Skip to main content

15% India is undernourished, as Rs 50,000 crore food goes waste

By Sheshu Babu* 
Sujalam suphalam bharat desh mein/ Roti mehengi kyon rey bhai (In Bharat, where there’s plenty of water and resources, why is bread so very costly?). -- From 'Bharat Apna Mahan Bhumi', performed by the Revolutionary Cultural Front. Song originally written by poet-singer Gaddar, translated into Hindi by Villas Ghogre
Poverty and hunger are common features of India. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) has further exposed this truth in a report prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) . The report said, “India is ranked 100th out of 119 countries, and has the third-highest score in all of Asia – only Afghanistan and Pakistan are ranked worse.”
The report further said that at 31.4, India's GHI of 2017 is at the high-end of “serious” category, and is one of the main factors pushing South Asia to the category of worst performing region, followed closely by Africa south of Sahara.
In an article analysing India's low performances in most development indexes, policy analyst Mohan Guruswamy (“How Hungry is India and Why?” October 20, 2018, thecitizen.in) rightly said, “Hunger in India is not a consequence of not producing enough food. It is a consequence of very many people not having enough money to spend on food, sometimes even for bare sustenance.”
While there were over 190.7 million people who were undernourished in 2014, the number has increased since then. According to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate in “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018” report, 195.9 million people are undernourished in India (Hunger in India, www.indiafoodbanking.org). That is,14.8% of people are undernourished.
India as the largest undernourished population in the world, and yet, total foodgrains produced reached an all time high of 251.12 million tonnes (MT) in FY15. Total rice and wheat production stood at 102.54 MT and 90.78 MT respectively. Thus, distribution of food is a primary cause of starvation and deaths.

Factors for hunger

The most important factor for hunger is that food remains inaccessible to most poor people. Much food is wasted which may feed thousands of people. Indians waste as much food as the whole of United Kingdom consumes. According to United Nations Development Programme, up to 40% of food produced in India is wasted. (“Food Wastage in India: A Serious Concern”, September 10, 2015, thecsrjournal.in). According to the Ministry of Agriculture, about Rs 50,000 crore worth of food is wasted every year.
Another factor relates to the small size of land holdings. There are about 58% of rural households dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. According to a 2011 census, there are about 118. 9 million cultivators across the country in addition to 144 million landless labourers. Both together constitute about 22% of the population.
About 65 per cent of India’s farmland consists of marginal and small farms with less than one hectare in size. The average holding size has halved since 1970 to 1.05 ha. As per 2001 census, about 490 million people depend on small farms. This reflects the spread of poverty.
Also, poverty and hunger is more among lower castes because of low and pathetic wage levels. They are well below the level of minimum wage prescribed by government in construction, marginal labor, agriculture labour, unorganized labour, etc.
Another cause of hunger is high rate of unemployment, specially among lower castes and sections of society. They go without food for days due to unavailability of enough money.
Adding to misery, the present system of identification has contributed to starvation deaths. The public distribution system (PDS), which assisted many poor to get ration in time, became inaccessible due to technical glitches of identification. Many women and children have died of hunger due to unavailability of monthly ration in states like Odisha and Jharkhand.
Poor healthcare system also led to deaths of the rural poor, who could not afford medication to get treated for malnutrition. The starved people in tribal areas were not provided with adequate medicines for improving health and alleviating from hunger.
Thus, hunger and starvation is mostly not due to unavailability of food but apathy of the rulers. Unequal distribution of wealth and resources widened gap between rich and poor. While rich had many amenities, the poor did not have minimum money for subsistence. The gap is increasing.
Hunger and starvation is rising, though there are plenty of resources that can be distributed. Food production is rising but deaths due to starvation continue unabated. India is truly, a rich country with poor people. The system has created more hungry people because of the hegemony of elites controlling wealth of the country.
According to a Johannesburg-based company, New World Wealth, India is the second most unequal country globally with millionaires controlling 54% of its wealth. (Inequality in India: What is the Real Story?”, October 4, 2016, weforum.org).
The richest 1% own 53% of wealth according to latest data by Credit Suisse. Richest 5% own 68.6% and top 10% own 76.3%. The poorer half has only 4.1% of national wealth. Thus, there is a long way to go to reduce income gap and consequently hunger and starvation deaths of poor.
---
*Writer from everywhere and anywhere, is inspired by the life and lyrics of Gaddar who works for the poor and the voiceless. Gaddar’s lyric 'Aagadu aagadu aagadu/ Aakali pooru aagadu' (It won’t stop, won’t stop/ The struggle for eradicating hunger won’t stop) inspires him

