Tale of Two Evils : Hunger & Malnutrition

Hunger and malnutrition two evils of the society engulfing  the progeny of human being and its future , on one side hunger with mouth wide open eating out the ears from the lives of poor people and on the other side malnutrition with the health of all the poor who cannot afford fortified food .we cannot afford to win the war over one evil to lose another.

According to national sample survey the percentage of people claiming to be hungry has fallen steadily from 15% in 1983 to below 3% in 2004-2005.

The number of hungry people in India has increased by 65 million — more than the population of France . it means we already added a new France in one and half decade ! What if it is full of hungry people !

In a report titled ‘Growing a better future’, it said today that India’s economy doubled in size from 1990 to 2005 , but the number of hungry in the country had risen by 65 million during the period and if we compare this rising numbers of hungry people with agriculture growth since 1990 it is halved and is going to decline more , due to poor agriculture practices happening in the country where more and more farmers are turning to industries for there livelihood.

The biggest contributor for creation of these two evils is corruption which is deeply rooted in the Indian systems, weather is  it a  Public distribution system , FCI, Mid day meal schemes , the food is not reaching the end beneficiary as it needs to be.

We need cross sector partnerships running on PPP model , we need more and more contribution from corporate sector and communities to come on a single platform to provide fortefied food to the hungry population . As the major chunk of money lies in the hand of few Indians who belong to the multi billionaire club.Wealth of 36 families amount to $ 191 Billion , we need those billionaires to shower at least a percent of there wealth to feed the hungry at least two meals a day to save not only his future but the future of country.

If the malnourished in india formed a country it would be the world’s fifth largest almost the size of Indonesia . First we need to provide at least food to the hungry to remove hunger and then need a process to implement to gather information regarding the actual nutrition content for the average Indian citizen that he needs to sustain in this urbanized and changing world, then only we can define the nutrition content in our fortified food and can define a scale according to which we can distribute and provide the actual content food that is required. The survey to know the nutritional content should need to be done according to the regions and areas , because India is a continent in itself and every region from Kashmir to kanyakumari, Mizoram to Jaisalmer every region and people have different eating habits ,then only we can make  our generation healthier, stronger and wealthier.

We need to fight hand in hand to curb the  two evils of society ie “Hunger and Malnutrition”.