India world’s new hunger capital

India is fast becoming the hunger capital of the world with one in every four Indians going hungry, according to a report by and Indian campaign group. The study by the Navdanya Trust an environmental organisation says that there are more than 200 million people going without enough to eat. Some 57 million children in India, are underweight because they are malnourished, it found.

Vandana Shiva, who runs the trust, said there were now more hungry people in India than in sub-Saharan Africa. The amount of food eaten per person in India went down from 186 kg per person a year in 1991, to 152 kg in 2001, the report said. "The figures are still declining although food prices have doubled since 2003. Food prices continue to rise and the situation is not going to get any better,"
If this is any indication of an impending food crisis, Vandana Shiva, who runs the trust, told reporters yesterday as she released the study. She asked: "Why is every fourth Indian hungry?"

Concerned about reports that less and less land is being used to grow nutritious and protein rich dal and ragi, Ms Shiva lashed out at the national food programme, the Public Distribution System, which she said covered only 10 per cent of the poor people in the country. "As prices rise the poor eat less. The Union agriculture minister has announced that food subsidy will go up to Rs 50,000 crores by the end of this year. We are spending more to starve our people," she said. The report also criticises the quality of food provided in ration shops, which does not help provide a balanced diet. Instead it is heavy on starch, which can lead to related diseases like diabetes.

The research blames genetically modified seeds and chemicals as the reason for the high cost of food production, forcing poor farmers to debt and suicides.Ms Shiva said that the present food policy was neither helping to address the food crisis nor help farmers. "Studies worldwide show that the hungriest of people are its producers — the farmers. The proposed Food Security Act based on a failed policy is only adding insult to injury," she said. The government has not responded to the report, which follows a United Nations study released in June, which said, according to the BBC, that hunger in South Asia has reached its highest level in 40 years because of food and fuel price rises and the global economic downturn. The report by the UN children's fund, Unicef, says that 100 million more people in the region are going hungry compared with two years ago. It highlights the worst affected areas as Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children