Open Forum

New Delhi, 16 June 2015

Zero Hunger Challenge

 INDIA’S ABYSMAL RECORD

By Dr S Saraswathi

(Former Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)

The recent State of Food Insecurity Report in the World 2015 reveals a continuing phenomenon of under-nourishment in India. This time, it touched an estimate of 194.6 million people – about 55.8 million more than that of China. This annual UN Hunger Report coming from the Food and Agriculture Organization is taken seriously as the Millennium Development Goals, scheduled to be achieved this year, give us little time to act. The first goal of this global commitment is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.  One in every four hungry person in the world is said to be an Indian – an abysmal record that must be erased as the country’s top most priority.

Estimates of different authorities of course vary. Identification of malnutrition by international agencies is done without taking racial features into account which partly contributes to inflated figures about India. But the situation in India, uniformly depicted as very grave, needs to be rectified immediately at least with regard to eradicating hunger for our own good.

The technical terms “malnutrition” and “under-nutrition” denote a condition when a person’s diet does not provide adequate nutrients for growth and maintenance or when a person is not able to adequately utilize the food consumed due to illness. It causes various clinical disorders.

Under-nutrition may occur in two forms. Primary form is insufficient calories in food, and secondary form is caused by infections that adversely impact calorie intake.

Hunger and malnutrition are not the same. Hunger leads to malnutrition and under-nutrition as the poor (like the proverbial beggar) cannot choose their food to make it balanced scientifically.  The major causes of these two are insufficient intake of protein-rich food like pulses.

The terms -- malnutrition, under-nutrition, and starvation -- are often used inter-changeably, but they are different states. The first two are specific kinds of food deficiency disorders. Starvation is acute form of hunger which gives rise to other acute and fatal disorders.  

Global Hunger Index uses three indicators – proportion of under-nourished as percentage of population; prevalence of under-weight children; and mortality rate of children under five years of age.  Figures based on these indicators are bound to be higher than the actual number of hungry people, i.e. people not having adequate food – as we commonly understand the word “hunger”.   

Residents of metropolitan cities used to witnessing lavish wedding parties and enormous wastage of cooked food may find it difficult to digest the data on food insecurity in the country and the extent of malnutrition. These two go side by side contributing to the picture of “incredible India” – a picture of contrasts and disparities.

Agriculture, which is still the mainstay of Indian economy, and the main sector for providing employment, contributes about 15% of the GDP. India is the largest producer of milk in the world with the largest buffalo population, second largest producer of vegetables, fruits, and fish. Despite this, it has failed to conquer hunger.

It is stated in many reports that the world produces enough food for all. The causes for hunger are said to be poverty, bad economic system, wars and conflicts, population growth, bad agricultural and food policy, and climate change. As in the global situation, the state of hunger and malnutrition within a country is also due more to lack of access and bad distribution system than inadequate production.

A major cause of hunger in India is tremendous wastage of food.  In 2013, the then Food and Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar said that food worth $ 8.3 billion or nearly 40% of total value of annual production was being wasted. Due to lack of storage facilities, 21 million tonnes of wheat, calculated as equal to Australia’s entire annual crop production, were going waste.

UNDP also blames wastage as a main problem in the food sector. According to its calculation, 40% of food is wasted in India. It is also identified as a cause of inflation.  The country presents a sorry picture of abject waste in abundance.

Food losses occur in three places – at production places, storage, transportation and marketing places, and at the places of consumption. The problem of wastage has to be tackled in all these places.

Agricultural experts point out that Japan has tackled the problem of food wastage efficiently by legal provisions and effective administrative system addressing every cause of wastage individually. Container and Packaging Recycling Law apply to packing; Food Waste Recycling Law provides for treatment of excess food; and The Law on Promoting Green Purchase enables proper use of resources.

Global Food Banking Network is an organization established to fight hunger and protect the environment by creating, supporting, and strengthening food banks around the world outside the US. The India Food Banking Network has set a vision to have a hunger and malnutrition free India and works towards providing access to every district for at least one food bank by the year 2020. The effort needs to be encouraged.

One cannot overlook the traditional Indian value placed on hospitality particularly providing food to the hungry. Free food offered in temples is a common temple ritual.  Gurdwaras have practically turned into food banks providing common kitchen (langar) and free food for any visitor. These age-old practices can very well plug wastage and counter malnutrition provided they are run as intended. 

Hunger-related disorders force several millions of people all over the world to live in a state described as “constant catastrophe”. Malnourishment to which both well-to-do and the poor may fall victims also causes several disorders from stunted growth to obesity. By hunger-free India, the common man understands a state where no man suffers the pangs of starvation due to lack of food. This is to be tackled separately from over- and under- nourishment.

In the present economic and social conditions, India can easily get over the problem of hunger provided there is political will and action and people’s cooperation. Our difficulty is in fighting malnutrition for which some amount of knowledge and persistent will is required on the part of food providers as well as consumers. If people can be easily lured by poisonous flavours, instant cooking means, and ever green preservatives, starvation may decline and even vanish, but malnourishment will flourish.

Hunger and malnutrition are commonly associated with poverty related causes. We are indifferent to malnutrition among the middle and upper classes caused by voluntarily adopted unhealthy food habits. These people are also slow to give up their newly acquired unhealthy food items while being fast in adopting them. They become subject to lifestyle diseases like hypertension and diabetics which are non-communicable but pass on from generation to generation. On the contrary, the poor malnourished children may respond to adequate and balanced food and correct our statistics.

Therefore, we cannot blindly go by figures and statistics. Quality assessment of the statistics is needed. The nature and causes of malnutrition must be separated to categorize the malnourished. This will help choose appropriate remedies.----INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)