Offering a platform for Delhi’s homeless and underprivileged people, the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA) organised an online public hearing on hunger and malnutrition in Delhi on November 30, 2020.

With the help of various NGOs in Delhi, the organisation compiled video testimonies and live testimonies of people living in homeless shelters, widows and individuals who lost their jobs during the coronavirus lockdown. Many of them talked about their desperate efforts to find food

Lack of ration cards and the suspension of midday meals along with sub-par quality of food were some of the primary grievances of people. The DRRAA also pointed out that while the government put on a front that the hunger problem had been resolved after the lockdown, many people still suffered from extenuating circumstances. The organisation has already approached the court regarding the same.

The Satark Nagrik Sangathan visited the Jagdamba camp in Delhi where they came to know that people had availed government ration for only two months during lockdown. Even the food security allowance given to children – Rs. 94 for primary children and Rs. 78 for upper primary children – barely satisfies the family’s nutritional needs on a daily basis.

Domestic worker Yashoda from the same camp talked about how she had filled the ration card application but did not receive any relief from the government. In fact, many people talked about the stagnancy of the ration card application over the course of the hearing.

Yashoda along with her husband lost her job during the lockdown and appealed to the government to provide proper food.

“We have to look for food to feed our three children while also looking for money to pay our rent. We already have a Rs. 40,000-50,000 loan. We ask the government to help us,” she said.

Similarly, 62-year-old Rani said that she had to continue work to support her two grandchildren. However, she also lost her job during the pandemic because of which her 13-year-old grandson has to work a rickshaw collecting garbage to make ends meet.

“During the lockdown, I finally got an e-coupon for ration. However, it only provided me with food once,” she said.

Meanwhile, disabled persons living on Mazaar Park streets sent a video to voice their difficulties during the lockdown. Individuals like Sanjay Kumar, Afroz Alam talked about their disabilities and the lack of ration provisions.

Member of ASTHA, an organisation that works with disabled children from low-income groups, Pratik Aggarwal said that the government should maintain a database of people in urban slums or resettlement areas so they can be easily contacted during emergency situations.

“ASTHA tried to maintain data of 1,500 to 1,700 families. These disabled-children-families, in general, struggle for nutrition. During lockdown, anganwadis were closed because of which the little food provided did not reach these children,” he said.

Parents of one such child Faaz, said that the family was struggling to pay for the child’s medical needs along with school fees following the job-loss in the last few months.

Similarly, the Shahri Mahila Kamgar Union sent video testimonies of widows and domestic workers who had suffered during the last few months due to inefficient application of government provisions.

One of the aggrieved, Usha, used to work at a store. Although Usha owns a receipt to her ration card application, it does not help her avail ration for herself. She has to depend on her daughter to send her food from time to time.

According to Union members, ration that reaches homeless people and daily-wage workers is not always clean. Moreover, in terms of nutrition, people only receive wheat and rice when they should also be getting pulses, oil and other food items. They demanded that the government help with the process of ration cards. Many people in Delhi filed an application five years ago but continue to wait for the document.

DRRAA member Dipa Sinha challenged the notion that Delhi’s hunger crisis had been resolved after the lockdown. Organisation members who visited daily wage workers, slum dwellers and other underprivileged people saw that even after lockdown hunger remains a persisting problem connected to job loss.

“We did a Hunger Watch survey, with 198 people in Delhi including a huge group of homeless people. 43 percent said they still do not have a source of employment. Nearly 50 percent said their main source of food is a mandir or a gurudwara. 40 percent said they slept on an empty stomach. 8 percent said even before lockdown, they sometimes went on an empty-stomach. This number increased in October by 30 percent. 75 percent said they do not have ration cards. People who owned ration cards said they only received food twice during the lockdown. Even in case of e-coupons, most people did not have documents to apply for the service,” she said.

Another shelter woman Pooja Sharma demanded that the government provide food and ration for children since their education was suffering due to income problems. Sharma is also among the many who applied for a ration card.

“Officials asked for an electricity bill, gas bill, despite knowing that I am a homeless person,” she said.

Similarly, Poojakumari from Bakrola said that administrative officers had asked for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the shelter person along with other documents such as an identity card, electricity bill.

The National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) stated that labourers across the city faced similar problems. They provided videos from Kirti Nagar and Karampura where people voiced similar complaints. Testimonies stated that Kirti Nagar women went for small-time jobs in the afternoon and resorted to beggary by evening.

One of the part-time domestic workers from Akrampura Anara Devi said she held nearly 500 applications for ration cards from her area alone. Only 50 applicants received notifications of ration. Meanwhile, other women struggled to return to their jobs because people feared “think they would spread diseases.”

Following this, DRRAA member and social activist Anjali Bhawadwaj suggested a temporary Covid-19 ration card to offer some relief to underprivileged sections of society.

Member of the Aman Biradari Trust – a people’s campaign that aims to promote equal citizenship – Gufran Alam said that the organisation conducted a survey of around 4,000 people near railway areas. They discovered that three of the eight government shelters in the area had stopped functioning. The working shelters infrequently offered daliah. People preferred to visit nearby temples or gurudwaras.

“Because of the homeless status in their aadhaar card, the document only works as a voter ID. Thus the document does not help the people avail rations. These people include widows, old men whose medical treatments and pensions are given only after submission of documents. These are Indian citizens who do not have their citizen rights,” he said.

Further, transgender community members Reshma, Maharab and Reena, from Jehangirpuri, said their community faced a lot of problems after urban residents prevented them from visiting wedding or birth ceremonies where they earned their wages. They also mentioned that many people in the community did not own a ration card.

Following many such accounts, Shahri Mahila Kamgar Union member Anita Kapoor questioned the government’s inability to provide food kits during the lockdown.

“Before, schools and other institutions offered both uncooked and cooked food. Now, even the 164 people with e-coupons got one-month rations or two months at best. Underprivileged people are entitled to such amenities because they bring the government to power. The government must listen,” she said.

Kapoor also dismissed the idea that shelters are only filled to half its capacity. During lockdown places were jam-packed, she said. One person said he had to get a token if he wished to live in an old shelter.

In response, Chief Engineer of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) Sunil Kumar Mahajan said that the department had already begun efforts to provide breakfast along with lunch and dinner requirements ordered by the High Court of Delhi.

“We acknowledge the statements made by people today. We did restrict food provision in shelters for people living in those buildings to avoid complications in record-keeping. However, we will soon also add breakfast and build tents for pavement people to spend their winter. We will also make masks available. Further, we have a plan to give shelter administrations scanners to check for Covid-19 which will also help people living there,” he said.

Meanwhile, renowned journalist Pamela Philipose who attended the hearing also condemned the government for their treatment of the under-privileged while farmers were out on the streets demanding their agriculture rights. “Right to food is linked to all other aspects of a dignified life. When one of the aggrieved, Chanchal, says she used to earn more before the lockdown, we see a person’s dignity being shattered. The government of the day has to respond,” she said.

