Shashank Chouhan
Drought is a major concern for agricultural India as it occurs almost every two-three years and eats away into the development of the nation. It occurs due to a late arrival, early withdrawal or failure of Monsoon- the season which single handedly decides the fate of millions of farmers.
The country is adversely affected by the paucity of showers almost every alternative year, plunging the vast number of agriculturists into survival crisis and slowing down- if not completely halting- the growth of other sectors. Drought years, resulting in food shortage and famine, not only point at the human cost but, in some years, a political and economic cost as well.
A short chronology of India’s worst food shortage years:
Bengal Famine: Modern India’s worst food shortage occurred in British Raj era. In the Bengal region during 1769 onwards, there occurred a severe shortage of food. Primary reason for this crisis was the monsoon but its effect was exacerbated due to apathetic administration.
Lack of rains caused a shortage of crops and the British East India Company raised land and tariff taxes upto 60%. It also forced hundreds of farmers to grow poppy for export. Not only that, in the name of preventing hoarding, the Company did not allow any storage of rice- the staple food in the region.
As a result, ten million Indians- about a third of the area’s population- perished.
Chalisa Famine: In 1782-84, two famines struck south and north India and killed an estimated 11 million people. The Chalisa famine- refers to the Vikram Samvat calendar year 1840- occurred in present day Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and even Kashmir. The El Nino events of 1780 are blamed for this famine.
Doji Bara famine: El Nino caused a severe failure of the critical South Asian Monsoon which led to a massive shortage of food in 1791-92. There was widespread mortality in Hyderabad, Southern Maratha Kingdom, Deccan, Gujarat, and Marwar. It is said that at least 11 million died of the resultant famine and such was the severity that there were skulls all around as there was no one to bury or cremate the dead. Thus, the name Doji Bora or the skull famine.
Great Famine: Also known as the Madras famine, the drought of 1876-78 in various regions of southern India affected up to 58,500,000 people. This drought was compounded by measures taken by the British to cut wages for relief workers and by spending less than it did a year earlier during the Bihar famine. Over five millions perished.
Second Bengal famine: Food shortage in 1943 had, among other reasons, World War-II to blame. Many were drawn to the fighting ranks from the ploughing fields. Rice shortage which was covered up by imports from Burma increased as produce from that country was diverted to the war. Since the areas of Bengal, Orissa and Assam had jute friendly climate, the British encouraged its growth over rice, further lessening the acreage under the staple of crop of this region. As a result, the price of rice shot up from Rs 4 to Rs 40!
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is, however, of the view that it was hoarding, war and rumours of shortage that caused an increase in prices and hence made food out of reach for lakhs. Around 3 million people died from starvation and malnutrition during the period.
Bihar’s ‘near-miss’: In the summer of 1966, Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh experienced one of the worst droughts in the history of the region during the 20th century.
Around 60 million people were suffering from acute food and water shortages. This was caused by the failure of withdrawing rains of September-October which help paddy germinate.
However, timely recognition of the problem due to JP Narayan’s efforts and food-import from the West- mainly the US under Lyndon Johnson- prevented a large scale catastrophe. On the one hand it forced Indira Gandhi to align with US during the non-alignment era, on the other, a new zeal to become self-sufficient came over agricultural India. It sowed the seeds of the Green Revolution.
That 70s no-show: The 70s were particularly hard on the Indian population. This year’s drought, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar says, is worse than that in 1972 with a rainfall deficit of over 19%. That year the global oil prices shot up, resulting in high inflation. Coupled with a two-year drought, food prices and shortage rocketed up.
Then in 1979, grain production went down by at least 20%, resulting in a spurt in inflation. It changed the political landscape in the country as the first non-Congress government at the Centre was crushed in the 1980s general elections.
1986-88: This was among the worst droughts in the history of independent India, however it is one of the less talked about and easily forgotten one because of its adept handling by the government. The severity of the 1987-88 drought, in terms of rainfall deficiency, was more (26%) and it affected twice the population than a number of previous draughts.
But the trickle down effect of the government’s long drawn planning with food sufficiency, employment generation and poverty alleviation as the core areas of emphasis, worked well and soon the country was out of the mesh of the 1987-88 drought.
2002: A 19% rain deficit in 2002 reduced India`s summer-sown harvest by 22% and the output of winter-sown crops by 13%. This was the last great drought of this decade which affected 12 states in the country, affecting 29% of the lands. But in the new millennium, India had enough food or the needy- 60mn tons more than required. The challenge lay in food storage and distribution.
The problem India is facing is not only of bad monsoon, but also of low productivity of our fields. Since the 90s, food output has hovered around 400 mn tons. The problem of rising fuel prices and low availability of food around the world has only added to our hunger pangs. In this season, government’s best bet is going to be the recent rains and import of food grains.
