印度中央邦（Madhya Pradesh）贾布瓦（Jhabua）的区政府医院中，米拉·达莫尔正在照顾自己极度营养不良的儿子帕普。 By JIM YARDLEY 撰文：Jim Yardley Published: August 8, 2010 发表时间：2010年8月8日 JHABUA, India — Inside the drab district hospital, where dogs patter down the corridors, sniffing for food, Ratan Bhuria’s children are curled together in the malnutrition ward, hovering at the edge of starvation. His daughter, Nani, is 4 and weighs 20 pounds. His son, Jogdiya, is 2 and weighs only eight. 贾布瓦，印度——几只狗在走廊上一阵小跑，到处嗅着，希望能找出点食物来，这里是一所土黄色的地区医院，拉塔·胡依的几个孩子因为营养不良蜷缩在这所医院的病房里，在极度饥饿中苦苦挣扎。女儿纳妮已经四岁了，体重只有9公斤；儿子乔格迪亚才两岁，体重还不到4公斤。 Landless and illiterate, drowned by debt, Mr. Bhuria and his ailing children have staggered into the hospital ward after falling through India’s social safety net. They should receive subsidized government food and cooking fuel. They do not. The older children should be enrolled in school and receiving a free daily lunch. They are not. And they are hardly alone: India’s eight poorest states have more people in poverty — an estimated 421 million — than Africa’s 26 poorest nations, one study recently reported. 无田无地，负债累累，在印度的社会安全网彻底瓦解以后，大字不识一个的胡依在极度窘困之下只能带着几个奄奄一息的孩子摇摇晃晃的跑进医院的病房里。这一家人本应该拿到政府补贴的粮食和用来烹饪的燃料，而年纪最大的孩子也可以入学吃上一顿免费的午餐，但这一切如今都成了泡影。在印度，胡依的困境绝不是个例，最近的一份研究报告指出，印度最贫穷的八个邦中有越来越多的人陷入了贫困之中，人数多达4.21亿，比非洲最贫穷的26个国家的贫困人口之和还要多。 For the governing Indian National Congress Party, which has staked its political fortunes on appealing to the poor, this persistent inability to make government work for people like Mr. Bhuria has set off an ideological debate over a question that once would have been unthinkable in India: Should the country begin to unshackle the poor from the inefficient, decades-old government food distribution system and try something radical, like simply giving out food coupons, or cash? 对于掌权的印度国大党（Indian National Congress Party）来说，这种糟糕的局面让原本靠吸引穷人支持而获得的政治前途开始动荡不安起来，政府一贯的无能表现也使得为胡依这样的穷人谋福利的政治口号遭到了质疑，甚至还引发了一场意识形态之争，以至于提出了一个印度人以前想都不敢想的问题：国家是不是应该将穷人从效率低下几十年不变的政府粮食分配系统里解放出来，尝试一些激进的供给方式，例如简单的分发食品券或现金？ The rethinking is being prodded by a potentially sweeping proposal that has divided the Congress Party. Its president, Sonia Gandhi, is pushing to create a constitutional right to food and expand the existing entitlement so that every Indian family would qualify for a monthly 77-pound bag of grain, sugar and kerosene. Such entitlements have helped the Congress Party win votes, especially in rural areas. 潜在的一揽子计划推动着这种反思的不断深入，不过在国大党内部也引发了分歧。目前，国大党的主席索尼娅·甘地（Sonia Gandhi）正在力争将食物所有权写进宪法，并对现存的一些补贴措施进行扩展，以保证每一户印度家庭每个月都能享受到35公斤的谷物、食糖和煤油供应。这样的福利津贴安排就曾经让国大党赢得了选举，尤其是在农村地区得到了广泛的支持。 To Ms. Gandhi and many left-leaning social allies, making a food a legal right would give people like Mr. Bhuria a tool to demand benefits that rightfully belong to them. Many economists and market advocates within the Congress Party agree that the poor need better tools to receive their benefits but believe existing delivering system needs to be dismantled, not expanded; they argue that handing out vouchers equivalent to the bag of grain would liberate the poor from an unwieldy government apparatus and let them buy what they please, where they please. 对于甘地夫人和很多左倾的社会性联盟来说，将食物所有权提到法律的高度等于是赋予了胡依这样的穷人一件索求福利的工具，而这些福祉本来就是属于他们的。但很多经济学家和国大党内部的市场派却认为，穷人要想获取福利必须得拥有一件更好的工具，他们表示现有的分配系统不是需要扩展，而是要被彻底抛弃；可以尝试等价于实物供给的抵用券分配制度，把穷人从笨拙的政府机构中解放出来，让他们随时随地想买什么就买什么。 “The question is whether there is a role for the market in the delivery of social programs,” said Bharat Ramaswami, a rural economist at the Indian Statistical Institute. “This is a big issue: Can you harness the market?” “问题是，市场是否应当承担社会分配的职能？”巴拉特·拉马斯瓦米说，他是印度统计研究所（Indian Statistical Institute）研究农村经济的经济学家。“市场会任由你驾驭吗？这是一个需要深入研究的大问题。” India’s ability, or inability, in coming decades to improve the lives of the poor will very likely determine if it becomes a global economic power, and a regional rival to China, or if it continues to be compared with Africa in poverty surveys. 不管是成为一个在亚洲地区足以匹敌中国的世界经济大国，还是在贫困调查报告中与非洲兄弟们平起平坐，印度能否有效改善贫困人口的温饱问题，在未来的十年间就会见分晓。 India vanquished food shortages during the 1960s with the Green Revolution, which introduced high-yield grains and fertilizers and expanded irrigation, and the country has had one of the world’s fastest-growing economies during the past decade. But its poverty and hunger indexes remain dismal, with roughly 42 percent of all Indian children under the age of 5 being underweight. 上世纪六十年代绿色革命（Green Revolution）期间，依靠引进高产水稻和肥料并改善灌溉系统，印度曾一度摆脱了食物短缺的困扰；而过去的二十年间，印度也一跃成为全球发展最快的经济体之一。但它的贫穷和饥饿指数一直居高不下，在印度国内，有将近42%的五岁以下儿童体重不足。 The food system has existed for more than half a century and has become riddled with corruption and inefficiency. Studies show that 70 percent of a roughly $12 billion budget is wasted, stolen or absorbed by bureaucratic and transportation costs. Ms. Gandhi’s proposal, still far from becoming law, has been scaled back, for now, so that universal eligibility would initially be introduced only in the country’s 200 poorest districts, including here in Jhabua, at the western edge of the state of Madhya Pradesh. 陈旧的食物分配系统存在了大半个世界，已经被腐败和效率低下侵蚀得千疮百孔。研究表明，约合12亿美元的粮食预算中，有70%的资金是被官僚阶级侵吞和运输成本浪费掉的。眼下，甘地夫人的提案不但没有成为法律，而且在救助规模上还被缩小了，原来的全国规模现在只剩下了200个最贫困的地区，这其中就包括位于中央邦西部边陲的贾布瓦。 With some of the highest levels of poverty and child malnutrition in the world, Madhya Pradesh underscores the need for change in the food system. Earlier this year, the official overseeing the state’s child development programs was arrested on charges of stealing money. In Jhabua, local news media recently reported a spate of child deaths linked to malnutrition in several villages. Investigators later discovered 3,500 fake food ration booklets in the district, believed to have been issued by low-level officials for themselves and their friends. 对于人民赤贫和儿童极度营养不良的中央邦来说，改变粮食分配系统是迫在眉睫的事情。今年早些时候，负责审查该邦儿童发展规划的官员因涉嫌侵吞钱财而被逮捕。在贾布瓦，本地新闻媒体最近也报告说，由于营养不良，几个村庄的儿童死亡率出现了飙升。随后调查人员发现了3500份伪造的地区粮食配给名册，可以想象，调拨的粮食肯定都被分发给了低级官员的家人和朋友了。 Inside the district hospital, Mr. Bhuria said he had applied three times for a food ration card, but the clerk had failed to produce one. 在地区医院里，胡依表示说自己已经申请了三次，要求发放食物配给卡，但办事员一张也开不出来。 “Every time he would say, ‘We will do it, we will do it,’ ” Mr. Bhuria recalled. “But he never did.” “每次他都会说，‘马上就办，马上就办，’”胡依回忆说。“但就是办不成。” A farmer, Mr. Bhuria fell into deep debt six years ago after he mortgaged his land for a loan of 150,000 rupees, or about $3,200. Like most people in the district, Mr. Bhuria is a Bhil, a member of a minority group whose customs call for the family of the groom to pay a “bride price” before a wedding. Mr. Bhuria spent most of his loan on his brother’s wedding and was left landless, yet he and his wife kept having children. They now have six. 六年前，身为农民的胡依把自己的土地抵押了出去，换回了15万卢比（约合3200美元）的贷款，从那以后，他就陷入了债务的泥沼之中。和住在该地区的很多人一样，胡依也是比尔人（Bhil），属于少数民族，他们的风俗是要求男方家庭在结婚之前出“聘礼”，胡依靠借来的贷款为弟弟娶上了媳妇，但自己却变成了失地农民，尽管如此，他和妻子还是生了很多孩子。到目前为止，他们一共养育了六个孩子。 