How to tackle India’s hunger

May God speed the day when all Nations have enough food!!!

Posted On 7/3/2009 4:30:15 PM

The article "How to tackle India's hunger? prompts me to say that India's hunger can be tackled very easily. I think before writing an article, the writer should tell a few questions: Q.No.1, In which village of India, the writer has noticed "hunger"? Can the writer disclose names and addresses of at least 10 such villages in the States of Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, J&K, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh? If yes, please provide the infomation as requested. Q.No. 2. If the writer really wants to solve the problem, he should tell very clearly "what kind or what meal is required to be given to a man suffering from hunger" like 10 chapatis or 250 gram of boiled rice, three subzis, one plate of salad, one Misthan? Unfortunately, ordinary people like me do not understand the language of eminent authors like the writer - they use some technical words like calories which are not understood at all and I do not understand why authors of hunger reports do not tell the answer of a question when it is put with full respect to authors and writers. Even international organisations which are experts on thesubject of hunger, do not reply emails sent to them. Their reply is "we will revert back to you...." Itappears that international organisations and authors are great only in writing articles on hunger in Inda but they prefer not to answer simple questions. After all even on subject like hunger authors adopt shameless attitude. To me it appears that articles on hunger in India are being got written by ghost writers only to defame India.

Posted On 7/3/2009 9:51:07 PM

India's position on social indicators of food security and nutrition is shameful by all standards, and it is imperative to put all political commitment behind this landmark legislation. By doing this and putting political will behind strengthening governance and accountability mechanisms, the UPA government has the opportunity to truly lay the foundation for eliminating chronic hunger and deprivation. As we know from the Thailand Experience, doing the basics well can lead to massive social benefits, and improvements in nutritional indices- quickly!

Posted On 7/4/2009 1:25:36 AM

The proposed law can have a huge impact on people's life across India, and I appreciate the author’s effort to learn from international contexts. As he mentioned, there has been a rapid change in the approach to the right to food internationally, and India has taken important steps in this regard. I appreciated reading about the efforts taken in other developing countries. I think these good examples can be expanded up by looking at entitlement programmes that address the right to food without mentioning it directly. For example, though there is no direct mention of the right to food in the US constitution or any federal law there are far reaching entitlement programmes including Food Stamps, WIC programme (Women Infant & Children) and school feeding. These programmes are based on explicitly specified criteria (though complex and confusing at times) and anyone who matches the criteria is eligible for such support. Those who match the criteria but are denied it can get legal protection as well. We in India often tend to mistake a lot of developed countries to be “market economies” where there is little support to ideas like the right to food. On the contrary, every “rich democracy” (to use Harold Wilensky’s term) has provides income support, social security, unemployment allowance, free education, health, etc. Though a programme like income support does not directly arise from the right to food, it guarantees it. I feel that looking at how these are organised can give us further insights in what kind of systems we should have in India.

Posted On 7/5/2009 2:27:00 AM

I congratulate the writer for highlighting the issue of food insecurity in India and the much needed food security act at a very important time to sensitise the policy makers. As it is enshrined in article 21 and 47 of the constituion of right to life and state responsibility of raising the nutrition and standard of living, the right to food act shall go a long way in ensuring the availability of food to all citizens of the country. As it has been experienced with regard to other legislations and acts, it is of paramount importance to develop a fool proof implementation framework to see that not a single person is spared from the ambit of the provisions and scope of corruption etc is minimised ( most food programmes suffer from the corruption)

Posted On 7/9/2009 11:31:44 AM

just not say it but do it then only u can get the results , simply writing an article and commenting to not make any sense to our nation or it does not make any change in gov or in the world.u should means highly educated person should think about that and should speak up,then it can make sense to this world. but truly i want to say to the writer that after reading the full article my question still exist that how we will remove this poverty from our country ??? i think its because of corruption every where. firstly our duty is to remove corruption from every where ,why it is corruption ,then i don't know but , think about it then speak up .

Posted On 9/23/2009 8:46:58 PM