Comments

TRENDING

'Enough evidence' in Indian tradition to support legal basis for same-sex marriage

By Iyce Malhotra, Joseph Mathai, Sandeep Chachra*  The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage provides space for much-needed conversations on issues that have hitherto remained “invisible” or engaged with patriarchal locker room humour. We must recognize that people with diverse sexualities and complex gender identities have faced discrimination, stigma and decades of oppression. Their issues have mainly remained buried in dominant social discourse, and many view them with deep insecurities.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Victim of communal violence, Christians in Manipur want Church leadership to speak up

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*  The first eleven days of May 2023 have, in many ways, been a defining period of Indian history! Plenty has happened in a rapid-fire stream of events. Ironically, each one of them are indicators of how crimes and the criminalisation of society has become the ‘new norm’; these include, the May Day rallies with a focus on the four labour codes which are patently against the rights of workers; the U S Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its Annual Report on 1 May stating that conditions for religious freedom in India “continued to worsen in 2022”; the continued protest by the Indian women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar for the expulsion of the chief of the Indian Wrestlers Federation on very serious allegations; the Elections in Karnataka on 10 May (with communalism and corruption as the mainstay); the release of the fake, derogative and insensitive film ‘The Kerala Story’; the release of World Free Press Index on 3 May which places India

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Polygamy in India "down" in 45 yrs: Muslims' from 5.7 to 2.55%, Hindus' 5.8 to 1.77%, "common" in SCs, STs

By Rajiv Shah Amidst All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) justifying polygamy, saying it “meets social and moral needs and the provision for it stems from concern and sympathy for women”, facts suggest the the practice is down from 5.7 per cent of Muslim families in 1961 to 2.55 per cent in 2006.

Modi govt 'wholly untrustworthy' on Covid data, censored criticism on pandemic: Lancet

By Rajiv Shah*   One of the world’s most prestigious health journals, brought out from England, has sharply criticised the Narendra Modi government for being “wholly untrustworthy on Covid-19 health data”, stating, the “official government figures place deaths at more than 530 000, while WHO excess death estimates for 2020 and 2021 are near 4·7 million.”

Undermining law, breastfeeding? Businesses 'using' celebrities to promote baby food

By Rajiv Shah*  A report prepared by the top child welfare NGO, Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), has identified as many as 15 offenders allegedly violating the Indian baby food law, the Infant Milk Substitutes Feeding Bottles, and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 1992, and Amendment Act 2003 (IMS Act), stating, compliance with the law “seems to be dwindling by the day.”

Delhi demolitions for G-20 summit: Whither sabka saath, sabka vikas?, asks NAPM

By Our Representative  Well-known civil rights network, National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), even as expressing solidarity with “thousands of traumatized residents of Tughlakabad and some other bastis in New Delhi whose homes have been demolished and whose lives have been ravaged both prior to as well as in the lead-up to the G-20 Summit”, has said this is in utter disregard to “their minimum well-being and gross violation of their rights.”

'Misleading' Lancet estimates on zero food intake in infants, young children of India

By Srinivas Goli, Shalem Balla, Harchand Ram*  India is one of the world's hotspots for undernourished children, both in terms of prevalence and absolute numbers. Successive rounds of National Family Health Surveys ( NFHS ) have revealed that the progress observed since the early 1990s is far from what is expected when compared to the country's economic growth.

Greater reasons for Asia to unite than Europe, 'overcome' costly hostilities, political egos

By Dr S Faizi*  Europe, once a theatre of internecine wars, now has a robust European Union shaping the common destiny of its people. Although Europe is only a subcontinent of Asia as Arnold Toynbee had observed and as is visible to anyone looking at a map, we still not have a common Asian platform for economic and political cooperation.  It is high time Asia had its well mandated regional organisation to secure a common Asian future, ending the costly hostilities and political egos. We can have the Asian Union even when the bilateral hostilities, unique to Asia, refuse to go away completely.