Later, senior advocate at the Supreme Court Sanjay Parikh who works with DRRAA, said that both the Delhi government and the central government had failed to enforce the Food Security Act (FSA) of 2013. Many essential bodies stipulated in the Act had not been created such as grievance redressals. Thus, people were suffering from hunger even before the pandemic. Parikh also found it ridiculous that 54 lakh people still came under the non-Public Distribution System (PDS) category.

“If ration is essential then the Delhi government should think about these things. However, even dry ration was given only in April and May. Why aren’t you [the government] frequently providing ration? You know they need ration and that they cannot afford it but still you make no amenities,” he said.

Parikh further talked about the peculiar decision of courts to make decisions regarding ration months later since right to food comes under their fundamental rights.

“Delhi government and central government should resolve not let anyone go hungry and provide food to everyone regardless of technicality. This is also dictated in FSA,” said Parikh.

Another DRRAA member Biraj Patnaik said that 15,000 ration cards were cancelled during the lockdown.

“We can see that the current economy will take a long time to recover. In such a state, it is important that the Delhi government provide, dal, oil and eggs and other basic essentials,” he said, highlighting the importance of a PDS in post-lockdown period.

Related:

NHRC issues advisories to assess Covid-19 pandemic impact

Gov’t admits that over 1 crore migrant labourers returned home on foot!

No data to check unemployment rate in last 12 months?

No data, so no compensation: Centre’s shocking revelation on migrant labourer deaths!

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Delhi is scorching under heatwave conditions with temperatures already reaching around 45 degree celsius in the last week of May 2020. Usually the hot summer months see the streets of the national capital region nearly deserted of pedestrian traffic after noon, only to build up again after sundown. But this summer things are a bit different, as people are learning to live with the coronavirus pandemic across the world, we are rediscovering a fresh crisis spilling out onto our streets. 

As the coronavirus lockdown slowly eases up, and road traffic has been building up, commuters across the city have begun noticing an increased number of people asking for food from passersby. Not money. They just want food, and if possible some milk or water. “I swear on my children didi, I have no work now, nor does my husband, we are reduced to this. I just want milk for my youngest and some food for the older kid,” says Mohini Devi who just sits near a mother dairy booth and waits for people to give her something. She doesn’t know how to beg for money, but has lost her job as a maid and needs to feed her kids, especially the younger one, a toddler who does not eat the food she collects from the volunteers. She is dressed in a clean sari, hair tied back, head covered, bindi in place and wears a cloth mask. She looks out of place and one can only wonder at the great desperation that has forced her to sit on this street corner. 

Two months of unemployment, with many middle class households not paying full wages and some are even sacking their househelp now, the situation is likely to get worse as summer intensifies.

There are many more like Mohini, are now hanging around red lights, markets, and near food distribution points where volunteers come. They are hungry and seek food and water, they do not know how to ‘beg’. So they line up, with bags to collect whatever food is being distributed that day. Some kind teenagers gave a young mother in another area some tetra packs of juice, and  biscuits at a local market, but she still waited for a bit longer hoping for someone to give her a pouch of milk for her baby, and gets up to leave quietly when that is handed over. “I will try and not come here tomorrow, doing this is so shameful but I have no option right now,” she says, almost on the verge of tears. She says she doesn’t want to be recognised as a beggar in the market near her former employers house.

Less than 10 kilometers away, on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, the line of people collecting food from the ‘Congress Rasoi’ outside the party’s Delhi State office has suddenly grown. The cooked food is running low as people are now collecting the rice, and vegetable curry for the entire family. “It is too hot to bring my old parents to  stand in line, so my friend and I come to collect food once a day for everyone,” said Amit, a young man who also hopes to get some footwear as his only slipper has begun to crack at the edge.

The nearly 60 kg of cooked food ran out in record time, and the volunteers rushed to bring out snack packets that they usually distribute to migrant labourers waiting at the New Delhi Railway station hoping to take the train home. Of course the packet is labeled with the photos of Congress leaders. But no one seems to care at the moment. Across the road is the Aam Aadmi Party office and down is the massive and posh head office of the Bharatiya Janata Party. There are no  queues there, as there is no food being distributed at those gates.

Another group is worse off near the Rajghat Crossing, they just sit under the trees and also wait. In the lockdown, the tourists who visit by the busloads during summer vacations have not come this year. On their return journey, many would give away extra food and water they carried in the buses, but not anymore. Even those officially classified as ‘beggars’ seeking alms at most city crossings are now just hoping for ready to eat food (most do not have any means to cook dry rations), drinking water, footwear and of course money if possible. More wait near the Nigambodh ghat crematorium. There are few mourners now coming to attend funerals, and even fewer donating alms and food like they once used to.

“The number of people begging on the streets of Delhi for food is extremely worrying. Haven’t seen anything like this before,” posted Journalist Manu Pubby 

The number of people begging on the streets of Delhi for food is extremely worrying.

Haven’t seen anything like this before. https://t.co/LX2kVwjhO3

— Manu Pubby (@manupubby) May 22, 2020

“We will all die this summer, I do not even have a village to go back to. I do not have any [ration/ aadhaar] card also,” said this young man who seemed to be in his 20s seeking a handout at the ITO crossing, he just grew up on the city streets and has never seen a time like this in his life. 

As veteran journalist Sheela Bhatt posted, the situation is bad across the NCR even in the posher areas, “Yesterday, I saw more than three dozen beggars between Lodhi road and Defence Colony. Many more outside Sai temple. Very worrying.”

The number of people begging on the streets of Delhi for food is extremely worrying.

Haven’t seen anything like this before. https://t.co/LX2kVwjhO3

— Manu Pubby (@manupubby) May 22, 2020

The hunger crisis has also brought out  the ugly side of the north Indian middle class. While some better off people have also helped themselves to the free food being distributed, their insensitivity has paled in comparison to the criminal ways of a crowd that was seen looting mangoes from a poor vendor.

According to an NDTV report, a mob of middle class shoppers in north Delhi’s Jagatpuri area saw some unattended crates of mangoes and looted it. They carried off the mangoes however they could in what can only be called a day time robbery. The produce belonged to the fruit seller, later identified as Chhote, who had taken a loan to restart his business as the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were eased in Delhi. NDTV reports that there was a scuffle and a group of men came here and asked Chhote to move his cart away. As he was busy negotiating the mango crates lay unguarded. That was enough to attract the scavenging mobs to begin stealing. “Riders put mangoes in their helmets. Others called out like hawkers, encouraging everyone to help themselves,” stated NDTV and the video clip of this mob attack on the vendor went viral. 

He lost stock worth Rs 30,000. “They took everything,” Chhote said. Meanwhile, both the state and Union governments are yet to recognise a possible starvation crisis unfolding across the country. 

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People in some parts of Delhi rushed to take shelter as hailstones rained down when an unexpected storm raged through the city and left a blanket of cold white pebbles. In another part of the same city real stones were pelted at the gate of municipal school now functioning as a Delhi government’s ration distribution centre, by the hungry who were disappointed that they would not get any grain that day.



