The cost-of-living crisis is already having huge impacts for people across the UK. You undoubtedly will have noticed the cost of basics such as food, fuel, and other goods rising dramatically in recent weeks and months, and all projections suggest things are likely to get worse as we head into winter. There are various reasons for this cost-of-living increase, including the conflict in Ukraine, and a poor wheat harvest around the world due to widespread droughts. As a result, price increases are a global phenomenon.
Indeed, India has been particularly severely
impacted by rocketing food prices. Here, spiralling costs of basic consumer
goods have been compounded by the devastating drought that wracked the region
earlier this year. Some 800
million Indians are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, and
irregular monsoons and excessive heat have destroyed crops across the country. Even
those who do not work in the agricultural sector are impacted by rising prices
and reduced access to basic goods.
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| An recent Economist cover image drawing attention to the coming global food crisis. Credit: Ricardo Rey |
In May, the BJP government announced an immediate
ban on the export of wheat and onion seeds, in a bid to keep Indian goods
in India, to combat price rises and relieve dwindling food supplies. However,
by the end of June it was revealed that 1.8
million tonnes of wheat had been exported from India in just over a month
since the supposed ban. Collapsing
global supply lines have led many countries
to call for India to remove the ban, and some exceptions have been made on
humanitarian grounds, but this still
means that food prices remain high across the country, and globally supplies
are still
dangerously low.
As the Ukraine crisis impacts the availability of food globally, Indian crops have also been devastated by droughts this year. The most recent extreme heatwave is the latest in a long line of climate-related crises facing India, with economists estimating that droughts have reduced the GDP of the country by up to 5% over the last 20 years. The devastating heat that ravaged India and Pakistan in April and May has reduced expected crop yields across the country by a minimum of 11 million tonnes. With a population of 1.4 billion now vulnerable to falling into food poverty, the impact of further disruption to the supply chain could be catastrophic.
India is accustomed to the need to adapt to climate-related
threats. I have written previously about the fantastic
grass-roots education work being done by The Kanji Project’s partners in
Tamil Nadu to prepare young people to tackle the climate crisis as it plays out
in southern India. Such work is vital, as local communities take control of
their own response to shortages. At St Antony’s Matriculation School, staff use
some of the land to cultivate rice which can both feed poor community members
and be sold for a small income. Students learn through the Eco-Club about
different crops and can practice caring for plants in the nursery garden on
site. Local agriculture is
key to building resilience into the food supply system, but breaking free
of our global export-driven farming system is a long-term
goal, and in the immediate context of this cost-of-living crisis,
short-term support is needed.
Both SAF and the Rose Sisters have been supporting community
members who have been disproportionately impacted by rising prices.
Many of those in poverty around Kanji have already been dramatically affected
by the COVID pandemic
and resulting
economic downturn, only to then find themselves at the sharp end of the rapidly
increasing costs of food, fuel, and consumer goods. The Rose Sisters have been acting to support
the most vulnerable in their communities for a long time, helping to
establish 45 self-help groups for women and disabled adults, and facilitating access
to government funding mechanisms for those unable to apply on their own.
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| Some of the food provision activity SAF were able to engage in in response to the joint COVID / flood emergencies in Spring this year. |
But the cost-of-living crisis is also impacting those that work at St Antony’s and with the Rose Sisters. These staff members were provided half-pay over the time when operations were halted due to COVID lockdowns and are all now back on full-pay as work scales back up after the long slow down across the state. However, price hikes are impacting everyone, and wages do not stretch as far as before. The management at both SAF and the Rose Sisters are working to find ways to alleviate the cost of rising prices in their staff and members.
Bus drivers at St Antony’s recently received a pay rise in
recognition of the vital role they play in getting children from different
villages to school every day. Now, the school is looking to raise the salaries for
all staff, including teachers, ayahs, and administrators. This is tempered by
the need to also provide concessions for some students who pay privately for
their education, which is a source of income for the school. As their families
have also seen their income reduced in real terms over the pandemic, students
are also increasingly finding it difficult to stay in school. The Kanji Project
aims to support the most vulnerable students through our sponsorship
programme, but the cost-of-living crisis has resulted in many more children
in ever-more precarious situations.
Despite this, the school continues to provide support to not
just its own students, but to all members of the community who need help. In
the immediate aftermath of the floods that
wracked Tamil Nadu late last year, St Antony’s opened its doors to 50
families who were displaced. Now, with the generous support of Kanji Project
supporters, we have been able to provide funding support for the reconstruction
of three homes that were destroyed by the rain. St Antony’s continues
to provide food to in-need people in surrounding villages, and the school’s
planting programme is resuming as students return to school, with the aim of
planting trees and plants around Kanji to provide better flood defences moving
forward and also to support small-scale agriculture.
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| Other groups supported with basic supplies by the Rose Sisters |
The Rose Sisters are working flat out with their community self-support groups. They have also been able to welcome students back to the Sunshine Special School, which is back working at full capacity after the COVID lockdowns. Throughout the pandemic, the Sisters were able to support well over 600 households in need to financial and dietary support. Although the children’s parliaments were halted over COVID, these will also hopefully start up again soon and continue their aims of empowering children to make real change in their own communities. Their staff are also feeling the crunch, and the Rose Sisters are looking for additional funding support to be able to raise their wages. We at The Kanji Project are exploring how we can best support this endeavour.
All of our amazing partners are continuing to do this work
with the limited resources they have available to them, and are having a
massive impact in their neighbourhoods.
You can keep up-to-date on their activities in Kanji via our website.
Like the rest of the world, India is facing a cost-of-living
crisis. As material conditions worsen, there is a real
risk of political division and conflict across the country. However,
ordinary people continue to work hard to support the most vulnerable members of
their communities, and in doing so provide a great hope for the future.
As always, I am constantly blown away by the tenacity with
which SAF and the Rose Sisters tackle the issues they see around them. Though
their work is getting harder as the cost of supporting the poorest members of
their community rises, they continue to adapt and to navigate their way to meeting
the needs of those they can reach.
The cost-of-living crisis is impacting all of us, but the
solidarity shown by people working in their own communities can be a learning opportunity
for those of us here in the UK. As we move towards a winter of energy price
increases that could prove
devastating for the poorest in our communities, we should look to those already
doing empowering work in other parts of the world. I have learned so much from what I've seen and heard of our partners in India.
It may be small in scale, but it is massive in impact.
If you would like to support The Kanji Project as we continue to look for ways to help SAF and the Rose Sisters do their vital work, please consider getting involved, setting up a donation, or sponsoring a child through our website.
