Stop The Rot

In the mid 1980, the sale of Banita, a minor girl from Kalahandi in Orissa, had shocked the nation. Twodecades later, the nation refused to even notice the cries of a one month old baby who was sold by her motherfor a mere Rs 10 . For Sumitra Behera, 35, a resident of Badibahal village in Anguldistrict of Orissa, selling her one month old daughter was perhaps the only way to feed her two otherdaughters  -- Urbashi, 10, and Banbasi, 2. In the month of December 2003, three other families grapplingwith hunger in Angul, Puri and Keonjhar in Orissa had reportedly sold their children.

Two decades earlier, the nation felt outraged when a major newspaper bought a woman for Rs 2000. Theintrepid reporter, who risked his life to investigate the shoddy and inhuman trade, wrote in his columns thateven a pair of shoes would cost more. It doesn't require the investigating skills of Ashwini Sarin anymore tolift the veil behind which remains the hidden face of India Shining. You can now buy a child for less thanwhat you pay for a bottle of mineral water.

As abject poverty remains buried behind the façade of the feel good factor, there is excitement in theair. The German luxury carmaker, DaimlerChrysler, has announced the launch of the most luxurious car in theworld, in India. At Rs 5 crore a piece, the upwardly mobile have already begun to queue up. This comes at atime when Sachin Tendulkar has regained his form. Also, when Amitabh Bachchan has been named as the brandambassador for Uttar Pradesh. 

Selling dreams is no longer the prerogative of Bollywood.

Despite the Planning Commission pulling down the percentage of poor and poverty stricken from its unreaddocuments, the magic trick of playing with numbers hasn't made any difference to the growing disparities.Amidst recurring political elections, and the brazen marketing hype to sell images of growth and development,the shameful paradox of hunger at times of plenty has been quietly buried under heaps of grain that continueto rot in the open. That 75 lakh people, more than the population of Switzerland, had applied for a mere38,000 lowly-paid jobs in the Indian Railways, is no longer a matter of concern at times when the country ison a fast track information highway. Not to discount the achievements in information technology, the factremains that IT has provided only five lakh job opportunities.

Meanwhile, hunger continues to grow in India, which alone has one-third of the world's estimated 860million people who go to bed hungry, and that too at times of plenty. In fact, hunger and poverty have provedto be robustly sustainable. Directly related to growing unemployment, reports of gnawing hunger and starvationdeaths in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa hit the national headlines time and again. In 2002, reports ofhunger and starvation deaths have also regularly poured in from the country's progressive and economicallyfast-growing cyberstates - Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

At the same time, India continues to make room for exporting surplus foodgrains. That an estimated 320million people desperately need food, despite more than 60 million tones stocked in the open at the turn ofthe century, had failed to evoke any political expediency. In fact, 17 million tonnes of the surplus foodactually meant for the hungry, was exported in 2002 at below the poverty line prices. No political leader,including the distinguished nominated members to the Rajya Sabha, even thought of bringing the shamefulparadox to the attention of Parliament.

While people die of hunger, the government sits atop a mountain of food grains. In 2001, starvation deathswere reported in over 13 states while the storage facilities of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) - werefull of grains, some of it rotting and rat-infested. There was a proposal to dump it in the sea, to makestorage space for the next crop, when export markets could not be found for this surplus. Such was thequantity of food kept in the open, that if each bag was stacked one upon the other, there was no need tolaunch a scientific expedition to put a man on the moon. You could simply walk to the moon and come back.

The same year, a case was filed by some NGOs in the Supreme Court in India asking for directions to ensurethe fundamental right to food of every citizen. A Bench comprising Justice B.N.Kripal and Justice K.G.Balakrishnan had directed the government to "devise a scheme where no person goes hungry when thegranaries are full and lots being wasted due to non-availability of storage space." To the AttorneyGeneral's plea that devising such a scheme would require at least two weeks, the Court had allowed for enoughtime frame. It has also sought affidavits from the State governments of Orissa, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh,Maharashtra, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh detailing their response to meet the unprecedented situation of"scarcity among plenty".
 
This was in 2001. Two years later, Sumitra Behera had to sell her one-month-old child to feed her other twochildren. A damming survey conducted sometimes back in Madhya Pradesh, in central India, found 6,785 childrenin 43 blocks of Shivpuri district severely malnourished -- an average of 160 per block. The situation isequally hopeless in other states. Malnutrition continues to multiply, more so among children and women. Theextent of malnutrition that exists in the country remains hidden. It doesn't make shocking news. Even hungermakes news only when someone dies.

The ground realities are far removed from the rhetoric and the statistics that have bred immunity againstcompassion. We are all part of a global system, which perpetuates poverty and deprivation. We make tall claimsof feeling good by pushing stark realities of growing poverty and hunger from the public glare. We are,therefore, in reality, the cause behind hunger. Behaving like an Ostrich is surely not going to eclipse hungerfrom the politico-economic radar screens. It requires determination and will.

Zero Hunger: First and foremost, it requires the political leadership to accept the extent ofcrisis, to accept that hunger exists in the country, and to then launch a time bound programme towardseradicating hunger. If Brazil can launch a programme for 'zero hunger', there is no reason why India cannotdemonstrate political maturity to combat the national shame.

Task Force: If a ministry can be set up for disinvestments, another for information technology, andstill another for food processing, there is no reason why a high ranking task force cannot be constituted withthe clear cut mandate of removing hunger. The task force should be directly under the supervision of the PrimeMinister.

Public Policy: The task force should oversee the economic policies to ensure that there is nocontradiction in government's resolve. Zero hunger should not be construed as a mass mid-day meal programmebut be directed towards building sustainable livelihoods that helps build the capacity of the poor to emergeout of poverty and hunger.

Hunger is not a curse that some among us have to live with. Hunger is a reflection of our misplacedemphasis towards growth for a few. The hungry do not need our sympathies. They need a helping hand, and theycan do the rest. 

Devinder Sharma is a New Delhi-based food policy analyst. Courtesy, Znet