It’s a paradox that food-surplus India is ranked 102nd on Global Hunger Index
This strange paradox of plenty remains unexplained. At a time when grain silos are bursting at the seams, the 2019 Global Hunger Index (GHI) has ranked India 102nd among 117 countries, placing it in a category with ‘serious’ levels of hunger. As if this is not enough, the latest UNICEF report on the State of World’s Children lists India with the highest burden of death among children below five years, accounting for 8.82 lakh children dying last year.
While the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has reportedly written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help reduce the burden of carrying overflowing food stocks with the FCI by looking into the possibility of providing surplus food as ‘humanitarian aid’ to deserving countries, ironically 90 per cent children in the age bracket of six to 23 months do not get enough to eat. While acute hunger stalks the impoverished, a silent tragedy affecting our most precious resource — children — has been quietly unfolding. Every second child is stunted, wasted or underweight.
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