UPSC CSE – SYLLABUS: GENERAL STUDIES-2– Issues relating to poverty and hunger.
Hunger & India
India continues to be in ‘serious’ hunger category, and is home to 14% of the world’s undernourished population. The country ranks 94th among 107, and is a poor performer in the BRICS high table. It is also behind its South Asian neighbours like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Nepal, among many others.
Few green shoots:
- Nevertheless, there are a few green shoots in terms of India’s trajectory in the GHI.
- Over a span of 20 years, India has made progress in its GHI values and stunting rates amongst children.
- There has been a notable reduction in the under-five mortality rate—down to 3.7% in 2020 from 9.2% in 2000.
Efforts taken:
- Given the complex interplay of nutrition, food security, sanitation and healthcare facilities, it is important to acknowledge this interconnectivity.
- If one of these systems works in a non-synergistic way, all efforts can crumble down. The government at all the levels has recognised and adopted this multipronged strategy to tackle the malnutrition problem.
- A lot of work has started at the implementation level in the form of various schemes. Schemes such as the Mid-Day Meal and the Integrated Child Development Services operate in a symbiotic fashion, with coordinated efforts from concerned ministries.
- As high as 90% of the 23.5 crore ration cards have been digitised and linked to Aadhaar numbers of at least one family member.
- Moreover, soon the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ policy shall be fully adopted, which would help not just in protecting the interests of poor and migrant beneficiaries, but also in capturing identity fraud.
- The celebration of the National Nutrition Month in September every year as part of the flagship POSHAN Abhiyaan (The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition, or National Nutrition Mission) is another step in this direction.
Way forward:
- There is a need to understand and investigate the reasons behind this situation.
- These statistics are projected to get worse in the near future in the wake of the pandemic as it is mainly the poor and hungry that are severely impacted.
- In India, the problem is not with respect to food availability, but inequitable distribution and massive food wastage.
- It is imperative that this momentum of the ‘whole of the government’ approach is taken forward to all the future schemes.
- The coronavirus pandemic has been more than a public health crisis; it has had many indirect ramifications in different directions.
- The on-going pandemic has signalled that strong immunity and adequate nutrition are the two key pillars that determine the severity of the Covid-19 disease.
- There are concerns that there may be more such pandemics in the near future.
- It is an opportune time to take a fresh look at our dietary choices, and impart good nutritional knowledge practice information to both the consumers as well as producers.
- Besides the traditional nutritional awareness campaigns, it can also take the form of subtle behavioural nudges towards healthier lifestyles—both for the rich and the poor.
- At the same time, it is critical to ensure that the producers have all the right incentives to produce these healthy crops or food products (such as micronutrient-rich fruits and vegetables), while consumers across the entire income distribution are able to afford these, and that their production should be sustainable.
- These nudges, despite being cost-effective and rapid, need to be deployed in a suite to be truly effective.
- To have the real big push in terms of these behavioural drivers, what is desired is an innovative and well-coordinated effort from all the stakeholders—government, suppliers, retailers and, most importantly, consumers.
Unless consumers engage and participate with full spirit in such schemes or interventions, the goal of having a healthy, productive and nutritionally secure India might be difficult to attain.
Source:”Financial Express”
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