Food rights activists warn nutritional emergency in India

By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, June 5, 2022: Food rights activists want India to take urgent steps to solve a nutritional emergency facing the country.

They endorsed the findings of a survey that showed millions of Indians dying every year because of diseases directly linked to poor diet.

“The country is in a state of emergency on the nutritional front. It requires emergency solutions,” says Montfort Brother Varghese Theckanath, who has worked among slum dwellers for decades.

According to him, the survey conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment and Down to Earth Magazine is “yet another sobering indicator of the decline of the country in the last eight years.”

The survey points out that the majority of Indians cannot afford a healthy meal. It also says a healthy meal “becomes unaffordable if it exceeds 63 percent of a person’s income” and that “71 percent of Indians cannot afford a healthy diet” compared to the global average of 42 percent.

It further says an average Indian’s diet lacks fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and whole grains. Referring to the diseases that are attributable to poor diet, the survey mentioned respiratory ailments, diabetes, cancer, strokes and coronary heart disease.

Jesuit Father Irudaya Jothi, a Right to Food and Work Campaigner in West Bengal and Tripura, says he “totally agree with the survey findings.”

He regrets that although the food rights campaigners have raised the matter several times in the past, the government has turned a deaf ear to them.

“India has been faring poorly every year on the World Hunger Index but the authorities, instead of waking up and addressing such a serious issue, give some other data in defense,” he bemoans.

Brother Theckanath, who directs the Hyderabad-based Montfort Social Institute, says the survey is “yet another sobering indicator of the decline of the country in the last eight years.

He regrets that the government’s priority to favor its middle class support base “has brought to naught” whatever gains the country had achieved in the past many decades on people’s basic needs.

Sister Sujata Jena, a Bhubaneswar-based lawyer and activist, blames inequality and the uneven distribution of affluence as the main reason for the country’s extreme hunger and poverty.

“India grows more food, wastes more, while more go hungry, the Food Corporation of India warehouses continue to overflow. Some have too much to waste, some have no access. This shows the government apathy towards the starving population,” says the member of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Congregation.

According to her, Dalits and tribals are more vulnerable when it comes to food security and starvation death.

Sameet Panda, convener of Right to Food in Odisha, says the survey results have not surprised him, as the income inequality has been growing steadily over the years.

“A recent research says earning 25,000 rupees a month makes you top 10 percent of our population income wise. Most Indians were unable to eat two square meals and the growing inflation has made the matter worse,” he says.

Sameer S Singh, National Foundation for India, Project Lead, Odisha, too finds low income as a major cause for poor diet. Other causes, he adds, are poor consumption of nutritious food; lack of knowledge on healthy meals, people’s preference for junk food, unavailability of healthy food ingredients especially in rural areas.

Father Jothi says the latest report has endorsed two hunger watch surveys conducted by the Right to Food and Work Campaign along with the center for Equity Studies after the national lockdown in 2020 and 2021.

Everyone was shocked when the results of the two surveys were released in February this year, he said.

“Although the Public Distribution System (PDS) reached most households many other schemes such as Integrated Child Development Schemes (ICDS), Mid-Day Meal programs, maternity entitlements, and pensions were not delivered satisfactorily leading to the poor nutritional intake of vulnerable people,” Father Jothi explains the findings of their surveys.

The priest cited his personal experience to show how inflation has become real, making people unable to buy pulses, vegetables, fish or meat.

“I came back from the vegetable market in North Tripura [May 5 morning] without buying anything because the price of every vegetable was beyond my purchasing ability. A kilo of carrot was sold for 200 rupees, tomato 120 rupees, edible oil at 200 rupees a liter. No vegetable was sold for less than 60 rupees,” Father Jothi explains.

The activist priest says his groups have urged the government to universalize the PDS and include pulses, millet, and oil.

“Increase the purchasing ability of the citizen by increasing the working days of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) to 200 days and hike the daily wage to minimum 600 rupees,” he pleads.

Another demand is to distribute eggs, milk and fruits at the ICDS centers for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. The food rights activists want the government to provide at least 6,000 rupees to pregnant mothers without any conditions and 2,000 rupees a month as social security pension for the elderly.

Father Jothi says the government cannot wash its hands by saying, the price rise is not in its control or the poor health of citizens is not its concern.

The government should take these studies seriously and concentrate on reaching out to the citizens instead of engaging in trivial issues of love jihads, temple-mosques controversy, caste conflicts and triggering religious sentiments and bashing minority groups, the Jesuit adds.

Brother Theckanath quotes a report to say that 25 percent of all hungry people worldwide live in India. 44 percent of children below 5 are underweight and 72 percent of infants and 52 percent of married women have anemia.

He regrets that a prosperous state like Maharashtra has registered the highest number of malnourished children in the country.

In their thrust on ‘development,’ both federal and state governments are placing vulnerable populations “at the grave risk of malnutrition and its impact. This is particularly telling on the urban unorganized working classes,” Brother Theckanath says.

He wants the country to revisit the demand for Universal Public Distribution. “Civil society organizations have their task cut out in this regard. Church related organizations have an important role to play in this context, not only by providing relief, but even more importantly by mobilizing forces on the issue,” he asserts.

Panda says inflation is higher in rural areas, making the matter worse. Families depend on PDS for cereals and find it difficult to buy meat, egg, fruits and milk. “This will have serious consequences on health and wellbeing of children and women who are already poor,” he warns.

Sister Jena quoted Gaja Takri, a migrant returnee in Odisha’s Rayagada district and husband of a pregnant woman, saying that he could not afford to add vegetables in their meal for months.

“How could we expect a healthy child from a malnourished mother? This kills many poor babies and mothers,” she regrets.