According to a report in The Indian Express the ‘stone pelting’ was done by people waiting at West Delhi’s Prem Nagar municipal school when they discovered that food grain was not being distributed on Thursday. Most people who collect rations, or cooked food being distributed by the Delhi Government at different schools around the city, land up early and wait in queue for their turn. They only know the timing of the food distribution and do not have a way of getting an update in the schedule if any. And that is what supposedly happened at this school. There was a change in schedule, which according to the  school’s principal, Mahavir Gupta had been pasted on the wall. However, the hungry do not always have the inclination or energy to look out for updates. They just come, and wait in the blazing sun, or dust storm, or rain, and hope to get enough food to survive another day under the current circumstances.

“Ration distribution was not to be done today as Thursday was reserved for paperwork. We had posted a note at the gate. For the past three days,” the principal has been quoted as saying. He also told the IE that ration supplies were not available, but even the  fresh stock that came on Wednesday evening will be distributed Friday onwards. Those waiting in line however, were too agitated by then and after arguments pelted stones. The school authorities called the Police to control the situation.

The deployment of uniformed policemen at the spot must have diffused the situation quickly, as no other incidents were reported from that area. As expected the Delhi government spokesperson told the reporter that the matter will be examined and that they will “ensure appropriate supplies reach the centre immediately.”

So far, the government has provided ration to around 25 lakh people not holding PDS cards through the e-coupon system in the first round. Around 71 lakh PDS beneficiaries have also been provided their share of allotment. We will begin the second round of disbursal for non-PDS beneficiaries in the next few days.”

This is not a stray incident, things have flared up, though perhaps not to this extent, and arguments have ensued when people waiting for food discover that the supplies are not enough or have been delayed. “We have to wait for hours to get some food. I go stand in line if I do not get any savaari (fares), if I am working then I do not get this food, but I get some money to buy my next meal” said Guru, a rickshaw puller explaining his balancing act. “This food is for everyone, you should come in time and wait in line, and bring your own bartan (container),” said Seema, a housemaid who was on her way to collect cooked meals at a local government school when we met her on Friday.  

Another man, a vegetable vendor who would rather work than wait to get his ration says he does not blame the guards at the school who sometimes have to shout at the people. “Everyone is hungry. Hungry people get angry fast. My sister will wait in line for our share and I will go around the neighbourhood to sell my vegetables before I meet her after a few hours. She can then take the cart and I will wait if our turn has not come,”

Those who don’t have a ration card are using an e-coupon system, for cooked food none of these are needed, said another person waiting in line. None of those still going hungry, or walking hundreds of miles a day with children in tow, know of any politics. None know what stone pelting is. No one knows how stone pelters have been dealt with in areas such as Kashmir. They were not aware of anyone throwing stones or acting violently, but they understood why someone would do that. “The people have no choice. We live here. We have no work, no food. What to do?”

Stone pelting, and verbal protests in such cases are reactions fuelled by desperation. Ironically these are not migrant workers walking back home to other states. These are residents and workers of Delhi who have stayed on, and trusted that the local government will not let them starve.

The IE reported that more such incidents have taken place in centres at Adarsh Nagar, Mangolpuri and Sultanpuri in the past. Their report states that in some places daily coupons issued are disproportionate to the ration stock available.



In far away Madhya Pradesh, another incident of stone pelting was reported by the IE. This incident occurred in a town near the state border, according to reports a few people allegedly threw stones at policemen in frustration. Groups of  migrant workers are crossing MP to get back to their home states of Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh and other parts of India. On Thursday, reported IE,  one such group protested on the highway at Bijasan Ghat in MP’s Barwani district as they thought there were no buses available for them to travel further. Some from this group of protesters grew agitated and allegedly pelted stones at the policemen stationed there. No injuries were reported and the protest was cleared quickly, said news reports.

Here lies the big question. What will it take for the state to understand that the marginalised do not pick up a stone or a stick because they like to create trouble. They are desperate, hungry, helpless and frustrated, and risk their own security when they protest, because they know the state may take notice if its own property is at risk. Unfortunately, the state often responds by sending the police, when they should be sending urgent food supplies. 

Meanwhile, the Steering Committee of the Right to Food campaign released the following statement addressing the plight of hungry migrants.

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In an illuminating chat conducted online, eminent activist and journalist Teesta Setalvad spoke to noted Belgian born economist and social worker Jean Drèze about the food crisis that millions in India are facing due to the COVID 19 lockdown. He begins by saying that greater importance and attention needs to be given to poor people in public policy since the burden of the lockdown is unequally shared by the poor and those who are well off. He makes a case for strengthening and universalisation of PDS, especially in rural areas and urban slums. Among the other reasons he lists is the fact that only 2/3rd of Indians that too according to the 2011 population is eligible for rations. Counting the number of poor people who either do not have a ration card or are simply not eligible , hundreds of millions of Indians are stuck in this lockdown without food. This alone, he argues makes an universal PDS indispensable. 

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The five states of Punjab, Nagaland, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, along with the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar, were slapped with a fine of Rs. 5 lakh each by the Supreme Court on Monday for not complying with its directions to file affidavits on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking setting up of a state-funded Public-Private-Partnership community kitchens across the country, reported Live Law.

The bench headed by Justice N V Ramana said that those states which comply and file affidavits by tomorrow, will have to pay a fine of Rs. 1 lakh; whereas those who delay will have to pay Rs. 5 lakhs.

The PIL was filed in August last year by social activists Anun Dhawan, Ishann Dhawan and Kunjana Singh through advocates Ashima Mandla, Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi and Mandakini Singh.

The community kitchens were established by the respective states with the objective of combating hunger and the malnutrition crisis by providing nutritious food at subsidized rates to the socio-economically backward classes of society.

In their petition, the advocates had referred to Tamil Nadu’s Amma Unavagam, Rajasthan’s Annapurna Rasoi, Karnataka’s Indira Canteens, Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Canteen, Andhra Pradesh’s Anna Canteen, Jharkhand’s Mukhyamantri Dal Bhat Yojana and Odisha’s Ahaar Centre which were successfully combating malnutrition and the starvation crisis.

Appearing for the petitioner, Advocate Ashima Mandla said that 69 percent of deaths under the age of five happened due to malnutrition and it was high time the states took steps to set up community kitchens. The petitioners said that the alarming rates of hunger and malnutrition in the country were threatening the ‘Right to Food’ and thereby the ‘Right to Life’ enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. Citing a United Nations and World Health Organization report, they said that 7,000 persons (including children) die of hunger every day and over 25 lakh persons, die of hunger annually.

The petitioners also asked the SC to pass directions to the Central government to create a national food grid for persons who are not in the fold of Public Distribution Schemes due to either homelessness or non-issuance of cards that are required to avail government schemes.

Additional Solicitor General, Madhavi Divan, appearing for the Centre sought more time from the SC to file a response in the matter.

The next hearing in the case has now been scheduled for February 17, 2020.

Related:

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Talking about dire poverty in the country and living in dire poverty are two completely different things. An example of this came to light when Kerala woke up to reports of a woman whose children were found to be eating mud out of sheer hunger.

