related note, here's stuff that doesn't show the Indian media in too good a light.

The rich and famous

Gods are human, after all... is what I gathered via Marginal Revolution today. Surely, there must be winners and losers among the 33 (or is it 330) million Hindu deities - some rich and famous - some others, not so much... 

I will stick to the rich ones for now...If they can have Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) in their name, why should they be barred from playing with stocks, shares and mutual funds using a demat account?? Of course, its a different matter whether these deities (with or without PAN) rest in peace, given the manner in which financial transactions are carried on by the charitable Trusts that claim to promote their glory? 


This is what a (possibly wholly inaccurate) Wikipedia entry claims about the Tirumala Tirupati Devastanams (TTD), one of the richest temple trusts in the world. 

• Donations given by devotees equal $2 mn every month
• Auctions of human hair fetched $25 mn in 2007 
• Temple admission ticket sales fetched $25 mn in 2007
• Laddus sold for $10 mn in 2007
• TTD approved a budget of $500 mn for 2008

The rich and famous in my country...

Enouraging savings

The fruit-seller across the street from my house in Accra has been asking me for a cell phone for a while now. She says her phone breaks down all the time and that I should get her a new one...and both of us laugh...day after day over the past couple of weeks.

(Its partly my doing, since I initiated with her, the practice of calling her phone to order for fruits (I was too lazy to go wait on the street while she cut the fruit and realised calling her in advance was a better deal). These days, if she doesn't hear from me, she calls up to ask if I want something.)

A basic cell phone costs around 40 GH cedis ($27). And she has quite a successful business. Inspired by IPA's savings studies, I asked her last night why she did not consider saving 1 GH cedi a day to buy the phone? If she saved regularly for just a month, she would have nearly enough to buy a phone herself. She seemed to understand what I was saying, but I couldn't gather what exactly her response was. She looked partly amused and in general, seemed pretty skeptical. But she did say she will try it. And her son who was around, promised he will help keep the 1 GH cedi aside from his mother every day.

I will have to follow up today to see what she really thought of it. If she doesn't show much interest in saving up for a phone, does it reveal that she really doesn't need a phone? I should find out how many of her customers try placing their orders phone the phone. She could just have been trying her luck, since she knows I am a regular customer (often buying her over-priced fruits without a murmur). Or does she consider the cell-phone a temptation good that she wisely wants to avoid spending her money on? Her son is in school and there are bulk expenditures she has to take care of that she probably prioritises above a cell-phone.

On the other hand, if she does decide to save up, I am curious to observe how she goes about it. I would of course be most happy if I learn that she has ways of saving her money so she could satisfy both? Here's Dean Karlan with some thoughts on what could we do to help people like her save more.

5-5-0-0-15

Paul had predicted.

Paul believes World Cup favorite Spain will defeat their German opponents. The last time Paul predicted a German loss, the team was upset by Serbia. This time, if Germany loses, they will be eliminated. While a victory would send them to the World Cup championship game, Paul has not been wrong yet.

And once again, Paul was right!

I am only now beginning to get all the calamari jokes on Facebook!