Still too hungry

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Still too hungry

Friday, 18 October 2019 | Pioneer

Still too hungry

India has slipped from the 95th to the 102nd rank behind neighbours on a global index of nutrition

Digest this! According to estimates by the United Nations Development Programme, nearly 40 per cent of the food produced in India is wasted or lost and this costs the country one lakh crore rupees every year. And, yet, according to the Global Hunger Index (GHI), that measures the level of hunger and under-nutrition worldwide, India has slipped from the 95th rank in 2010 to the 102nd in 2019, behind its neighbours Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The four indicators for the index are undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. Alarmingly over one in every five children in India is “wasted” (low weight for height), the highest for any country. This damning report is full of irony as from being an importer of food in the 1960s, when India had to rely on shipments from the US, today the country has become the largest exporter of rice in the world. We are the second-largest producer of both rice and wheat. Between 2012 and 2015, three years, India exported 63 million tonnes of grains. Besides, now we have a smart buffering capacity to deal with shortages and crisis. Why then are we slipping on hunger targets?

First, we need to adopt better strategies for storage and avoid rotting. Latest data shows 4,135.224 metric tonnes of foodgrains were wasted. We could learn from advance food strategies of China, which has invested in state-of-the-art storage facilities. We need to curb food wastage at every level, right from harvesting, transporting, processing, packaging to consuming that is caused due to the loopholes in the transport and infrastructure system. Plus, we have the archaic public distribution system to blame for the inadequate and patchy supplies. Many times, even those who are the right candidates for the food subsidy are excluded on the basis of differential BPL (Below Poverty Line) status as the criteria for identifying a household is arbitrary and varies from State to State. Undoubtedly, several  nutrition schemes are in operation but aren’t properly implemented. For instance, in Bihar and Odisha, where the poverty ratio is very high, poor implementation of the Mid Day Meal Scheme has a major impact on food security. After 2024 we will have the largest population on this planet. The average household spends 40 to 45 per cent of its budget on food. So, for the next 30 years, the demand for food will spiral. If nothing is done at the policy level in terms of coordination and rationalisation, we will continue to hang our heads in shame and never be able to shed the tag of a nation with starving millions.

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