Sridevi, who lived with her six kids in a makeshift shanty of 50 sq. ft on railway land, around 3 km from the State Secretariat at Kaithamukku in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, made a distress call to the toll-free helpline of Kerala State Council for Child Welfare (KSCCW) on December 1 after she couldn’t bear the plight of her children anymore.

Reports by The Times of India say that the incident came to light when the headmistress of the government school where the eldest child is enrolled, asked him about his living conditions.

The headmistress states that the boy, aged seven, told her that their alcoholic father would physically abuse all of them, beat them and smash their heads against the wall. He spared the two youngest children who are still being breastfed. He also allegedly would throw mud into their food or leave them and their mother starving, the neighbours told TOI. However, Sridevi hasn’t spoken a word about this.

The school then promptly alerted Childline that works for the welfare of children across the country.

The KSCCW general secretary S P Deepak who visited the family found their situation shocking. He said, “The kids only had water for the past two days. One boy was seen eating mud out of hunger.”

The KSCCW then asked Sridevi if she was willing to hand over the children to them for better care and she agreed. Now, the four kids – two boys aged seven years and five years and two girls aged four and two, will be under the care of the government. The other two kids who are still being breastfed, will be provided for by the government as well.

Thiruvananthapuram Mayor K Sreekumar has offered Sridevi a temporary cleaning job at the Corporation office and a house being constructed under the Corporation’s housing scheme Life Mission, will also be provided to her and her kids. She also didn’t have a ration card, which was just provided to her by the state in a haste. In the interim, she has been shifted to the MahilaMandiram at Poojappura with her kids. Sridevi will now earn a daily wage of Rs. 650, Manorama Online reported.

Health Minister KK Shailaja told the media that all the four kids, whose medical examination will be conducted at the SAT Hospital soon, will be under the protection of the government. Many voluntary organizations have also come out in support of the family.
 

Poverty in Kerala

According to the World Bank Report of 2017, Kerala has experienced a steady decline in poverty since 1994. According to the report, after 2005, Kerala grew and reduced poverty faster than many states, but while it is home to a smaller share of the poor in the country, there are pockets within the state that have recorded a higher incidence of poverty.

According to the State Planning Board, in Kerala, factors such as land reforms, public distribution systems schemes, Kudumbashree and Planning schemes have effectively brought down poverty ratios. In 2011-12, Kerala’s poverty stood at 7.1%, second only to Goa at 5.1%.

Yet, Kerala, in the recent years has always been battered by floods and other natural calamities that has resulted in loss of lives and livelihoods. Tracking the current rate of poverty in India is difficult because there are no statistics available after 2012.

However, going by the numbers we have, it looks like Sridevi was one of the unfortunate ones bereft of the social benefits provided by the state.

Domestic Violence and violence against children in Kerala

According to a report by the National Commission of Women (NCW) 2005, almost 80% of the victims of domestic violence were in the age group of 20-40 years and only 68% of women in the 14 districts sampled had secondary / higher secondary education.

67.1% respondents did not have life savings and in 57.9% households, the family affairs were controlled by the husband. 75.4% of the husbands in the households were alcoholics and almost half, 48.7% respondents stated the ‘alcoholic nature’ of the husband as the first cause of domestic violence.

Literate Kerala has also seen an upsurge in crimes against children with the number going up from 549 in 2008 to 4,008 in 2018. (The New Indian Express). Most of these crimes have gone unreported because they have been committed by people known to the children. Though the Kerala government also put up neighbourhood vigilance schemes in 2013, they do not seem to have worked.

It is ironical that Kerala, a state that takes pride in its progress, cannot protect its children. This battle that Sridevi is fighting is not just against poverty. It is a multi-layered issue involving destitution, social benefits, violence and the security of children. She was rescued from her situation because she finally wrestled her way out of it for her children by contacting the government. But there are many others who do not have the knowledge or the means to get them out of such situations. Then, will the government of Kerala, for that matter the government of India take stock of the matter and bring the neglected into their fold before matters get worse?

Related:

Children living in extreme poverty are most vulnerable to effects of climate change
Criminal Callousness of Modi Government in Hiding Data
38% Of Indian Children Under 4–Poor And Rich Alike–Are Stunted: Study

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Children are especially vulnerable to micronutrient deficiencies. Lack of zinc in childhood leads to poor growth and stunting, vitamin A deficiency can cause night blindness and poor immunity, while iron deficiency leads to poor mental and physical development.

Nutritional supplements are one solution, but these are expensive. It would cost ‘US$5.9 billion (Rs 41,764 lakh crore) a year to deliver 14 essential nutrition interventions at full coverage across India’, says this 2016 study in the Maternal Child & Nutrition journal. Compliance is another challenge. Despite a National Nutritional Anaemia Prophylaxis Programme addressing anaemia through supplementation over the past 50 years, more than half of India’s children under five (58.6%) and women (53.1%) were anaemic in 2016, according to the ministry of health and family welfare’s National Family Health Survey, 2015-16.

Why can’t people get required nutrients from food itself, asked American economist Howarth ‘Howdy’ Bouis in the 1990s. Bouis came up with the idea of breeding seed varieties naturally high in micronutrients with high-yielding seed varieties, a concept later termed ‘biofortification’.

Bouis founded the agricultural research non-profit HarvestPlus at the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington D.C. in 2003, which developed high-yielding seed varieties of staple crops including maize, rice, millets and wheat biofortified with vitamin A, zinc and iron.
In face of initial skepticism from public health experts and scientists, Bouis worked tirelessly over decades to develop and then popularise biofortification as a solution for hidden hunger–raising funds, working with breeders to develop seed varieties, conducting research to prove efficacy and convincing governments to invest in the technology.

Each $1 invested in biofortification gives a country a return of $17, showed a 2017 review of HarvestPlus evidence from 2003 through 2016, co-authored by Bouis. Today, biofortified foods are being used by over 30 million farmers across the world, especially in Africa and Asia.

The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), run by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, has also developed over a dozen biofortified varieties of cereals, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables and fruit, said this 2017 bulletin.

ICAR also established minimum levels of iron and zinc to be bred into varieties of pearl millet (bajra, kambu), making India the first country to have such standards for millet varieties. Biofortified pearl millet, introduced into the diet of Indian adolescents, led to reduced iron deficiency and improved learning skills and mental ability, IndiaSpend reported in September 2018.

Bouis was awarded the World Food Prize in 2016 for his work in reducing hidden hunger.

“You have to persevere and keep repeating yourself,” Bouis told IndiaSpend in an interview at the ‘Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutrition’ conference in Bangkok, Thailand in November, 2018, jointly organised by IFPRI and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Edited excerpts.

What gave you the idea to develop biofortified crops?

I was attending nutrition meetings where nutritionists were saying supplements and fortified foods were needed to address vitamin A deficiency. They said taking one vitamin A capsule daily for six months would reduce child mortality by 23%. A vitamin A capsule costs a dollar. To provide 500 million tablets each year over a decade would cost $5 trillion. But people were already getting vitamin A through food, so I thought why not breed these vitamins into crops so that diet will provide enough nutrition?

