- By Milan K Sinha
In a sovereign democratic republic like ours which has been registering relatively better GDP growth for some time now and has the largest pool of youth force in the world that claims to have adequate food to feed its population, is it not shameful to find that still millions of poor Indians cannot afford even a single meal and more than two and half million fellow Indians die of hunger every year?
The situation is even more shocking when one comes to know through Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) report on global food wastage that says, 'India stands out for its glaring lack of infrastructure and food storage facilities due to which 21 million tons of wheat - equivalent to the entire production of Australia - goes waste in the country'.
Here, it is quite pertinent to see what United Nations as well as the Indian Constitution promise:
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (U.N. 1948) Article 25 states, "Everyone has the right to a standard living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food."
Article 21 of the Constitution of India, 1949 states, "No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law."
Article 47 of the Constitution of India, 1949 states, "The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties."
Now, let us find some startling ground level facts and data on the subject:
- Every day more than 7000 people die of hunger in India.
- India is topping the list of countries in World Hunger Chart.
- More than 30% of the world's hungry population lives in India.
- Over 200 million people sleep hungry every night.
- About 850 million people survive on less than Rs. 20 a day.
We have plenty of laws and hundreds of law enforcing agencies with millions of officials drawing thousands of crores in salary in the name of protecting and safeguarding the basic interest of Aam Aadmi (common man) of the country. Now the question is, how long the country should wait to see things happening as per the constitutional provisions and election promises? And how long the ruling political class wait for FDI and foreign loans/grants to take care of even the most basic ground level problems without first ensuring 100% internal resource management?
Paradoxically, however, the ruling political class in the centre and the states alike celebrate and advertise their India Shining, India Rising, Incredible India and other such make-believe stories and slogans through big ads, sponsored programs etc. in a very big way by spending hundreds of millions of public money.
To say the least, in such a situation, can any right thinking person justify the pattern of governance the country has been witnessing for the last 65 long years after the independence?
It's time for all of us to voice our views collectively and effectively as per the constitutional provisions in order to convince and pressurize the political class across the board for taking urgent concerted effort to end the malady of starvation deaths on highest priority without indulging in political blame game.
# Published in Patna Daily.com
Will meet again with Open Mind. All the Best.
India has a legacy of hunger & poverty since indipendence.This legacy as well as illiteracy of masses suites present day politicians also for staying in power. Let us recall the post independence era. Our first Prime Minister was mesmerised with modernity & prosperity of western world which is proved by the fact that his cloths were wshed at Peris in france. This notion has partly helped country in creating necessary infrastructure required for industrilizetion.Neverthless Food production/Agriculture sector remained neglected during first two five year plans.It was only from thired five year plan onward it recived some thrust when we saw that we are being expoited by developed world under P.L 480 programme. The food/agriculture sector is very diffrent than industrial production as it is a biotic system based on large number of varriables, many of which are uncontrolable.We do say that we have demographinc divident in terms of huge manpower in young & productive age group. but we forget that the natural resource per capita gets drastically reduced,which form the basis of any production system whether agricultural or industrial.Thus a nutral policy towards population continues to keep our people starved.The qality of our demographinc dividend is very poor.This situation persists even when we have increased our food production to 250 millon tons from 50 million tons at the time of independence.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your view point so nicely & elaborately. The Govt. must act with all sensitivity & urgency to end this malady by managing the available resources. All the Best.
Deletemy goodness this is soooo shocking never heard such shocking figures.....
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading & sharing your views. All the Best.
DeleteIt is SHAMEFUL. The numbers are stains to the call of humanity. And it is more than that meets the eye: one day politicians announce measures to curb starvation and on the other day, they highlight changes in the name of Incredible India while the story remains the same.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading & sharing your point of view. All right thinking Indian should raise their voice in a democratic manner against this shameful state of affairs. All the Best.
DeleteBetter management of food grains is the need of the hour. Other vices such as black marketing of food grains needs to be checked. So much of produce rots just because there are no adequate arrangements to store it. Hence it is a matter of common sense to construct such facilities to ensure that the hard work of our farmers doesn't go waste, and no Indian remains hungry. But the lack of political will and vested interests hamper even the most basic of jobs to be carried out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting your comment on the subject so convincingly. There are disconnects in planning & implementation at all levels in Govt. functioning. Making people aware of these disconnects & asking the machinery to take corrective steps are very necessary. All the Best.
DeleteStark reality.in our country hunger for wealth, power and position has taken precedence over hunger for food.real tears are being addressed with crocodile tears.rks
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading & posting your comments so nicely & candidly. All the Best.
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