World Hunger Report 2010 Calls India Situation "Alarming"

[StingRoy]

There have been protest rallies in the heart of Delhi, as the Indian parliament prepares to debate a new Food Security Bill. It will dictate how many people in the country get access to massively subsidised food grain.

... the poverty line feels like a rather fictitious divide because feeding more than a billion people is a massive logistical exercise. Vast quantities of food provided by the state go missing every day because of corruption and theft.

"But what worries me at times is that we're being too glib and quick about the delivery mechanism."

Official estimates are that right across the country 75% of subsidised grain does not make it to the intended target in villages like Ganne.

In other words, the delivery system needs to be reformed as well - and corrupt local officials need to be taken to task. There is a long way to go.

This article speaks about the food grains and the govt subsidy programs linked to them. From a govt point of view all the subsidy system is focused around food grains as I mentioned before in my earlier posts. They may be able to meet the protein and carb needs for a diet, but do not provide an essential source of other vital nutrients which are required by human body.

Corruption and theft are related to the food grain distribution system of the govt and no way related to vegetable and meat supplies. There should be a complete overhaul in the efficiency and effectiveness of this system with modern logistics as seen in other transportation and distribution sectors.

Even in the govt storage and distribution system, there are huge losses of food grain to rodents and pests, which are not being taken care of. This also attributes to a major part of the 75% quoted in the article.

 

[Indian9]

It can't be the money so why are these kids starving.

I find the latter reason more convincing. I can't imagine that the government doesn't subsidize enough for everyone to have enough money to eat.

There are two important things to keep in mind here:

1. Most of these children are malnourished or underweight and have stunted growth. It isn't exactly starvation and famine.

2. India, as a whole, is self-sufficient in food production. The HUGE problem lies in distribution and storage. Basic supply chain management.

Point (2) above is the crux of the issue. Hundreds of thousands of tons of foodgrain rots in the open (due to lack of warehouses and proper supply chain management), or gets devoured by rodents and pests due to improper storage facilities.

Once a holistic approach is taken to this problem, looking at the entire food distribution supply chain from "farm to fork", this problem will be greatly reduced.

Additionally, we have this 'Unique identification project' ongoing. This project will help the poor to a great extent to get what is their due without having to run from pillar to post for it.

Solving the above two factors will mitigate this problem to a great extent in as little as 4-5 years, if the powers-that-be take their head out of their *** and focus on the storage and distribution mechanism.

 

[RiazHaq]

The issue is not where we are. The issue is are we improving on that? Are we better today than we what were yesterday?

Anyways, the newly launched UID project 'Adhaar' can bring a sea change into all of this if implemented properly which I'm confident it will be because a really sensible guy called Nandan Nilekani is incharge of the project.

On a scale ranging from low level hunger to extremely alarming, the hunger situation in Sri Lanka and Pakistan is rated as serious, and the rest of South Asia, including India, the situation is considered alarming.

While Pakistan's hunger index score improved over last year from 21.0 to 19.1 and its ranking rose from 58 to 52, India's index score worsened from 23.9 to 24.1 and it slipped two places from 65 to 67 on a list of 84 nations.

 

[RiazHaq]

Both Pakistan and India have long way to go to reduce hunger.

At least in Pakistan's case the progress is very slow but the direction is right.

While Pakistan's hunger index score improved over the last three year since 2008 from 21.7 (2008) to 21.0 (2009) to 19.1 (2010) and its ranking rose from 61 to 58 to 52, India's index score worsened from 23.7 to 23.9 to 24.1 and its ranking moved from 66 to 65 to 67 on a list of 84 nations.

 

[DesiGuy]

not only India, but near the end of this century, close to billion of people will have no food and fresh clean water to drink.

 

[DesiGuy]

And more alarming is that nobody is giving damm about this situation.

One solution: Reduce the fcking population.

---------- Post added at 07:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:54 PM ----------

one baby rule in the whole world. that's it.

 

[DGMO]

I've seen several families who cannot afford a single child but have 5 to 6 children.

Bingo!

And therein lies one of the biggest problems. It's not exclusive to India, same problem exists here, particularly in the rural areas.