I then spoke to scientists and asked if it was possible to develop both high nutrient and high yield crops. But they said no, it would be a trade-off between high yields and high nutrients.

Then I met another group of scientists who said there needn’t be such a trade-off, that it was good for plants to contain more minerals because it would be good for the plants’ own nutrition. So it [developing both high nutrition, high yield varieties] wasn’t a trade-off but was actually complementary.

If we had done that in the 1960s, we would not have all these [micronutrient] deficiencies. Back then knowledge of these deficiencies was poor.

Do you see biofortification as a support to supplementation efforts, such as India’s iron and folic acid tablet distribution programme to address anaemia? Or can biofortification replace supplementation?

It really depends on the situation. About 40% of the daily requirement of iron is being added through biofortification. If 60% of iron requirement is met through diet, then [biofortification] can take this to 100%. But if only 20% of iron requirement is met through diet, [biofortification] will take this up to 60%, in which case supplements will still be needed.

A key difference [between biofortification and supplementation] is cost. You need to invest once in breeding [to get biofortified crops]. Subsequently, you don’t have any cost. With biofortification, the cost would be the same year after year. But supplements are very expensive.

Are nutrients like iron better absorbed through food?

A lot of things determine how much iron gets absorbed by the body. The main factor is an individual’s nutrition levels. If very deficient in iron, they would absorb a lot more iron compared to an individual with adequate iron levels.

How much do you work with the Indian government and how open are they to biofortification?

We focused on trying to get three governments–China, India and Brazil–to invest in biofortification independent of HarvestPlus, and we have managed to do that now. All three governments now independently fund research on biofortified crops. It didn’t happen right away, it took many interactions, but now the Indian government has its own independently-funded biofortified research on crops. So they are enthusiastic about the potential.

Can only one nutrient per crop be fortified at a time? In future, could more than one nutrient be fortified per crop?

We didn’t want to do two nutrients at a time because it is a complicated process and it takes up to 10 years of breeding to fortify seeds with one nutrient. We had to do it one nutrient at a time.

A good example is maize. We chose vitamin A to begin with and fortified maize in 10 years. Now we have 10 years to add zinc. Latin America eats a lot of maize, but while Vitamin A deficiency is not a big problem there, zinc deficiency is. So we are developing maize varieties for Latin America that are high in zinc. What we accomplished with vitamin A biofortification for maize in Africa, we are starting to develop for Latin America.  

How many farmers are growing biofortified crops?

There are 170,000 wheat farmers growing biofortified crops in India. It is a drop in an ocean [India has 127 million cultivators], but you have to start somewhere. The mission is that 20 years from now, most wheat varieties currently being grown are biofortified and capture 75% of the market.

Are biofortified crops high in minerals yield after yield, or do farmers have to purchase biofortified seeds after every harvest?

[Biofortified seeds] are not hybrids, so can be planted from previous crops each year. This, however, can’t be done for too many years. They should be purchased every three years, as is the case with regular varieties.

In Africa, you have chosen maize for biofortification because that’s their staple crop, while in India it is rice and wheat. As diets change, will we change which foods are biofortified?

It is not so much the food staple which changes with changing dietary habits, it is other things added to the diet, if you look at what poor and rich people eat. In South India, poor and rich people alike eat rice, but they could add other things [like fruits, nuts or meat].

There is an Indian company Nirmal Seeds which is a biofortification success story. The pearl millet market differs from rice and wheat because of two things–it is not part of the food subsidy programme [Karnataka included millets in its public distribution system in 2012] and most of it is grown from hybrid seeds sold by private seed companies.

Nirmal had a particular variety which was biofortified with iron and also had a 10% higher yield. They told all of their 100,000 customers to buy this variety as it had a higher yield, and placed a logo on it showing it was high in iron. Within one or two years, 100,000 farmers were growing a high yield variety of biofortified pearl millet.

What can the Indian government do to accelerate biofortification?

Our discussions with Indian government started in 2004-05. At that time, there wasn’t much enthusiasm among scientists but we kept going year after year.

India now has a new policy that all varieties of millet have to meet a certain level of nutrition before being released in India. In many countries, you can’t release a seed variety unless it is first tested by the government for disease resistance, drought resistance and iron density above a certain level. So even a high-yielding variety with low iron levels can’t be released. India is the first country to have such standards for millets.

We want them to give highest priority to biofortification. Government needs to give an incentive [to farmers] in public interest, and they can attract the market by including biofortified produce in the food subsidy programme.

Are you satisfied with the progress that biofortification has made?

No, not at all. The mission is to capture 90% of crops grown in a country. There are now 10 million farmers using biofortified crops across the world and we want this to be 200 million farmers by 2030.

But releasing biofortified varieties in the market takes time. It takes 10 years to breed a high nutrient seed variety and 20 years to get it into the market. You have to create a pipeline of varieties year after year till it becomes the norm.

The modern seed varieties developed in the 1970s made a huge difference to yield, so farmers switched to them. But if any new seed [including biofortified varieties] offers just a 3% higher yield, it may not lead to a farmer switching. So it takes time.

It is a matter of sticking it out. You have to do that for a long time. I began raising funds in 1993 and HarvestPlus began operations in 2003. It took 10 years to get a little bit of funding for the first 10 years, but it was only enough to do experiments, not for breeding programmes. There were no private programmes. Now of course you have the hybrids in the private sector. So we work with the private seed companies. You have to have some money to get centres to try new ideas. Now we are at the point when they want to do it and donors are interested [in biofortification].

(Yadavar is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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The Right to Food Campaign requests all political parties to consider the following suggestions towards ensuring right to food for all while working on their manifestos for the General Elections 2019. We need to remember that these elections are coming at the backdrop of regular reports of starvation deaths from different parts of the country on the one hand and rural distress and farmers’ protests on the other.

While the country now has a National Food Security Act (NFSA), the recent spate of deaths shows that the Act is limited in its vision and implementation. It is currently not even able to ensure the minimum; which is that a person does not go hungry due to lack of food. The Act needs to be amended to expand its scope and also ensure that it prevents hunger (by including a section on starvation protocol) and also contributes to better nutrition status of the people (by including pulses, oil in PDS, eggs in schools and anganwadis etc.).

Along with the NFSA, it needs to be recognised the current situation of hunger is a reflection of rural distress arising out of the agrarian crisis, poor employment and livelihood opportunities, failure of various social security mechanisms and the overall macroeconomic situation. In this regard, we also make some recommendations for the manifesto beyond the changes required in the NFSA framework.

Public Distribution System
Universalisation: Currently, the NFSA is supposed to provide 67% of the population in the country with subsidised foodgrains (cereals). However, it is seen that a number of deserving households (or some members of household) are excluded in many states due to identification issues as well as the caps placed on the number of ration cards (based on 2011 Census data). In order to avoid these exclusion errors, the PDS benefits must be made universal for all residents.

Increase Foodgrains: Increase the foodgrains provided, especially millets, in the NFSA, from 5 kgs at the current prices under the Act.
Double the Antyodaya Coverage: Double the coverage of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, with priority to vulnerable groups such as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and single women, as per Supreme Court orders.

