• UGI USER
  • Mar 16, 2023
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Hunger issue, its Causes and India’s effort

The issue of Hunger

  • Today, around 828 million people worldwide do not have enough to eat, and over 50 million people are facing severe hunger.
  • The Hunger Hotspots Outlook (2022-23) — a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization` of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) — forebodes escalating hunger, as over 205 million people across 45 countries will need emergency food assistance to survive.
  • Globally, food and nutrition security continue to be undermined by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, spiralling food inflation, conflict, and inequality.
  • Nutrition and agricultural production are not only impacted by climate change but also linked to environmental sustainability.
  • Soil degradation by the excessive use of chemicals, non-judicious water use leading to declining nutritional value of food products.

India’s Efforts

  • India’s food safety nets collectively reach over a billion people. One of India’s greatest contributions to equity in food is its
    • National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 which anchors the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)
    • PM POSHAN scheme
    • Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
  • The Government continues to take various measures to improve these programmes with digitization and measures such as rice fortification, better health, and sanitation.
  • Food safety nets and inclusion are linked with public procurement and buffer stock policy — visible during the global food crisis (2008-12) and the COVID-19 pandemic fallout, whereby vulnerable and marginalised families in India continued to be buffered by the TPDS which became a lifeline.
  • An IMF report titled ‘Pandemic, Poverty, and Inequality: Evidence from India’ asserted that ‘extreme poverty was maintained below 1% in 2020 due to the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).

Way Forward

  • Recent climate shocks have raised concerns about India’s wheat and rice production over the next year. Therefore, it is important to place a greater focus on climate adaptation and resilience building.
  • Agri-food systems will need to provide for and sustainably support an increasing population. There is increased recognition to move away from conventional input-intensive agriculture towards more inclusive, effective, and sustainable agri-food systems that would facilitate better production

 

Global Hunger Index

●     The GHI, is a peer-reviewed annual report that comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels

●     Authors of the report primarily refer to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) that endeavours to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2030.

●     The GHI score is computed using four broad indicators —

○     Undernourishment (measure of the proportion of the population facing chronic deficiency of dietary energy intake)

○     Child stunting (low height for age)

○     Child wasting(low weight for height)

○     Child mortality(death of a child under the age of five)

●     India ranked 107 among 121 countries. India was accorded a score of 29.1 out of 100 (with 0 representing no hunger), placing it behind Sri Lanka (66), Myanmar (71), Nepal (81) and Bangladesh (84). It referred to the index as an erroneous measure of hunger.

 

Practice Question

1.    What is the Global Hunger Index? What are the steps taken by government to solve the issue?