Syllabus
GS Paper 2 – Issues relating to poverty and hunger.
Context
October 16th is celebrated as world food day
Source
The Hindu| Editorial dated 16th October 2024
A food-sufficient India needs to be hunger-free too
Ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition is a key Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to be achieved by 2030. However, various factors such as rising conflicts, climate extremes, and economic slowdowns in vulnerable regions make this goal difficult to achieve. Food sufficiency alone does not address the issue of malnutrition, and broader transformations are needed to ensure universal access to healthy and affordable diets.
Food Insecurity and Malnutrition
- Root Causes: Food insecurity and malnutrition arise due to lack of access and unaffordability of healthy diets, which are critical for addressing hunger and ensuring proper nutrition.
- Food Sufficiency: Merely having enough food does not guarantee balanced nutrition; the diet must be nutritionally compliant to combat malnourishment.
- Distributional Mechanism: An ideal food distribution system must ensure universal and affordable access to food, focusing on both quantity and quality to address nutrition deficiencies.
Global Hunger Trends
- Prevalence of Hunger: As of 2023, 757 million people, or 9.4% of the global population, are undernourished. Africa is disproportionately affected, with 20.4% of its population facing hunger.
- Regional Comparison: Asia has the largest absolute number of undernourished people, with 384.5 million individuals, despite Africa having a higher percentage of hunger.
- Projected Trends: By 2030, half of the world’s undernourished will be in Africa, and the problem continues to have a rural bias, with a gender divide that disadvantages women, though the gap is narrowing.
Affordability of Healthy Diets
- Rising Costs: The global cost of a healthy diet (CoHD) rose to an average of $3.96 per person per day in 2022, peaking at $4.20 in Asia. Many people, especially in low-income countries, cannot afford these diets.
- Decreasing Access: Although the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet decreased from 2.88 billion in 2021 to 2.83 billion in 2022, the issue remains critical in low-income regions.
- Practical Solutions: Regulating food prices and reducing the share of food expenditure in total income could make healthy diets more affordable. Policies like “thalinomics” in India aim to make meals nutritionally compliant and affordable.
Unhealthy Diets in India
- Nutritional Imbalance: Diets in India are generally unhealthy and do not align with the EAT-Lancet or Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommendations. This is due to both affordability and lack of awareness.
- Cost Barrier: A healthy reference diet may cost up to 60% of the average daily income in South Asia, making it inaccessible to many low-income populations.
- Wealthy Yet Malnourished: Even the richest 5% of Indian households consume less protein-rich food and more processed food, pointing to issues beyond affordability, such as availability, awareness, and acceptability.
Global Hunger Index and India’s Position
- India ranks 105th out of 127th countries, falling under “serious” category with 41 other nations, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- Controversy: India’s poor ranking on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) has been debated, as GHI focuses more on nutrition and early-age mortality rather than purely on hunger.
- Domestic Hunger Data: Surveys in India show 3.2% of the population does not meet the minimum requirement of 60 meals per month, while more than 50% report having three meals a day.
- Real Hunger: Around 2.5% of India’s population (3.5 crore people) may still fall short of two square meals a day, indicating that the challenge of hunger persists despite food self-sufficiency.
Govt initiatives to tackle Hunger
- National Nutrition Mission (NNM) or POSHAN Abhiyan: It was launched in 2018 to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children from 0-6 years, Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner and to achieve reduction in stunting and wasting in children (0-6 years) as well as reduction in anemia in women, children and adolescent girls.
- National Food Security Mission: The main objective of the National Food Security Mission is to increase the production of rice, wheat, pulses, coarse serials, and Nutri serials through area expansion and productivity enhancement in a sustainable manner.
- Zero Hunger Programme: It has established specific goals to be accomplished by 2030, encompassing various aspects of hunger, food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture.
- Eat Right India Movement: FSSAI launched ‘The Eat Right Movement’to improve public health in India and combat negative nutritional trends to fight lifestyle diseases
- Food Fortification: It means deliberately increasing the content of essential micronutrients in a food so as to improve the nutritional quality of food and to provide public health benefit with minimal risk to health. In India, A total of 151 Districts (in 24 States) have already lifted fortified rice under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) in Phase II of Rice Fortification Programme.
Steps Towards a Hunger-Free World
- Right to Food Campaign: In India, the right to food has gained momentum, aiming to ensure food security for all. However, gaps remain, with many lacking the means to buy food despite available supply.
- Food Banks and Redistribution: Setting up food banks to prevent food waste and redistribute surplus food could help ensure that no one goes hungry. Encouraging food donation and reducing food wastage is crucial for achieving hunger-free status.
- Global Redistribution: Food-sufficient regions worldwide must prioritize humanitarian redistribution of surplus food to ensure that food-deficient regions are not left behind.
Conclusion
Achieving a hunger-free world requires more than just ensuring food sufficiency; it demands a focus on nutrition, affordability, and access. Addressing inequalities in food distribution, improving diet quality, and fostering global cooperation for food redistribution are critical steps toward realizing the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030.
Related PYQ
Hunger and Poverty are the biggest challenges for good governance in India still today. Evaluate how far successive governments have progressed in dealing with these humongous problems. Suggest measures for improvement. [ UPSC Civil Services Exam – Mains 2017]
Practice Question
What are the major causes of food insecurity and malnutrition in India? Suggest measures to ensure nutritional security? [250 words]
Guidelines to Answer
- Introduction:
- Define food insecurity and malnutrition briefly.
- Mention their significance in India’s development context.
- Body
- Explain how poverty and rising food costs limit access to healthy diets.
- Discuss inefficiencies in food distribution systems, especially in rural and marginalized areas.
- Propose interventions to control food prices, ensuring affordability for low-income groups.
- Suggest ways to improve food supply chains, food banks, and public distribution systems.
- Conclusion
- Summarize the need for a combined approach addressing economic, social, and awareness issues to ensure long-term nutritional security.