Pulses and Oil: Include dal (pulses), edible cooking oil and other nutritious foods at subsidised rates in the PDS.

Local Procurement: Procurement must be done in an increasingly local manner, promoting local varieties.

Children’s Right to Quality Nutrition
Eggs: Provide eggs 6 days a week in all schools and anganwadis and ensure midday meals are also served during school vacations.
Child Development Centres: To treat severely malnourished children, substantially increase the quantum of and support for community-based village child development centres (VDCs).

Crèches: To reduce the care work burden on women as well as to provide better nutrition, all children under six years of age must have access to a crèche/day care centre which provides trained adult supervision, child development activities, adequate nutrition and link to health services. The crèche access will need to be provided through multiple models including workplace crèches, anganwadi-cum-crèches and so on. Twenty-five percent of anganwadi centres should be converted to anganwadi-cum-crèches and should be operational for 8 hours.

ICDS and Mid-day Meals: The diet under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and mid-day meals should be enhanced through the use of millets, animal products like eggs, milk, yogurt, and meat (for those who eat it), and other locally available foods. Menus must be decided primarily in consultation with the community.

Universalisation with quality and equity of ICDS is required to protect the rights of all young children, pregnant and lactating women and adolescent girls. All children in India must have access to the full range of anganwadi services. In addition to improving coverage, several steps should be taken to improve ICDS quality and infrastructure.

Coverage of ICDS: Along with dalits, tribals, minorities, disabled children; special efforts must be made to also cover children of PVTGs and migrants through different models. There must be greater decentralisation and flexibility in ICDS with local consultation to decide timings of Anganwadi Centres, menus etc.

Care Work as Decent Work: All workers providing care work, such as Anganwadi Workers and Helpers, ASHAs, should be provided with at least the minimum wage and a decent working conditions.

Mid-Day Meal should be extended to all children up to class XII. Local farmers and self-help groups should be given an opportunity to sell food items directly to schools for Mid-Day Meals where possible, as a means to stimulate the local economy.

Stop the systematic budget cuts and privatisation of services food and nutrition programmes of the government like ICDS, Mid-Day Meal etc.
Ban private contractors in all public feeding/food distribution programmes such as the ICDS, Mid-Day Meals and PDS.

Kitchen Gardens: Organic kitchen gardens must be promoted in schools and anganwadis to improve the nutrient content of the meals served in these institutions.

For Pregnant and Lactating Women
Community Meals: Provide free, hot and cooked nutritious midday meals for pregnant women, lactating mothers, homeless persons and the elderly in anganwadi centres (similar to programs introduced in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).

Maternity Entitlements under NFSA: The NFSA provides an entitlement of at least ₹6,000 for all pregnant and lactating mothers. The scheme to implement this currently is applicable only to the first birth, and entitles only ₹5,000. The scheme must be amended to ensure that there are no such conditionalities and all women are included. The amount of benefit must be increased (for example, it is ₹16,000 in Madhya Pradesh and ₹18,000 in Tamil Nadu). It must also be ensured that the instalments are paid without any delays.

Universal Maternity Entitlements: The Maternity Benefit Act currently covers only women in the organised sector. Women do paid and unpaid work at multiple sites simultaneously such as farms, forests, worksites, factories, markets, and home. Legal, programmatic and institutional provisions must be made to ensure maternity entitlements that is equivalent to at least minimum wages at prevalent rates for nine months for all women.

Special Packages
Community Kitchens in urban areas: Start subsidized community kitchens in all cities, towns and block headquarters (like Tamil Nadu’s Amma Canteens) and also in hamlets with high tribal populations.

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups: Acknowledging the crisis of hunger and malnutrition amongst PVTGs, provide all the 75 identified PVTGs nationwide with doorstep delivery of a special free nutritional package (similar to the one provided to Rajasthan’s Sahariyas of 35 kg foodgrain, 2 kg of dal, 2 kg cooking oil and 1 kg of ghee every month along with monthly social pensions as introduced in Jharkhand).

Social Security Pensions
Universal Pensions: Provide unconditional universal social security pensions to all elderly above 60 years, differently-abled persons, single women and other vulnerable communities such as transgender persons (as initiated in Tamil Nadu) and PVTGs (as initiated in Jharkhand).
Increase Pensions: Increase the amount for social security pensions from monthly ₹200 to at least ₹3,000 or half the minimum wages (whichever is higher) and ensure that they are inflation-indexed.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Double NREGA: Double the annual guarantee from 100 to 200 workdays per household.

Living wages: Index NREGA wage rates to Consumer Price Index Rural Labourers and ensure that they are not less than the minimum agricultural wage rates in all states.

Timely Payment: Ensure strict timely payment of wages within a fortnight, unemployment allowance to those who are not allotted work and compensation for delayed payment in accordance with the Act.

Urban Employment Guarantee Act: Enshrine and implement a National Urban Employment Guarantee Act (as implemented as a programme in Tripura) with a guarantee of at least 100 days per household for both unskilled and skilled jobs, suitable for urban contexts.

Right to Food Choice
Beef Ban: Remove bans on slaughter of cows on religious and other grounds.

Social Accountability
Grievance Redressal: Appoint State Food Commissions, District Grievance Redressal Officers and Vigilance Committees in all states, districts, blocks and fair-price shops and also ensure a mechanism so that social audits are regularly conducted for all food schemes.

Right to Information: Do not amend the Right to Information Act, but instead strength the state information commissions, appoint Information Commissioners, Lokpals and Lokayuktas and implement the penalty provisions of these laws.

Whistleblower protection law: Implement whistleblowers protection Act and create a conductive environment wherein people have easy access to information.

Agriculture
Minimum Support Price: Enact the Bill for Farmers’ Right to Guaranteed Remunerative Minimum Support Price pending in both houses of Parliament.

Land Reforms: Implement redistributive land reforms and stop forcible land acquisition.

Minimum Wages: Secure minimum wage of not less than Rs 18000 per month for all workers.

Encourage food production: Encourage food production through sustainable and equitable means, and ensure adequate food availability in all locations at all time.

World Trade Organization: Make sure that India does not agree to any restrictions imposed by the World Trade Organization on public stockholdings and press for re-negotiating the agreements in relation to agricultural subsidies in favour of developing countries.

Sustainable Farming: India should discontinue pesticides banned by other countries and over the next five years should completely phase out all synthetic pesticides. Fertilizer subsidies should be reduced and investment should instead be made in organic agriculture. There should be a total ban on genetically modified crops and other foods.

Right to livelihoods resources of the marginalised people
Safeguard land rights of adivasis by strong implementation the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006; appoint people’s representative at the district and block level with immediate effect.

Protect dalits from forceful evictions, allocate specially reserved land to the landless dalits, and create fast track courts for speedy resolution of land disputes.

Implement with letter and spirit The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
 
Technology and Welfare
Prevent Aadhaar Exclusions: Ensure that no one is excluded because of Aadhaar to avail of their social security entitlements especially rations, pensions and NREGA – delink Aadhaar from all social welfare schemes.