He and his wife migrated with their children to work as day laborers in the neighboring state of Gujarat. Working in Gujarat is common for farmers from Jhabua, but since none can use their ration booklets outside their home villages, they struggle to feed their families. When migrants returned to plant their fields in July, the malnutrition wards began to fill up at the district hospital. 胡依和妻子带着孩子们在临近的古吉拉特邦（Gujarat）打零工，贾布瓦的有很多农民都在古吉拉特邦工作，但因为没有办法在家乡以外使用粮食配给卡，这些人连养活家庭都很难。当七月份农民们返回家乡开始劳作时，地区医院的病房一下子就给营养不良的病人们填满了。 “This is a cycle,” said Dr. I. S. Chauhan, who oversees the wards. “The mother is also malnourished. And they are migrant workers. They work all day and can’t care for their children.” “这是一种恶性循环，”I·S·楚汉医生说，他负责巡视医院病房。“不光小孩，母亲也是营养不良。他们是流动工人，整天工作，根本没办法照顾自己的孩子。” Moneylenders are common across rural India, often providing loans at extortionate rates. Some farmers hand over food booklets as collateral. Sitting in a small shop, Salim Khan said people approach him for loans when a child is sick or if they need cash to travel for migrant work. 在印度农村，放债者非常普遍，他们通常以勒索性的利率提供贷款，有些农民被迫交出粮食册作为抵押。萨利姆·卡汉就是这样的放债者，他坐在一家小店铺里，大言不惭的表示说，当孩子生病或出门找工作需要钱时，人们就会来找他借贷款。 “Until they repay me,” he said, “I keep their ration card.” “除非他们把钱还上，”卡汉说，“不然配给卡就得放在我这保管。” He uses the cards to buy grain at government Fair Price Shops at the subsidized rate of about 2 rupees, or 4 cents, a kilogram. He resells it on the open market for six times as much. The margin represents interest on the loan. He has held the ration cards of some migrants for seven years. “Sometimes I’ll have 50 cards,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll have 100 or 150. It’s not just me. Other lenders do this, too.” 它可以用配给卡在国营的平价商店里买粮食，那里的粮食是以折扣价出售，一般每公斤大米只卖2个卢比（约合4美分）。得手以后，他再以六倍的价格将粮食在公开市场上转卖出去，这种利润就代表了贷款的利息。有些移民的配给卡甚至被卡汉“保管”了七年之久。“有时候，我手里会有50张卡，”卡汉说。“更多的时候会有100到150张。不光是我，其他放债者也这样做。” He said he was willing to lend slightly more money to the most destitute because their yellow ration booklets made him eligible for the full 77 pounds of grain, the most available in a tiered rationing system. “The yellow ones are best for me,” he said. 卡汉说，他甚至愿意向一些最贫穷的人贷出少量的贷款，因为他们手里的黄色配给卡让他可以领到35公斤的粮食，这个数量是粮食等级配给系统的最上限。“我最喜欢黄色卡片，”他说。 This is just one of the illegalities that permeate the system, according to people in Jhabua. Bribery is also common; government inspectors are known to extort monthly payments from the clerks who sell the subsidized grain. Some clerks pay small bribes to local officials to get their jobs or keep them. In turn, moneylenders slip money to clerks to let them use the ration cards to collect the subsidized grain, sugar and fuel. 贾布瓦的穷人们表示，这只不过是渗透进配给系统的非法手段之一。在这里，贿赂很常见；那些贩卖补贴粮食的办事员每个月都要向政府的巡视员缴纳月供，这种勒索手段在当地尽人皆知。有些办事员为了向上爬或保住工作，还要对当地官员进行小额贿赂。放债者会塞钱给办事员，让他们用配给卡去囤积国家补贴的粮食、食糖和燃料。 In a cavernous government warehouse, bags of grain are stacked almost 15 feet high, awaiting trucks to carry loads to different Fair Price Shops. R. K. Pandey, the manager, blamed local men for the persistent malnutrition in the district, saying they often sell the subsidized wheat on the open market and buy alcohol. He also noted that the Bhil population favored corn, not wheat, so besides buying alcohol, they also sell the grain to buy corn. 在一个巨型的政府仓库里，一包包的粮食被堆得足足有四五米高，这些粮食都会被卡车运到不同的平价商店进行出售。R·K·潘登是这里的经理，他说很多当地人一直营养不良是自找的，他们经常会将补贴的小麦拿到公开市场上卖掉，然后买酒喝。潘登还说，比尔人更喜欢玉米，所以他们卖掉麦子以后，不但去买酒，也要去买玉米。 