India hungrier than Lanka, Nepal





55th On Hunger Index, Status Still `Serious'

India has made some progress in reducing poverty level, but still ranks behind neighbouring Nepal and Sri Lanka on the Global Hunger Index and its hunger status remains classified as “serious“.India was at 63rd position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) last year. The 55th position in 2014 is better than Pakistan (ranked 57) and Bangladesh (57), but trails Nepal (44) and Sri Lanka (39).
“Progress in dealing with underweight helped India’s 2014 GHI score fall to 17.8 points,” the GHI report said.
The International Food Policy Research Institute and NGOs Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide have jointly prepared the report.While India is no longer in the “alarming“ category , its hunger status is still classified as “serious“. India has made progress in reducing underweight among children under five in the past few years, but “much work still needs to be done“ so that a greater share of the population will enjoy nutrition security , it said.
This year marks the end of a “data drought“, the report said, adding India has determined its first new provisional national underweight estimate in eight years. At 30.7%, it points to real progress compared with the last estimate of 43.5% in 2005-2006, it said. “As a consequence, India no longer ranks second to last on underweight in children, but 120th among 128 countries with data on child under-nutrition from 2009­2013,“ it added. Highlighting the efforts made to address underweights, it said since the last under-nutrition data became available, India had rolled out and expanded several programmes targeting a mix of direct and indirect causes of under-nutrition.
Nutrition-specific interventions that were scaled up after 2006 include a final push to expand the integrated child development services and the launch of the rural health mission.

Source:::: The Times of India, 14.10.2014, p.12, 

http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31804&articlexml=India-hungrier-than-Lanka-Nepal-14102014012021

Vouchers for poor? UN in talks with govt on zero-hunger goal



Lack Of Nourishment, Hygiene Threaten An Entire Generation

World Food Programme (WFP) executive director Ertharin Cousin said she was in talks with the Indian government and states to explore food vouchers for the poor facing starvation and malnourishment in the country .Cousin said vouchers were important in taking food to those facing shortage. “We are talking to India on how food vouchers can be used to make food available to vulnerable groups,“ she told TOI on the sidelines of the B-20 Australia Summit that has brought big business together in a lead-up event ahead of the November’s G-20 Summit.
The comment from the head of the world body adds another dimension to the Right to Food law that awaits implementation. RTF was passed by Parliament in UPA-2 and is likely to be rolled out soon by the Narendra Modi government. Subsidized food versus vouchers is a debate that was thought to have been settled with the food guarantee Act, a polarizing issue among civil society.
Cousin refused to be drawn into an either-or situation but stuck to vouchers by arguing that different modalities could be employed in the course of achieving food security, with
zero-hunger being one of the key Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).She said the world faces problems of food shortage and also of food being available but being out of reach of certain weak communities. “In certain places and with certain communities, the vouchers, we believe, can be the right idea and can serve the purpose of helping the vulnerable groups,“ she said. She has been invited to the global business gathering for talks on how food security converges with business growth.
Referring to the stress on food security in India, she said the country was an example for the world. “We have a lot to learn from India that recognizes that economic growth is not being felt across all social groups,” she said.
Addressing reporters at the B-20 Summit, she said economic growth did not automatically guarantee the end of hunger and top economies like the US had “safety nets” and programmes to buffer vulnerable groups.
She told reporters that China had benefitted the most from WFP efforts while India, despite massive economic development, had the largest number of children facing malnourishment. Cousin said no government or organization alone could achieve zero-hunger and there was need for help from private sector, which has to go beyond providing money for technological capabilities.

FOOD THAT DIDN'T REACH THE PLATEThe Targeted Public Distribution System launched in 1997 seeks to provide highly subsidized grain to the really poor. The system is operated jointly by the Centre and states. The Centre, through FCI, procures, stores and transports grain.
States are responsible for identifying eligible families, issuing ration cards and functioning of fair price shops. About 652 lakh below poverty line families are entitled to subsidized grain. These apart, it is estimated that about 5% of people in India sleep without two square meals a day. These 2.4 crore people, the poorest of the poor, and households headed by widows, terminally ill or disabled persons and persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support are covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY). Data shows in 2013-14, the grain lost in transit, storage and so on could have been enough for the monthly PDS ration of 17% of BPL families or 45% of those under AAY

Source:::: The Times of India, 18.07.2-14, p.10,   http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31804&articlexml=Vouchers-for-poor-UN-in-talks-with-govt-18072014010037

With 210m, India home to a quarter of the world’s hungry

Record High Cereal Production & Global Hunger Puzzle Govts

Subodh Varma TIG 

    In a striking paradox, the number of hungry people in the world was estimated at 842 million in 2011-13 by the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report released on Monday even as world cereal production was estimated at a near record level of 2,489 million metric tonnes a few days ago. About a quarter of the world’s hungry, or 210 million, are in India alone. 
    The number of hungry people appears to have declined slightly from the 870 million estimated in 2010-12, but the current GHI report says this is due to a recalculation of how undernourishment is measured by the UN-linked Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Since 2006, the absolute number of undernourished people has remained unchanged but their proportion to total world population is declining because the latter is growing. 
    The 2013 GHI is calculated for 120 countries for which data on its three component indicators are available and where measuring hunger is considered most relevant. The three indicators used are: the proportion of undernourished people, the proportion of children under five who are underweight, and the mortality (death) rate of children younger than age five. The report has been brought out by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and two international charities Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide. 
    Where is India in all this? The 2013 GHI says that in India the proportion of the undernourished declined from about 21% of the population to 17.5%, the proportion of underweight children declined from 43.5% to about 40% and under-five mortality declined from 7.5% to about 6%. All this put together means that the hunger index for India declined from 24 to 21 between 2003-07 and 2008-12. 
    The proportion of underweight children is an estimate done by IFPRI as the last survey was done in 2004-05. 
    In other words, the proportions and the index for India are at best an approximation. Other surveys done more recently have shown trends that indicate that the nutritive value of food consumed per person is dipping. A recent survey of consumer expenditure said that nutritional intake measured in terms of calories declined from 2,153 kilocalories (Kcal) per person per day in 1993-94 to 2,020 in 2009-10 in rural areas and from 2,071 to 1,946 Kcal in urban areas. These shocking results are according to a report of the 66th round of survey done by the National Sample Survey Organisation. Even between 2004-05 and 2009-10, the calorie intake per person per day dipped from 2,047 to 2,020 in rural areas and from 2,020 to 1,946 in urban areas. 
    Despite these caveats regarding the GHI data, India still remnains in the “Alarming” category of countries classified by the severity of hunger. That puts it in the category where the hunger index is between 20 and 29.9. Others in this category are Ethiopia, Sudan, Congo, Chad, Niger, and other African countries. These are places ravaged by resource wars and extreme poverty, and they make up the bottom-most bunch in the human development index rankings. 
    Meanwhile, an October report on food prospects issued by the FAO forecast a record cereal harvest for 2013, powered by a 7% rise in production over 2012. Wheat output is estimated at 705 million tonnes (MT), a record. Coarse grains output is put at 1,288MT, another record. And rice output is estimated at 496MT, yet another record. Wheat prices have declined in international markets by 16% over the past year, rice prices are down 23% and those of maize by 35%, according to FAO’s price monitor in October. With good production and declining prices worldwide, why the world’s hungry are not getting enough food is a conundrum that policy makers and experts are struggling to answer.

Source:::: The Times of India, 15-10-2013, p.10,   http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/10/15&PageLabel=10&EntityId=Ar01000&ViewMode=HTML