CSE's 'State of India’s Environment In Figures' Report on Rural India

The story: When in May 2021, over half of daily global cases happened in India on six days — triggered due to the surge in cases in rural districts -

CSE's 'State of India’s Environment In Figures' Report on Rural India

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• The story: When in May 2021, over half of daily global cases happened in India on six days — triggered due to the surge in cases in rural districts - it severely exposed India’s healthcare system. A more distressing scenario is emerging from the rural hinterland, according to Down To Earth’s latest State of India’s Environment (2021) in Figures report. Community health centres in rural India need 76 per cent more doctors, 56 per cent more radiographers and 35 per cent more lab technicians, the annual compenium points out.
• Covers environment too: The report, brought out by the Centre for Science and Enviroment (CSE) covers a wide swathe of subjects, from air pollution and climate change to biodiversity and COVID, and from agriculture and land to water and waste.
• Pandemic pointers: The report’s analysis of the pandemic through numbers throws up an array of other interesting facts.

1. A key information emerging is that in the second wave, India has been the worst-hit globally; rural India has been hit more badly than our urban areas. In May 2021, India alone accounted for more than half of the daily global cases on six days. The peak was due to a surge in cases in rural districts.
2. Along with climate-related risks, infectious diseases have entered the list of major global economic threats for the first time since 2006.
3. Biomedical waste - There has been a 46 per cent increase in COVID-19 biomedical waste between April and May 2021. At the same time, treatment of this waste has dipped: In 2019, India managed to treat 88 per cent of its biomedical waste — down from almost 93 per cent in 2017.
4. Vaccination - The country has managed to fully vaccinate a mere 3.12 per cent of its population, lower than the global average of 5.48 per cent.
5. Economic impact – While urban unemployment rate reached almost 15 per cent in May 2021, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act implementation witnessed massive payment lags.

• Climate change dangers: The CSE report lays special emphasis on climate change. Grappling as India is with a debilitating pandemic, it cannot lose sight of another clear and present danger that threatening its very survival - climate change. The report points out that India recorded 12 of its 15 warmest years in the period between 2006 and 2020: it also had its warmest decade on record. Extreme weather events continued their rampage across the country, which was the fourth worst hit in the world in terms of internal displacements due to disasters.
• Migrants: Data on migrants is sparse — and so every time there is a lockdown, governments are caught unprepared by the exodus from cities. This is compounded by the fact that there is out-migration — people are leaving their homes because of many reasons of economic and ecological distress, including extreme weather and natural disasters. The report tells that in 2020, 76 per cent of internal displacements in the world were triggered by climate disasters. Between 2008 and 2020, some 3.73 million people per year were displaced because of floods, earthquakes, cyclones and droughts. The map of the significant weather events of 2020 is the new cartography of the country. Then add to this the fact that governments are spending massive amounts in repairing the damage from these not-so-natural calamities and you understand how the development dividend is being squandered with every such event,” she added.
• India and RE: In renewable energy, India’s ambitious renewable target, which was a commendable step towards going green, has slipped. With just 55 per cent of the target met, India is nowhere close to installing 175 GW of renewable capacity by 2022. The country also has a target of setting up at least 50 solar parks by 2021-22. So far, it has not operationalised even one of them. 

 

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