Efforts are under way to reform the national system. Officials in the state of Chhattisgarh have curbed corruption by tracking grain shipments on computers, so that officials cannot steal and resell it. 国家系统的改革势在必行。比如切蒂斯格尔邦就通过电脑追踪粮食的运输线路，用以约束官员们的贪污行为，这样可以保证他们无法偷盗粮食并进行转卖。 Many social advocates, suspicious of market solutions, say that such reforms prove that the system can be improved. But pro-market advocates say that issuing either food coupons or direct payments would circumvent much of the corruption and allow recipients more mobility and freedom of choice. They point to the eventual creation of a new national identity system — in which every person will have a number — as a tool that can make such direct benefits possible. 很多对市场解决方案疑心重重的社会改良派认为，这样的革新证明了原来的分配系统还有改进的余地。但市场派则表示说，发行食品券或直接现金补贴可以绕开很多的腐败行为，且灵活性更强，让劳苦大众有更多的选择自由。另外，如果想让这样的直接福利成为现实，必须要建立一个新的国民身份系统，让每一个人都拥有一个身份编号。 These sorts of debates seem like abstractions in much of Jhabua, where poverty and hunger are twinned. At the malnutrition ward, Dr. Chauhan said that Jogdiya, the tiny 2-year-old, had pneumonia, diarrhea and possibly tuberculosis. His health had been steadily deteriorating in recent weeks, but his father, Mr. Bhuria, had no money for either food or medicine. He had gone to Gujarat in mid-July in search of migrant work but then quickly returned after Jogdiya and Nani became sicker. A relative had warned him not to go, saying his children were too sick. 对于被贫穷和饥饿两座大山压得直不起腰来的贾布瓦农民来说，这样的辩论稍显抽象了点。在地区医院的病房里，楚汉医生告诉我们说，两岁的小乔格迪亚感染了肺炎，痢疾，可能还有肺结核，最近几个星期他的健康状况一直在不断恶化，但父亲胡依肚子都填不饱，哪来钱为他医治。本来七月中旬的时候，胡依在古吉拉特邦准备打点零工，但乔格迪亚和纳妮相继病重，他只能返回家乡。其实早在临行之前，就有亲戚相劝叫他不要去了，两个孩子都病得不轻。 But he had felt he had no choice. “We didn’t have anything to eat,” he had said. 但胡依觉得自己没得选择。“我们已经没有东西可吃了，”他无奈的说。 Corruption in India's inefficient, decades-old food distribution system is raising questions about whether the government should issue food coupons or even cash to those in need. Meera Damore sat with her malnourished son, Pappu, 1½, in the Jhabua District government hospital in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. 图集：难以解决的温饱问题 印度持续二十几年的低效食物分配系统被腐败所困扰，政府正在考虑要不要向穷人直接发放食品券甚至现金。图片中印度中央邦贾布瓦的区政府医院中，米拉·达莫尔正在照顾自己极度营养不良的儿子帕普，他才一岁半。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 Ratan Bhuria looked after his 2-year-old son, Jogdiya, in the malnutrition ward of the Jhabua hospital. Jogdiya had pneumonia, diarrhea and possibly tuberculosis, but Mr. Bhuria, a landless farmer heavily in debt, had no money for either food or medicine. With some of the highest levels of poverty and child malnutrition in the world, Madhya Pradesh underscores the need for change in the Indian food system. 贾布瓦医院的病房里，拉塔·胡依在照看着自己两岁的儿子乔格迪亚。小乔格迪亚感染了肺炎，痢疾，可能还有肺结核，但父亲胡依是个失地农民，欠了一屁股债，肚子都填不饱，根本无钱为儿子治病。对于人民赤贫和儿童极度营养不良的中央邦来说，改变粮食分配系统是迫在眉睫的事情。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 India has boasted one of the world's fastest-growing economies during the past decade. But its poverty and hunger indexes remain dismal, with roughly 42 percent of the nation's children under 5 being underweight. Gheeta, a migrant worker, fed a boiled egg to her 11-month-old son, Ashish, at a hospital in Meghnagar, a village in Madhya Pradesh. 印度一直夸口自己是过去二十年间全球发展最快的经济体之一。但它的贫穷和饥饿指数一直居高不下，在印度国内，有将近42%的五岁以下儿童体重不足。在中央邦麦格纳加村的一所医院里，外出务工的吉塔正在给她11个月大的儿子阿施施喂煮鸡蛋。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress Party, is pushing to create a constitutional right to food and expand the existing entitlement so that every Indian family would qualify for a monthly 77-pound bag of grain, sugar and kerosene. Men and women lined upwith their ration cards outside the government-run Fair Price Shop in Ban, a village in Madhya Pradesh. 