Social Justice: Hunger

Social Justice: Hunger

"There are people in the world so hungry, that god can't appear to them except in the form of bread"

Mahatma Gandhi

"Malnutrition is like a silent assassins which affects the nation as it produces the army of sick people"

Hunger 

• Concept of hunger
• Manifestation of hunger
• Global Hunger Index
• SDG and Hunger
• Cause of hunger
• Consequence of hunger
• At individual level
• At family level
• At national level
• At international level
• Way forward

Hunger - It is a situation of distress which is associated with the lack of food (as per WHO).

Manifestation 

1   Under Nourishment - 

• According to FAO, it is defined as consumption of food which is not sufficient to provide the minimum amount of energy which an individual requires to lead a productive life (1800 Kilo Calories per day).

2.   Malnutrition 

• It is defined as the lack of ability to perform an activity which is considered normal.
• For example - Fighting diseases, physical growth, etc.

3.   Wasting 

• It is the condition whereby the weight of a person with respect to its height is low.

4.   Stunting 

• It is the condition whereby the height of a person with respect to its age is low.

5.   Over weight 

• It is the condition whereby the weight of a person with respect to its age is high.

6.   Under weight 

• It is the condition whereby the weight of a person with respect to its age is low.

Global Hunger Index (GHI) 

• It is released by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhlife.
• India's rank in GHI is very low (107 out of 121 Countries in 2022).
• Dimensions of GHI
• Child Wasting (Child under the age of 5 years)
• Child Stunting (Child under the age of 5 years)
• Child Mortality (Child under the age of 5 years)
• Under Nourishment (Child under the age of 5 years)
• It is estimated that only 9.6% of children between the age of 6 to 23 months are getting adequate food.

Causes of hunger 

1. Lack of food
• Neglect of agriculture by the government
• Low level of agricultural production
• Poverty
• Unemployment
• Food wastage due to infrastructural constraints in supply
• Hoarding/black marketing of food products
• Ineffective implementation of food security measures
• War/Conflicts
• Climate change
• Natural disasters/Anthropogenic disasters
• Unstable market (inflation, demand-supply discrepancies, etc)
• Lack of efficiency and transparency
2. Lack of nutritious food
• Green revolution is cereal specific only 
• Lack of diversified diet
• Lack of awareness with respect to nutrition
• Lack of nutritional education in school curriculum
• Adulterated food
• McDonaldisation of the food habits
• Misrepresentation of facts
• Price rise → focus shifted to cheap food which are usually non-nutritious
• Affordability
3. Lack of absorption of nutrition by the body
• Lack of safe drinking water
• Sanitation
• Hygiene
• Open deification → disease
• Morbidity (suffer from disease)
• Immune system weakening (due to climate change)

Question for practice 

Write an essay on 'Right to food to Right to Nutrition: Need of the hour'.

SDG and Hunger 

Millennium Development Goals 

• MDG 2 - Reduce hunger to half
• India failed to achieve this

Sustainable Development Goals 

• SDG 2 - End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
• Target - to be achieved by 2030 
• End hunger and ensure access by all people to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.
• By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition with special focus on adolescence girls, pregnant women, lactating mother and older person.
• Double the agriculture productivity and income of small scale food producers including women, indigenous people, pastoralist, fishermen, etc.

How to achieve the target? 

1. Secure an equal access to land, productive resources, knowledge, financial services, market opportunity for value addition and non-farm employment.
2. Implement resilient agricultural practices and strengthens the capacity for adaptation to climate change.
3. Increase investment in rural infrastructure, technological development, agricultural research and extension services, etc.
4. Prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agriculture market to check the volatility in prices.
5. Transform the food system to sustainable food production.
6. FAO says 14% of world's food is lost after harvesting therefore, we need to minimise food wastage.
7. Mitigate climate change
8. Better response to disaster and shocks
9. Priortise the resilience of vulnerable section.

Way forward 

1. Bio-fortification and fortification of food
2. Behavioural change with respect to importance of nutritional food, clean water, hygiene, etc to protect them from disease.
3. Supplementation needs to be promoted.
4. Social protection schemes that give poor people access to nutritious food.
5. Malnutrition can be reduce by enhancing women's health, promoting gender equality and female education.
6. Agriculture and nutrition can be linked by ensuring inclusiveness and equity in agriculture policies to diversified diet, policies to empower women.
7. Regional variation needs t be addressed.
• For example - UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, MP needs to be focused upon.
8. Strengthening of social protection program such as ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme), PDS System, Mid-Day meal Scheme, MGNREGA, etc.

Consequences of hunger 

1.   At individual level 

• Health - Chances of disease will be very high
• Learning outcome - Poor
• Economic productivity - Decline
• Social participation - Decline

World Bank report says that India loses ₹6,500/person due to disease in the absence of proper sanitation.

2.   At family level 

• It will create health cost burden on the family which eventually impacts the living standard of the family.

3.   At national level 

• Hampers the economic growth
• Demographic dividend will turn into demographic disaster
• Population growth will act as economic liability rather than asset

4.   At global level 

• Low rank in GHI threatens the potential of India to emerge as a global power.

Questions for practice/PYQs

1. Hunger and poverty are the biggest challenges for good governance in India. Evaluate how far the government has progressed in dealing with the problems. Suggest measures for improvement.
2. Poverty alleviation programs will remain mere show pieces unless they are backed by political will. Discuss.

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Note - This is my Vision IAS Notes (Vision IAS Class Notes) and Ashutosh Pandey Sir's Public Administration Class notes. I've also added some of the information on my own. 

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