Hunger

Or do we call it malnutrition? Or do we call it N-AIDS, the leading cause of acquired immune dysfunction?

A 2002 study in Bilaspur found that 41% of men and 43% of women had a BMI (body mass index) of less than 18.5. People with a BMI under this threshold are considered to be underweight.

The consequences of low BMI include poor work capacity, which leads to lower income, which in turn leads to less food to eat and a lower BMI. Individuals with low BMI also fall ill more frequently and, and mothers with low BMIs have smaller babies.

Almost 65% of our children below the age of 5 years are undernourished. It is also true that most of the mental development occurs in early childhood, and most malnutrition sets in by the age of 2 to 3 years. This affects a child's learning ability in school, and thus the consequences of early under nutrition are worsened.

Why are we Hungry/Undernourished?

While India's population and its need for food is increasing, there is currently enough food to go around. The problem is with the distribution system and accessibility.

Instead of being consumed locally, rice, the staple crop of India, becomes part of an inefficient national distribution network. It is often left unprotected from the elements and animals. Prices are increasing, and rural areas do not have the economic power to harness the market forces which would pull adequate food in their direction.

Farmers who do produce rice for their own consumption are often small farmers, at the mercy of the increasingly irregular monsoon and debts incurred at high interest for the purchase of seeds and fertilisers.

Illness can precipitate the situation, by both direct and secondary effects. Money that once went to food may be diverted to health care, and wages/farm productivity that may have been earned may be missed due to illness.

Food purchasing in Chhattisgarh

The current policy of food grain subsidy in India, through the Public Distribution System (PDS) is also insufficient to provide food security to the poor. For example, even though the Chhattisgarh Government has recently started a populist programme of providing 35 kg subsidised rice (at Rs 1 or 2 per kg) per month per BPL family, even this does not last a family of 5 more than 15 days, thus even the officially poor have to procure food grains from the open market, where prices have spiralled up lately. (Current minimum price of rice in the area is Rs. 12 per kg). We don't see anything less than 70 kg of food grain per month per family of 4 or 5 being sufficient for maintaining good health in a predominantly cereal based diet. Most other states are not even providing this partial support.

What is alarming is the recent withdrawal of any kind of subsidy on food grains to those not officially poor. In Chhattisgarh, a recent official announcement makes all families without a BPL card ineligible for any subsidised rations at all. This means that even the rice available at Rs. 2/- per kg is now not available and families are forced to buy rice at the prevailing market rates. The consequence of this on the health of people is likely to be grave.

At a family level, weights and heights are the most robust indicators for poverty status and are likely to be better than fallacious poverty line assessment. If the rates of under nutrition are so high, then obviously many non BPL families are undernourished and thus deserve subsidised food rations The market prices are clearly not the exposure that food rights of people be allowed.

What we can do

JSS is addressing the issue of undernutrition through its crèche program and through supporting agricultural initiatives such as SRI.

The social protection in terms of food availability that we propose is:

• 5-70 kilos food grain per family, 3 kilos of daal, possibly oilseeds or oil 1 kilo per month.
• weight or nutrition status based entitlements of food grains (not poverty line based)
• supplementary food grain provision for illnesses of poverty as part of treatment, like TB.