国大党的主席索尼娅·甘地（Sonia Gandhi）正在力争将食物所有权写进宪法，并对现存的一些补贴措施进行扩展，以保证每一户印度家庭每个月都能享受到35公斤的谷物、食糖和煤油供应。在中央邦的坂村，男女老少拿着配给卡在国营平价粮店外排队等候着。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 Some farmers hand over their food ration booklets to moneylenders as collateral for cash loans. The moneylenders use the ration cards to buy grain at the Fair Price Shops at the subsidized rate of about 2 rupees — 4 cents — a kilogram, then sell the grain for much more. The margin represents interest on the loan. Radhe Shaym measured out wheat for a woman at the Laxmi Bai Fair Price Shop. 一些农民被迫交出粮食册作为抵押，从放债者那获得贷款。放债者可以用配给卡在国营的平价商店里买粮食，那里的粮食是以折扣价出售，一般每公斤大米只卖2个卢比（约合4美分）。得手以后，再以六倍的价格将粮食在公开市场上转卖出去，这种利润就代表了贷款的利息。在拉克西米·贝平价粮店里，拉德赫·沙依姆正在为一位妇女称麦子。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 At a government warehouse, bags of grain were stacked almost 15 feet high, awaiting trucks to ship them to Fair Price Shops around the Jhabua District. 在一个政府仓库里，一包包的粮食被堆得足足有四五米高，这些粮食都会被卡车运到贾布瓦地区的平价商店里进行出售。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 Men and women lined up at the Fair Price Shop in the village of Ban. Illegality and bribery permeate the food distribution system, according to people in Jhabua. Government inspectors, for example, are known to extort monthly payments from the clerks who sell the subsidized grain. 在坂村，男女老少在国营平价粮店外排队等候着。贾布瓦的穷人们表示，这只不过是渗透进配给系统的非法手段之一。那些贩卖补贴粮食的办事员每个月都要向政府的巡视员缴纳月供，这种勒索手段在当地尽人皆知。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 At the Jeevan Jyoti Hospital in the village of Meghnagar, Sarita handed out eggs, breakfast for malnourished children and their mothers. 在麦格纳加村的吉旺·乔提医院里，萨丽塔为营养不良的儿童和母亲们分发鸡蛋和早餐。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 In a village outside Jhabua, Ghaniya Vasuniya, right, was ill with tuberculosis. He receives 77 pounds of wheat every month, but it is not enough for his family. Efforts are under way to reform India's food distribution system. In one state, Chhattisgarh, officials have curbed corruption by tracking grain shipments on computers, so that officials cannot steal it and resell it. 在贾布瓦之外的一个村庄里，甘尼亚·旺苏尼亚（右边）患上了肺结核。他每个月有35公斤的小麦定额，但还不够全家人填肚子。国家分配系统的改革势在必行。比如切蒂斯格尔邦就通过电脑追踪粮食的运输线路，用以约束官员们的贪污行为，这样可以保证他们无法偷盗粮食并进行转卖。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 Ratan Bhuria gave water to his son Jogdiya in the Jhabua District hospital. Mr. Bhuria had gone to the neighboring state of Gujarat in mid-July in search of migrant work, but quickly returned after Jogdiya and his daughter Nani became sicker. Migrant workers struggle to feed their families because they cannot use their ration booklets outside their home villages. 在贾布瓦的地区医院里，拉塔·胡依正在给儿子乔格迪亚喂水。七月中旬的时候，胡依在邻近的古吉拉特邦准备打点零工，但乔格迪亚和纳妮相继病重，他只能返回家乡。外出务工的农民没有办法在家乡以外使用粮食配给卡，这些人连养活家庭都很难。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报 Ashish lay in the hospital in Meghnagar village while Gheeta, his mother, washed up. Pro-market advocates say that issuing either food vouchers or direct payments would circumvent much of the corruption in the Indian food distribution system and allow recipients more mobility and freedom of choice. 在麦格纳加村的医院里，阿施施趴在地上，而他的母亲吉塔已经没有一丝力气了。印度国内的市场派表示说，发行食品券或直接现金补贴可以绕开很多的腐败行为，且灵活性更强，让劳苦大众有更多的选择自由。 Credit: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times 图片来源：Lynsey Addario/纽约时报