Sir,
Interestingly, 16th October is observed every year as World Food Day and 17th October as International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Indeed, the former is totally meaningless without the latter. Just published Global Hunger Index 2016 has ranked India 97th among 118 countries with one in three children facing stunted growth and 15 per cent of the population undernourished from lack of food. India where 194.6 million people go hungry everyday, is placed even behind Bangladesh, Nigeria and Rwanda. Now comes the irony. Another recent report says that the value of food lost in India is nearly two-thirds of what it costs the Government to feed 600 million poor Indians. Our brothers and sisters have to starve in the midst of food wastage because they are either unemployed or underemployed. Thanks to much hyped disinvestment policy that has become India’s talisman since 1991 for both UPA and NDA Governments, employment to population ratio has, alarmingly, come down from 58.6 per cent in 1994 to 52.2 per cent in 2013. Structural poverty separates hungry mouths from food. So, without Eradication of Poverty Food means just wastage in our country.
Yours etc…….
Sujit De,
5/11 Government Housing Estate, Sodepur, Kolkata
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