By Mr Pankaj Bhatnagar

Since a total ban on the use of chemical pesticides is unlikely to happen in any country in the foreseeable future, ensuring health risk reduction from pesticides will largely depend on two aspects ;

One. Identifying pesticides that are human carcinogens and

Second, Working out a mechanism that is pragmatic and easy to implement, so that harmful pesticides do not reach our kitchens.

However, despite the Court’s directions nothing much has happened and No workable model/mechanism has been prepared by the authorised Govt agency ; FSSAI that can achieve the above objective.

Notwithstanding the above, as a responsible citizen of the country, it is our duty to devise and suggest a workable mechanism so that we can get rid, to a reasonable extent from this decontamination of fruits and vegetables.

Before, suggesting a model we need to evaluate as to why Govt agencies have failed to stop these harmful pesticides reaching our kitchen ;-

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 Food safety in our country is still not an issue on which elections can be won or lost. One does not find this aspect in the agenda of any political party. As a result , the Govt departments authorised to take action and ensure that necessary guidelines are adhered to have little concern. In this regard Pl refer to the previous article titled ;     “Food and Health are the matters of utmost concern that we cannot remain silent about”. https://www.bharatamrising.com/index.php/people-s-participation dated 03 August 21.                         ..

Thus, In the absence of any meaningful action on ground against contamination of Food products, the citizens are forced to purchase contaminated food items ; vegetables and fruits from the market which are a source of health hazard.

Although, the media reports are not admissible in the courts but at times we need to corroborate the same information with other findings. And when we did that, we noticed that the fears as expressed in media, are not unfounded.

Uncontrolled Use of Pesticides is a Health and Environment Hazard .

This is an acceptable and well known fact that Farmers use chemical fertilizers and pesticides for the protection of their crops and to increase the crop yield, but many of these Pesticides are potentially toxic to humans and can have both acute and chronic health effects, depending on the quantity and ways in which a person is exposed. Some of these pesticides can remain for years in soil and water.

Risk assessment for pesticide residues in food, conducted by the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR), has established a safe intake level after assessing the level of risk. However, in our country, there are numerous reports which indicate that the Pesticide residues have been on a much higher side. The report clearly indicates that one of the significant causes of cancer has been Contamination of food product, which happens at various stages starting from the agricultural fields itself. However, in the absence of any concrete or rather any executable model/mechanism the contamination goes on and people continue to face health hazards.

Accumulated pesticide residues in food products have been associated with a broad variety of human health hazards, ranging from short-term effects to long term toxic effects. Food products contaminated with toxic pesticides are associated with severe effects on the human health. More than 95% of sprayed insecticides and herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, including non-target species, air, water and soil.

One can easily estimate the amount of harmful pesticides that must be getting into our stomach/ digestive system annually when we look at the survey report conducted in 2019. It said ;

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               The pandemic has had a multi dimensional impact on the society and nations. Besides adversely impacting the industry, the business, the economy, causing loss of earnings, loss of employment , it has also adversely impacted the Indian justice system, which was already under great stress and was barely able to maintain some sort of law and order in the society.

The conviction rate in India was already abysmally low, serious criminal cases continued to drag for years, property disputes got resolved when the affected parties were long gone. The pendency of cases was so huge that it ran in millions and now this pandemic has forced the courts to shut their business of dispensing justice.

Covid-19 has affected the Indian Legal System like never before. It has casted a harsh light on the outdated way justice is dispensed, law is taught, and legal services are delivered, says one legal expert – Varij Sharma.

“ Coronavirus has harnessed the potential of under-utilized tools and alternative work models long resisted by the Indian legal industry . During these quarantined times and keeping in mind the public health concerns, the Indian Courts are now hearing only extremely urgent matters filed in the year 2021 only at all levels. The cases which do not fall under the aforesaid categories have been adjourned "en bloc".”

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Trust Deficit.

Democracy as being practiced now is under strain everywhere. It has become divisive, inefficient, indifferent, unable to manage crisis situations and it encourages mobocracy.  Recently Biden, the US President, to get his rescue plan based on spending on infrastructure and social services,  that was stuck in Congress due to slug-festing between the Republicans and Democrats, had to urge them with the statement, “We have to prove that Democracy Works”.

This clearly shows that even the world’s most powerful democratic country is doubting the efficacy of Democracy.

The first Global Parliamentary Report (GPR), which examined the “Changing Nature of Parliamentary Representation” argued that parliaments have come under pressure partly due to various incidences of misconduct and partly due to their failing in their key role of holding government accountable and that they must address the current low level of trust in them. It also said - “It is clear that casting a ballot every few years is no longer enough for an electorate. It wants more democratic engagement between it and the political institution it elects,”

A Forthright article by Charles Edel – “Democracy Is Fighting for Its Life”- published in Foreign Policy magazine highlighted that , “There is a sense of displacement, dislocation, and despair among large numbers of Americans who feel that the democratic system has grown increasingly unresponsive to their needs”.

Globally also, people are increasingly becoming more dissatisfied with the way democracy is working.According to a new survey conducted by Pew Research, across 34 countries, a median of 52% were found to be dissatisfied with democracy and approximately 64% feel that the elected representatives do not care about the people. The survey report shows that the dissatisfaction is apparent even in some of the most established democracies like the UK, the US, France and Japan where 69%, 59%, 58% and 53% respectively expressed dissatisfaction with how democracy is working in their country. Astonishingly, in India, which is grossly mismanaged right from top to bottom, 70 % population was happy with the way Democracy is functioning here. Perhaps, we are happy with the indiscipline and ‘Challta hai’ attitude it encourages all around and hence paying the price for that during the pandemic.

Democracies struggling to deal with crisis

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