Aadhaar: Delink Aadhaar from and amend Section 7 of the Act to ensure that Aadhaar is not made mandatory to avail of any social security entitlements including rations, pensions, schools and others

Technology should ensure welfares of people and not exclusion, marginalisation and pain.

Management Information System data should be accessible to people and should be in public domain.

Courtesy: Counterview.org
 

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New Delhi: The Right To Food Campaign (RTF) organized a protest at Krishi Bhavan in New Delhi on Monday against the government’s refusal to take any action against hunger deaths that have occurred in the country. The death toll of these hunger deaths has reportedly reached 65.
 
Of the 56 hunger deaths compiled by the team from 2015 to 2018, 42 deaths have been reported between 2017 and 18. Most of these victims are from the disadvantaged groups such as Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims and a majority of these deaths are from two states – Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.
 
These deaths are never called starvation deaths. Many people and even the Government refuse to believe in starvation deaths. Nevertheless, the fact remains that 19 crore people sleep on a hungry stomach in India, which explains why India ranks 100th out of the 119 countries in the global hunger Index.
 
Across India, over 50 people have died due to starvation-related deaths in the past four years, mostly after their ration cards were cancelled when they were not linked with Aadhar, as per the data released by two Right to Food Activists.
 
In 2017, The Jharkhand government patted their backs with a full-page ad for saving Rs. 225 crores and 86 crores by cancelling ‘Fake’ Aadhaar cards and old age pensions. They ended up depriving the poorest of poor of necessary food which has since resulted in many starvation deaths in the state. Access to the Public Distribution System is abysmal and Aadhaar based biometric machines constantly fail, often leading to poor Indians dying of hunger.
 
RTF has released many fact-finding reports with annexures which delve into the complexities of the failure of the state government in providing the right to life to its residents. It details shocking negligence and corruption to deny basic human rights to the most marginalised.
 
Documentation by RTF reveals more:
 
Starvation deaths in the country
 
West Bengal
In mid – November, media reported the death of seven people from starvation. All of them belonged to the Sabar community, in Jungle Mahal area of Jhargram district of West Bengal. Sabar community is an ethnic tribe, mainly found in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. Right to Food and Work Campaign team from West Bengal visited the villages for fact-finding. Click here to read the fact-finding report and annexure.

Days after the news appeared in the media, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refuted the reports as fabricated saying the deaths either resulted from age-related ailments or excessive liquor consumption. She said that the Government was providing food grains to every poor person.
 
Jharkhand
At least 17 people died of starvation in Jharkhand since 28 September 2017. The most recent victim is a 45-year-old Kaleshwar Soren who died of hunger and destitution on November 11 in Mahuatant village of Jama block of Dumka district of Jharkhand. A fact-finding team of the Right to Food Campaign, Jharkhand, found that Kaleshwar’s family’s ration card was cancelled as it was not linked with Aadhaar.
 
Kaleshwar’s death comes close on the heels of the deaths of Moti Yadav of Margomunda block (Deoghar) on 1 November and Seeta Devi of Basia block (Gumla) on 25 October. Moti Yadav, visually impaired, died of destitution. He did not get disability pension despite applying for it. 75-year-old Seeta Devi, who lived alone, starved to death as she did not have any food or cash at home before her death. Even though she had a ration card, due to illness, she could not go to the ration shop in October to authenticate her identity. She was also denied old age pension as her bank account was not linked with Aadhaar.
 
Out of these 17 hunger deaths, at least seven victims were eligible for social security pension but were either not issued a pension or did not receive their pension due to administrative lapses or Aadhaar-related issues. Not to mention the children of these families, with poor education, negligible access to health services and employment, are staring at a bleak future. Right to Food Campaign, Jharkhand has issued a statement about this.
 
The deceased in Jharkhand did not get the ration promised under the public distribution scheme (PDS) and Antodyay Anna Yojana (AAY).
 
All these deaths took place after the Jharkhand government cancelled 11.6 lakh ration cards claiming that these were bogus as they were not linked to Aadhaar by their holders. The information of these cancellations was provided by the state secretary of food and civic supply Vinay Chaubey.
 
Statement on Aadhaar can be found here [English version] [Hindi version].

Media Coverage of the statement: The Wire [Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar], Counterview, Times of India, News Click, EPW, The Wire [Abinash]
  
Discussion on Manifesto for 2019 elections
 
Madhya Pradesh: Right to Food Campaign prepared a manifesto and is submitting to all the political parties, which is focused on Maternity Entitlement, ICDS, nutrition, diversity in the nutrition, Public Distribution System, provision of proteins and fats in the National Food Security Act, community-based management policy of nutrition and Social Audit. Indian National Congress Manifesto (MP) says they will provide 90 days wages or Rs. 21000, whichever is less, as maternity entitlements to all unorganized sector families.
 
Bihar: On the Constitution Day (November 26) Right to Food Campaign (Bihar) jointly with other organizations set up a one-day discussion on the manifesto for 2019 elections. Their demand includes demands for Right to Food, Pension, Right to Education, Justice for all, and preventing communalism. They have also demanded actions to save the environment, prevent distress migration of people, land reforms, employment guarantee, homeless etc. in the manifesto along with Government accountability on each of these issues.. Full manifesto can be found here.
 
Statement on Aadhaar
Hundreds of members of various campaigns said they were “extremely disappointed” with the Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, “which allows the state to make the use of Aadhaar and biometric authentication mandatory for citizens to receive social benefits.”
 
A joint statement issued by various groups said “the mandatory use of Aadhaar may amount to an emergency. That is why we call upon people to come together to pressurize all parties to amend the Aadhaar Act immediately so that the mandatory use of Aadhaar for accessing basic entitlements is completely prohibited.” They also said they would make Aadhaar an “electoral issue.” Click here to read the full statement.
 
Media coverage on Aadhaar statement
The Hindu, Business Standard, News Click, Outlook India, Daily Hunt, AajkiKhabar, Social News,  Web India, 
 
Letter for Politicians
Right to Food Campaign Secretariat sent a letter to all politicians on the issue of hunger to request to raise their voice in the Parliament on behalf of those who are hungry and malnourished. There is a silent emergency in the country with about 45 reported hunger-related deaths in the past one year from different states. These deaths are a reflection of the grave situation of hunger and distress in many parts of the country and we must act urgently to ensure that not a single person succumbs to hunger anymore.  
 
“More children under the age of five die in India than anywhere else in the world. A recent estimate puts this figure at over 1.5 million children a year—over 4,500 child deaths a day. A third of these could have been averted if children did not go to bed hungry night after night. These figures suggest that over 3,00,000 children die every year in India because of hunger. And for many children who escape death, the poverty of their parents means that hunger remains an unremitting part of their lives. Hunger does not stunt only the body, it also affects the brain. The result: An entire generation of children born into poverty with stunted intellectual development which traps them in the same poverty their parents lived with. A state of poverty which will ultimately kill them well before their fellow citizens who did not go hungry during childhood.” wrote Vikram Patel, a Pershing Square Professor of Global Health at Harvard Medical School and affiliated with the Public Health Foundation of India and Sangath.
 
