Hunger Pangs:

January 16/2012: One out of every five people in this country is going to bed hungry. That adds up to a figure of 230 million, which is a humongous number for a country with a population of 1.2 billion. This finding, based on studies conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute, is damning enough for anyone even remotely concerned with the issue of hunger and poverty to get her/his conscience pricked. Coming as it does soon after the release of a report containing shockers about the extent of malnutrition and under-nourishment among children in India, this one about hunger pangs is even more devastating. Juxtaposed with the extremely high levels of malnutrition among children below five years of age and the fact that 72 per cent of infants in our country are anaemic, the picture that emerges is kind of similar to that of the Sub-Saharan region, believed by many to be an area that is ultimate in poverty. In a country where we harp so much on freedom and liberty, the poor is almost taken for granted without realizing that on empty stomachs, words and clichés become meaningless. We are on the threshold of the Twelfth Five Year Plan. Yet, more than six decades after Independence the stark reality is that the poor is getting cornered since the ‘fruits’ of the so-called Plans, development and globalization never reached them.

 In this country’s formative years, soon after Independence, poverty was sought to be explained away by successive Governments as a necessary adjunct of development pangs. The poor and the illiterate, for whom the high sounding terms and jargon were alien, somehow reposed their karmic faith in the system. However even after having waited patiently for more than six decades, they still find no redemption and solace in their lives. Poverty has taken a virulent form for teeming millions in other countries like South Africa as well as in many nations of South America and Asia. That it has not become a social unrest problem in India yet is no reason for our rulers and legislators to take it easy and allow things to slide as is happening now. It is ironical that when we seem to have apparently everything at our disposal to qualify for a prosperous nation, we have not been able to eradicate poverty. The numerous poverty alleviation programs of the present Government are as much a grand failure as those initiated and pursued by the dispensation when Indira Gandhi was at the helm of affairs or, for that matter, anyone else such as Jawaharlal or Atal Behari. In either case, the blame is laid on the doors of poor implementation and leakages. Somehow, those who run this country seem to be preoccupied with issues that really do not concern the poor and the weaker sections of society.

The government is more concerned and proactive, even promising to contribute millions of dollars, to bail out the eurozone tottering under the weight of serious financial crises than coming up with tangible solutions to pull the languishing farm sector out of its present morass. This sector is still the largest employer in India. God alone knows why our administrators are so keen on going the US way and urbanize this country when we can not handle our present urban areas effectively. Also, in the name of reforms, the Government is in a haste to change the contours of economic development that would further deal a body blow to the poor and the marginalized. Those who believe malls, foreign retail chains and multiplexes shall enrich us are certainly living in a fool’s paradise. If they are allowed to have their way, the money bags behind such moves will be doing so clearly with the sole motive of personal profit, not with an intention of helping the lowest person in the economic ladder. All other things for these East India Company clones in disguise are secondary. Lest it be misconstrued, we wish to add we are not against change per se. What we yearn for and advocate is `inclusive growth’ and change for the better where every section, irrespective of social strata and economic background, gets a chance to reap the benefits. This is indeed a difficult task. It needs to be handled at very many intersections. One of the most important amongst the many is the bursting-at-its-seams population.

With close to 70 per cent of the people depending on agriculture for a living, it is all the more necessary that we strengthen and transform this sector. Even as the sector has been crying for attention for years, the policy makers of our country do not deem fit to focus on it. It is a sad commentary that even law makers of this country consider agriculture as mundane and something that deals only with the hoi polloi. When Rajya Sabha took up for discussion the topic of agriculture last month, there were not many members present in the House, reflecting the sad state of affairs in a sector that should actually be hogging all the attention it deserves. The recently introduced but not yet passed Food Security Bill will become another exercise in futility unless the Government moves forward to redeem its pledge by consciously formulating a policy to ensure that no one in this country starves. That is a Herculean task, and if the establishment succeeds in this endeavor, half the problems of our country and its people would sort themselves out. To insure food for all Indians, only a check on the population growth will not suffice. It will have to be supplemented with larger investments in irrigation, water storage, water harvesting, proper localization of farm inputs and subsidies for farm equipment, natural fertilizers and pesticides along with proper procurement procedures and pricing systems.

 Any pushback on these essentials would not only imply a total disaster of the Food Security law alone. It would, in reality, throw many more millions into the ranks of the hungry and lead India on the path of anarchy. Let no one forget that no country, however mighty it may pretend to be, can suppress the voice of the hungry, poor and downtrodden forever.