It is not that nothing has been achieved in India over the half century or since 1947. Positive things have certainly happened. First, the rapid elimination of famines in India after independence is an achievement of great import. This is certainly an accomplishment, which contrasts with the failure of many other developing countries in preventing famines.
Second, the stagnating agriculture that so characterized and plagued pre-independence India has been firmly replaced by a massive expansion of the production possibilities in Indian agriculture, through innovative advances. The technological limits have been widely expanded. What holds up Indian food consumption today is not any operational inability to produce more food but a far-reaching failure to bring food within the reach of more deprived sections of the population.
How can things be changed? The first thing to get rid of is the astonishing smugness about India’s food record and widespread ignorance that supports it. India has not, we must recognise unambiguously, done well in tackling the persistent hunger. Estimates of general level of under nourishment – what is sometimes called – ‘protein – energy – malnutrition’ – in India is nearly twice higher than Sub Saharan Africa. It is astonishing that despite of intermittent occurrence of famine in Africa, it manages to ensure a much higher level of nourishment than India does. About half of the children appear chronically ill and half of the women suffer from anaemia. India’s record is among the worst in the world. India has done worse than any country in the later respect.
Poverty, healthcare and education take us to the next question. People have to go hungry if they do not have means to buy enough food. It is particularly important to pay attention in the areas like employment opportunities, other ways of acquiring economic means and food prices too which influence people’s ability to buy food.
Since maternal under nourishment is casually linked with gender bias against women in India. It appears that the penalty India pays by being unfair towards women hits all the Indians, boys as well as girls, men as well as women. Even though there ambiguous empirical evidences regarding the relative backwardness of girls Vis a Vis boys, there are no dearth of definitive evidences of the neglect of pregnant women.
India has largest food mountains and lowest level of nourishment. In 1998, stocks of food grains in central government’s godowns were around 18 million tonnes. This amount would be so much that if all sacks of grains are piled up together, it would stretch more than million kilometres, taking us to the moon and back. Since 2000, the stocks have risen some more and now the sacks would take us to the moon and back to the earth and again to the moon.
We are evidently determined to maintain at heavy cost. India’s unenviable combination of having worst nourishment level in the world and the largest unused food stock in the world is a dubious distinction for us. This is just because of high price system that generates a massive shortage, which keeps the hands and the mouths of the poorer consumers away from food.
We have reached a stage in our agriculture evolution when our production will increase only when we improve our consumption.
Instead of that, millions of Indians are sleeping hungry every night. The responsibility falls on the underdogs of our country i.e. the politicians and the high-level people who are not paying a little attention towards them, and indeed WE.
~Aman
Second, the stagnating agriculture that so characterized and plagued pre-independence India has been firmly replaced by a massive expansion of the production possibilities in Indian agriculture, through innovative advances. The technological limits have been widely expanded. What holds up Indian food consumption today is not any operational inability to produce more food but a far-reaching failure to bring food within the reach of more deprived sections of the population.
How can things be changed? The first thing to get rid of is the astonishing smugness about India’s food record and widespread ignorance that supports it. India has not, we must recognise unambiguously, done well in tackling the persistent hunger. Estimates of general level of under nourishment – what is sometimes called – ‘protein – energy – malnutrition’ – in India is nearly twice higher than Sub Saharan Africa. It is astonishing that despite of intermittent occurrence of famine in Africa, it manages to ensure a much higher level of nourishment than India does. About half of the children appear chronically ill and half of the women suffer from anaemia. India’s record is among the worst in the world. India has done worse than any country in the later respect.
Poverty, healthcare and education take us to the next question. People have to go hungry if they do not have means to buy enough food. It is particularly important to pay attention in the areas like employment opportunities, other ways of acquiring economic means and food prices too which influence people’s ability to buy food.
Since maternal under nourishment is casually linked with gender bias against women in India. It appears that the penalty India pays by being unfair towards women hits all the Indians, boys as well as girls, men as well as women. Even though there ambiguous empirical evidences regarding the relative backwardness of girls Vis a Vis boys, there are no dearth of definitive evidences of the neglect of pregnant women.
India has largest food mountains and lowest level of nourishment. In 1998, stocks of food grains in central government’s godowns were around 18 million tonnes. This amount would be so much that if all sacks of grains are piled up together, it would stretch more than million kilometres, taking us to the moon and back. Since 2000, the stocks have risen some more and now the sacks would take us to the moon and back to the earth and again to the moon.
We are evidently determined to maintain at heavy cost. India’s unenviable combination of having worst nourishment level in the world and the largest unused food stock in the world is a dubious distinction for us. This is just because of high price system that generates a massive shortage, which keeps the hands and the mouths of the poorer consumers away from food.
We have reached a stage in our agriculture evolution when our production will increase only when we improve our consumption.
Instead of that, millions of Indians are sleeping hungry every night. The responsibility falls on the underdogs of our country i.e. the politicians and the high-level people who are not paying a little attention towards them, and indeed WE.
~Aman
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