World Food Day Indians are hungry amid plenty Editorial, The Tribune Published on October 18, 2011 | | Hunger is not catchy enough to attract eye balls of those who could turn it into a political debate. Though it affects millions, it is not a matter of concern in a democracy of a billion people. Since the political discourse is limited to data and figures, which goes gung-ho with its record bumper crops and overflowing stocks of foodgrains, year after year, the feeble voices of hunger and malnutrition are ignored in this self- congratulatory din. Agricultural imports have quadrupled since the opening of imports, but it has affected rural livelihoods — coupled with rising inflation, it has drastically reduced the quality of food consumed by the rural. In times when the Planning Commission has declared Rs 32 to be good enough to keep an Indian above poverty line while the high growth rate is sustained, it is only ironical that the UN counts India among the seven countries where two-thirds of the world's hungry live. In the much-talked about "The Argumentative Indian," Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen wrote, " About half of all Indian children are chronically under-nourished and more than half of all the adult women are anaemic, more than in Africa. Africa still manages to ensure a higher level of nourishment than India." India is the only country where hunger and malnutrition are not sporadic; they are a constant. We had known it all along, but a country of 7 per cent growth rate has problems digesting the fact. Though the government likes to live in self-denial, as far as the existence of hungry-India is concerned, the fact cannot be ignored that while 10,688 lakh tonnes of foodgrains rot in ill-managed FCI depots, and buffer stocks exceed hundreds of millions of tonnes, millions of Indians go hungry because our PDS (public distribution system) remains incorrigible. There may not be sensational starvation deaths to get media attention, malnutrition is raising a generation which will require more investment on health care in future. The government should pay attention to the modernisation of agriculture to create more avenues of livelihood in the rural areas so that 70 per cent of India's population can go to sleep with a filled stomach. |
From E-Group, Banking-News
--- On Wed, 12/10/11, Balaji AtoZcomputers <atozcomputertrichy@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Balaji AtoZcomputers <atozcomputertrichy@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [vallalargroups:4359] vallalar birth day program in malaysia(kl)
To: vallalargroups@googlegroups.com
Cc: "om5555" <om5555@yahoo.com>, "vallalar groups" <vallalargroups@gmail.com>, "A-V-A-T-A-R-A-M" <indran_withme@yahoo.com>, "yogichan72" <yogichan72@yahoo.com>, velan534@gmail.com, pjkk_sayang@yahoo.com, priya.ayya@gmail.com, "Katarina P." <matreya.love@gmail.com>, "maria fernanda sanchez estrada" <mafersanchez@hotmail.com>, "janagiraman26" <janagiraman26@gmail.com>, shiva_atm89@yahoo.com
Date: Wednesday, 12 October, 2011, 7:40 PM
|
--
To register to this vallalargroups, and Old Discussions
http://vallalargroupsmessages.blogspot.com/ To change the way you get mail from this group, visit:
http://groups.google.com/group/vallalargroups/subscribe?hl=en அருட்பெருஞ்ஜோதி அருட்பெருஞ்ஜோதி
தனிப்பெருங்கருணை அருட்பெருஞ்ஜோதி
எல்லா உயிர்களும் இன்புற்று வாழ்க
No comments:
Post a Comment