I
Sir,
We, the people of India, are pained to learn that our country has fallen further from 100 to 102 on global Hunger Index released for year 2019. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) scores countries on a 100 point severity scale where zero is the best score that means no hunger and at the same time 100 is the worst. With 30.3 score, India suffers from a level of serious hunger at 102 out of 117 countries. It is more disturbing to note that we stood at 55 in 2014 and slipped to serious level of hunger in last five years despite the fact that we enjoyed stable governance under BJP leadership with favorable weather conditions, no famine or any natural calamity, and above all spent least funds on import of crude oil due to most favorable international prices. At the same time, we are blessed to have good harvest throughout the period under survey and possess sufficient food reserves all over the country even beyond national storage capacity. We are thus compelled to find out the reason for such a devastating hunger. Do we have faulty public distribution system, incompetent administrative machinery to ensure availability of food grains throughout the country or anything affected purchasing power of the people at large? We failed to perform on almost all parameters like mortality rate amongst children below 5 years of age, their weight, height etc. As it stands we have enough food grains and efficient Public Distribution system with well stock storage by Food Corporation of India, it becomes clear that something went wrong with purchasing power of affected people who have no money to buy basic food articles even at discounted rates.
It therefore emerges that people encountered loss of income due diminishing employment resulting out of suspended or partially implemented rural employment schemes like MGNREGS in the last few years. The employment activity in the agriculture sector has also reduced across India due to mechanization of the sector. No alternate employment opportunity involving local art and culture has been boosted to provide job to farmers during off cultivation periods to enhance their earning capability so that they do not suffer loss of purchasing power.
We may not therefore pursue highly capital intensive projects like bullet train or raise sky high statues of leaders of the nation who devoted their life for the service of the people and commit towards poverty alleviation through employment guarantee schemes to ensure minimum sustenance level of income to poor people so that they afford to buy food grains for their consumption. Creating employment for farmers pan India during off cultivation days of the year would not only help them in earning extra income but contain rampant migration towards urban India. We urge our national leaders to pay serious attention and make such issues as National Agenda to regain our status in the comity of Nations. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat.
Wg Cdr (Retd) Mahesh Chander Sudan
Sainik Colony, Jammu
II
Sir,
Falling of India from 55th position in 2014 to 102nd position in 2019 in Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a terrible global indictment of the miserable performance of Modi Government on tackling incidents of hunger in the country. On GHI severity scale, the country scored 30.3, indicating serious level of hunger prevalent among Indians. Among the children 20.8 per cent are wasting (low weight for height), which is extremely high, and the highest rate for any country in this report. Its child stunting (low height for age) rate at 37.9 per cent is also categorized as very high in terms of its public health significance.
It’s very sad that just 9.6 percent of all children between 6 and 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet, a standard that combines minimum dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency, with different recommendations for breastfed and non-breastfed children, who need to receive milk or milk products as a substitute for breast milk. It is indicative of the failure of the programmes and policies of the Government to ensure food security at household level.
Gyan Pathak
On e-mail
Follow our WhatsApp channel