Shiban Khaibri
Most of us must be recollecting our early school days of “from ship to mouth” vis-à-vis food shortage and imports from the US under PL 480 etc; when right from arrival of food grains up to consuming homes there was hardly any time or “luxury” of any portion of it getting wasted. Come green revolution, a blend of innovative surge among the hard working farmers as well as changed governmental attitude backed by liberal Bank credit, agriculture being treated as priority sector, a chain of comfortable monsoon rains, our food problem turned progressively from acute shortage into a surplus one .If we manage to have a glance at the stock of wheat and rice held in central pool, we can get a sense of how our stocks have swelled. With increasing stocks, has gone up the wastages too at an alarming rate of 15% or more. In our supply chains as well as at places of their storage, the amount of food grains wasted , spoiled or rotten is enough to feed millions of those who still live below the poverty line or are just surviving . To be precise, even a portion of the wasted food grains could feed 25% of the population living under BPL; category.
We only get scared about the problem when it rains and we still find primitive unscientific ways of storage and a good portion getting wasted as such and there is some movement of thought as also some patch work action but the same gets back to square one, when the rains are over. Our warehousing lack capacity, unscientific and haphazard storing and faulty transportation only add to the problem of wastages and someone somewhere in the country suffers due to non availability of it and the resultant (un)satiated hunger. Does hunger still haunt us even after 67 years of our independence? Have our political leaders and policy planners neglected our rural sector, in the context of those parts in particular, usually hit by horrifying successive droughts? Have our political leadership cared beyond their vote getting enthusiasm when they visit these areas inhabited by children of lesser God , with folded hands , even touching their feet and even taking “care” of their two three days’ “requirements” till votes are cast and thereafter forget them for full 5 years? If we do not discuss and share these stark realities, as found in many parts of our country, then we are innocently committing a dereliction of our moral duty.
Let us recollect the spirit in which the Honb’le Supreme Court had ordered the UPA Government to distribute food grains free of cost to the hungry poor but the centre had not given any commitment on the issue though the then Union Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar had “assured” the government would implement the direction of the court. However, the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had opined that the courts should not interfere in policy matters. In early Oct 2010, the Supreme Court had expressed its concern over rotting of huge quantities of food grains when people were dying of hunger, it wanted to know what action had the government taken against the officers responsible for these wastages. The Government then had submitted before the court that only 7000 tons of food grains had been rotten in the godowns of the FCI and nearly 68000 tons had rotten in the go-downs owned by the states of Haryana and Punjab. The Honb’le court asked ,” Even if it is 7000 tons , how it can happen? This is the wastage of only two states , it is an extremely serious matter. You compare the wastage world over…..”
A day earlier, one of the TV Channels did one of its best in investigative journalism by visiting one of the villages in Bundelkhand in UP. The people mostly reduced to penury were seen eating “bread” made of crushed wild grass and baking the stuff on the conventional primitive “Choola” . The future hopes of the country, the children were shockingly seen eating the stuff with a pinch of salt. When the correspondent “interviewed” the inmates of a household, they did not scream, nor did they complain, nor did they express any desire, such was the state of fate they had since resigned to . In other words, they were getting a feeling of something being there in their stomach. “What to do, said one householder, ” this is what and how we feed ourselves, we go to the nearby jungle type of fields like others , get this grass , crush it to make into these rotis and eat them with a piece or two of these wild fruit or with a pinch of salt.” The TV correspondent wanted to taste both the items of the stuff but he could not swallow down a piece of that even after biting it for the purpose and the “fruit” , he just could not dare to eat. Getting emotional which appeared unlike most of our political leaders, he laid bare, the situation, as prevailing in many such parts of our country. The camera moved through each and every corner of the dwelling where nothing of the sort “vulnerable” to theft could be found. Now imagine how much food we waste daily or over use it , apart from the one which is wasted as a part of our faulty system. Could there be any mechanism for that part of the food otherwise fated to be wasted which could be fed to these fellow citizens of ours who have a lien equally like ours on our country’s resources and the produce? Apart from protracted governmental intervention by way of making some adjustments in the otherwise faulty PDS and other short term measures, real NGOs could play a Yeomen’s role in making available such food stuff which is wasted or about to get wasted as cooked in more quantity or uncooked vulnerable to rot or waste, to reach our fellow citizens “enjoying” their decay, malnutrition and silent death. Let the concerned NGOs suspend their “tirade” and organized protests against preventing Governments from doing economic reconstruction activities or developmental measures like constructions of dams and power stations or ” over champion the cause of secularism” in our country and, instead pool their activities in getting the food for these people from those who can afford to spare in one way or the other. The greatest lacunae with our system are non preparation of the requisite essential data in various fields concerning our rural and semi rural sectors. We come to know about this type of shame on our system only when exposed by the media. And see the reaction, when the spokesperson from the ruling Samajwadi Party was asked about it, pat came his reply which not only must have shocked many but must have made them indignant too. Said he, “This, they have been taking as a routine as it is their Paushtik Aahar or nutritious diet.” What can be more insulting , brushing aside, ignoring and trivializing the plight of these neglected and forgotten people by these leaders, than this statement and see , socialist red cap donning “Neta Ji” Mulayam Singh’s birthday bash can involve crores of Rupees, or in Etawah’s Saifai event of dance, dinning and festivities, crores of Rupees can be washed but these destitute fellow citizens of our country should eat grass which animals even detest . What type of samajwad is it ? Are these people reduced to penury and “nothingness”, not made to fall vulnerable or pushed to extremist groups like Naxals and Maoists and other similar outfits ? Then in that situation, we can afford to spend a lot of our means all, in cash, men and material to control or fight them?
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in 2008 visited one village called Tapryian in Bundelkhand and “sat”, “listened” and “stayed” for a night in “solidarity” with these neglected extremely poor people. He made himself a guest at Halkan Bhai’s dungeon who somehow managed and offered him bread and sabzi. He immediately “adopted ” the village with a promise for an economic turnaround , digging of tube wells, turning “all ” dungeons there into pucca houses, roads and even electricity. The sycophant followers in no time had a sign board 4×6 Ft. erected at Tapryian reading as “Congress dwara gode liya Rahul Gram Tapryian”. After nearly 8 years, the only change in this “Rahul Gandhi adopted” village is the need to give a small facelift to the sign board as it has fainted in its words , not to speak of the deeds it silently “promised” to undertake. Can there be more grievous insult heaped on those who have been sending these leaders to rule and to reap enjoyments of all hues for 67 years ? For God’s sake, please decide.
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