{"id":51872,"date":"2019-09-04T17:31:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T12:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?page_id=51872"},"modified":"2019-09-04T17:31:26","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T12:01:26","slug":"answered-inspite-of-surplus-food-production-millions-of-indian-citizens-die-to-due-to-hunger-comment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-inspite-of-surplus-food-production-millions-of-indian-citizens-die-to-due-to-hunger-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] \u201cInspite of surplus food production, millions of Indian citizens die to due to hunger.\u201d Comment."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Demand of the question<\/strong>
Introduction.<\/strong> Contextual Introduction.
Body. <\/strong>Reasons for hunger in India and measures to tackle hunger issue in India.
Conclusion. <\/strong>Way forward. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

India is a self-sufficient nation in food production for decades and having leaped forward economically over the past 20 years. It is painful to see that despite of having surplus food, hunger still persists. Starvation doesn\u2019t fit neatly into the story of a new India. Data shows that the country barely has enough to feed its own people. India stands 97th in Oxfam\u2019s Food Availability Index, and 103rd in the 2018 Global Hunger Index. The country is home to 270 million hungry people, the highest in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reasons\nbehind India\u2019s persistent problem of hunger are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Poverty: <\/strong>Poverty is the major reason behind\nthe alarming levels of hunger. Poverty restricts the food choices and has been\nthe causative factor of hunger related deaths. \nIf the persistent high prices of food items and the regional disparities\nin terms of development, especially the backwardness among the hilly and tribal\nareas also taken into account, the percentage of people who cannot afford\nbalanced nutrition will be much higher in India.<\/li>
  2. Multidimensional nature:<\/strong> Hunger and the related\nunder nutrition is the result of various associated factors ranging from water,\nsanitation, access to food items. A person\u2019s \u2018nutritional quotient\u2019 is also\ndependent demographic factors like gender, caste, age, etc. For instance, the\nnutritional needs of girl child\u2019s and elderly are not adequately addressed in\nour society.<\/li>
  3. Ineffective food  policies\nimplementation: <\/strong>Another important reason behind the persistent\nhunger is the poor implementation of the schemes and policies. The Integrated\nChild Development Services (ICDS) and the National Health Mission (NHM) have\nnot achieved the adequate coverage.<\/li>
  4. Climate change impact: <\/strong>Erratic rainfall and\nincreasing frequency of extreme events have impacted agricultural activities everywhere\ncreating unfavourable conditions for food production. Climate variability\naffecting rainfall patterns and agricultural seasons, and climate extremes such\nas droughts and floods, are among the key drivers behind the rise in hunger,\ntogether with conflict and economic slowdowns.<\/li>
  5. Corruption: <\/strong>Corruption in PDS is widely\nrecognised. PDS a food distribution schemes is mired with inefficiencies and\ncorrupt practices denying food to many.<\/li>
  6. Issues with agriculture: <\/strong>The change from multi to\nmono cropping systems limits the diversity of agricultural products. Inclination\ntowards cash crops and changing food habits result in malnutrition,\nundernutrition and even micro-nutrient deficiencies.<\/strong><\/li>
  7. Food wastage: <\/strong>Food wastage is also an\nemerging challenge that undermines the efforts to end hunger and malnutrition.\nAccording to the FAO, the global volume of food wastage is estimated at 1.6\nbillion tonnes of primary product equivalents.<\/strong><\/li>
  8. Unstable markets: <\/strong>Rising food prices make it\ndifficult for the poorest people to get nutritious food consistently which is\nexactly what they need to do.<\/strong><\/li>
  9. Natural disasters: <\/strong>Natural disasters such as\nfloods, tropical storms and long periods of drought are on the increase with\ncalamitous consequences for the hungry poor in developing countries.<\/strong><\/li>
  10. Gender inequality: <\/strong>In many parts women\u2019s\nnutritional requirements are often unmet as they consume whatever is left after\neveryone else has eaten.<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    What should be\ndone?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Achieving zero hunger requires\nagriculture and food systems to become more efficient, sustainable,\nclimate-smart and nutrition-sensitive.<\/li>
    2. Need for synchronisation among\nmalnutrition, dietary diversity and production diversity.<\/li>
    3. It is important to look at the\nfuture of food production to achieve the zero hunger goal.<\/li>
    4. Technologies like mobile phones can\nbe used for knowledge transfer to rural farmers on the food production cycle\nand market linkages.<\/li>
    5. Formulate policies that support\nbetter agricultural investments.<\/li>
    6. Providing agriculture subsidies and\nincentives and prioritising nutrition programmes.<\/li>
    7. Boosting the production and\nconsumption of climate resilient native nutritional crops.<\/li>
    8. Agro-ecological practices such as\nzero budget natural farming, organic farming and permaculture play an important\nrole in their impact on food and nutrition security.<\/li>
    9. Policies must pay special attention\nto groups who are the most vulnerable to the harmful consequences of poor food\naccess: infants, children aged under five, school-aged children, adolescent\ngirls, and women.<\/li>
    10. A sustainable shift must be made\ntowards nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems that can provide safe\nand high-quality food for all.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      The National Food Security Act became envisaged to provide for food and nutritional security to the nation. This was the first step by the government to make nutrition a legal right. Despite its noble objectives, the effectiveness of the Act has been limited as it only ensures affordable access to eligible households and doesn\u2019t have the universal appeal. It is high time, the policy makers should consider providing for the right to be free from hunger as a fundamental right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Demand of the question Introduction. Contextual Introduction. Body. Reasons for hunger in India and measures to tackle hunger issue in India. Conclusion. Way forward. India is a self-sufficient nation in food production for decades and having leaped forward economically over the past 20 years. It is painful to see that despite of having surplus food,… Continue reading [Answered] \u201cInspite of surplus food production, millions of Indian citizens die to due to hunger.\u201d Comment.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49132,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-51872","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}