IndiaSpend spoke to medical experts and social activists and found that the government response does not take into account two factors involving the links between malnutrition and starvation:
 
1.Medically, these deaths are most likely due to infections and diseases. But prolonged malnutrition undermines the immune system, making the body prone to life-threatening infections;
 
2.Starvation deaths are caused by a circle of poverty, government apathy and mandatory Aadhaar-ration-card integration, the lack of which deprives poor citizens of foodgrain they are entitled to under government schemes. Over a period of time, this results in malnutrition and death.
 
(With inputs from past Sabrang articles on starvation deaths)
 
Read Also:
In A UP District, Death From Hunger, As Governance, Social Security Collapse
Did Aadhaar Glitches Cause Half Of 14 Recent Jharkhand Starvation Deaths?
Sordid tale of starvation: How govt negligence caused deaths by hunger in Jharkhand
Indian Children Suffer from Infant Starvation and hunger
 

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Mother and child at nutrition rehabilitation centre in Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh. 50.9% of children under 5 are stunted in Chitrakoot as compared to 38.4% nationally.

India is not on track to achieve any of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) nine nutrition goals–reduce child overweight, wasting and stunting, diabetes among women and men, anaemia in women of reproductive age and obesity among women and men, and increase exclusive breastfeeding–by 2025, says the report.

The nine goals were adopted by WHO member countries in 2012 and 2013 to reduce all forms of malnutrition by 2025.

The fifth such report, compiled by GNR’s Independent Expert Group comprising academics, researchers and government representatives, was released at the ‘Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutrition’ conference in Bangkok, Thailand on November 29, 2018. The conference was jointly organised by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

India has shown improvement in reducing child stunting but with 46.6 million stunted children, according to the report, the country is home to over 30.9% of all stunted children under five–the highest in the world.

India, however, has shown no progress or declining parameters related to six other global nutrition goals (information on two goals is not available).  
Only 94 of 194 countries are on track to achieve at least one of the nine global nutrition targets, says the report. “While [globally] there has been progress in reduction of stunting, there has been slow reduction of anaemia and underweight in women while overweight and obesity is getting worse,” said Corinna Hawkes, co-chair of the report and Director of the Centre for Food Policy, at the release of the report.

India reduces numbers of undernourished, but still bears 23.8% of the global burden of malnourishment
India had 195.9 million undernourished people–or people with chronic nutritional deficiency–in 2015-17, down from 204.1 million in 2005-07, according to FAO data. The prevalence of undernourishment has also gone down from 20.7% in 2005-07 to 14.8% in 2015-17.

India, however, still accounts for 23.8% of the global burden of malnourishment, and has the second-highest estimated number of undernourished people in the world after China, according to FAO.

In 2015, all WHO members including India adopted the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which include achieving zero hunger–or zero undernourished population–by 2030.

IndiaSpend’s analysis shows that to achieve zero hunger by 2030, India will have to lift 48,370 people out of hunger everyday. India’s reduction in undernourished population from 2015 to 2017 was 3.9 million, which is about 10,685 people per day–less than one-fourth needed to meet the target by 2030. Even at its highest reduction of undernourished population–15.2 million in 2006-2008–India could lift only 41,644 people per day out of hunger.

Globally, hunger is rising
With almost 821 million people malnourished in 2017–up from 804 million in 2016 and equal to levels eight years ago–the goal of ending global malnutrition is under threat, said FAO and IFPRI at a joint press conference on November 27, 2018, in Bangkok.

“This is the third consecutive year that progress in ending hunger has stalled and now has actually reversed,” said Shenggen Fan, Director General, IFPRI.

While Africa has the highest number of people with undernourishment–21% of the total population–the situation in South America is also worsening, while the decreasing trend in Asia has slowed down, according to FAO’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report, 2018.
Conflict, climate change and economic slowdown were the main causes for the increasing global trend of undernourishment, said the FAO report.

“Business as usual cannot be the way to go,” said Kostas Stamoulis, FAO Assistant Director-General, at the press conference. “There are only 12 years to achieve the target of zero hunger (by 2030) and it will mean lifting 185,000 people out of hunger every day, which is why we have to go faster,” said Stamoulis.

India’s many challenges in reducing malnutrition
Malnutrition was the top cause of death and disability in India in 2017, followed by dietary risks including poor diet choices, according to the 2017 Global Burden of Disease study by the University of Washington. Obesity and overweight increased by 9.6 and 8 percentage points in men and women, respectively, in 2015-16 compared to a decade ago, while non-communicable diseases were responsible for 61% of all deaths in 2016.

One of the earliest interventions to prevent malnutrition and disease in children is breast feeding; yet, only 54.9% of Indian babies are exclusively breastfed and only 41.6% of babies are breastfed in the first hour of birth, according to the ministry of health and family welfare’s National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16). Further, less than 10% of children receive adequate nutrition in the country, said the survey.

Also, while India is slated to become the third largest market for packaged food by 2020, only 12% of beverages and 16% of foods sold by nine leading Indian food and beverage companies were of “high nutritional quality”, according to the Access to Nutrition Index India Spotlight, 2016.

India has made efforts to counter the trend of slowing decline in malnutrition rates. The Poshan Abhiyan–National Nutrition Mission–aimed at reducing malnutrition in women and children was launched in March 2018. India also became one of 59 countries to impose a sugar tax on sweetened beverages, according to GNR 2018. The Goods and Services Tax on soft drinks was increased from 32% to 40% in 2017.

However, to speed up progress on both reducing all forms of malnutrition by 2025 and achieving zero hunger by 2030, India can learn from successes elsewhere.

Lessons from Bangladesh, Brazil and China
A combination of public policies, agricultural research and economic growth has led to reduction in malnutrition in several countries. The GNR 2018 cited progress made by China, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Brazil in reducing hunger and malnutrition. “Those successes hold important lessons for the places currently struggling to make significant progress,” said Fan.

Bangladesh has seen the fastest reduction in child underweight and stunting in history. Stunting in children under five, which was 55.5% in 2004, has been reduced to 36.1% in 2014, “largely by using innovative public policies to improve agriculture and nutrition”, said a statement by IFPRI and FAO. While agriculture growth was spurred by supportive policies, other policies such as family planning, stronger health services, growing school attendance, access to drinking water and sanitation and women’s empowerment also played a role.  

In China, it was high economic growth (per capita income rose from $5,060 in 2005 to $16,760 in 2017) that lifted millions out of both hunger and poverty.

Brazil and Ethiopia transformed their food systems and diminished the threat of hunger through targeted investments in agricultural research and development and social protection programmes, according to FAO.

“Starting in the mid-1980s and continuing over two decades, crop production in Brazil grew by 77% and that–combined with the country’s Fome Zero programme [Zero Hunger], established in 2003 to provide beneficiaries a wide range of social services–saw hunger and undernutrition nearly eradicated in just ten years,” said the statement.

(Yadavar is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

The IFPRI sponsored Yadavar’s trip to attend a media workshop and the ‘Accelerating The End of Hunger and Malnutrition’ conference at Bangkok.
 

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