Why is it that politicians never starve? A good question to put to the lethargic midgets of the Naveen Patnaik ministry who are so busy denying Opposition charges that there are starvation deaths occurring in the state that they have no time or energy to do anything about it. In the process, while the high-decibel debate goes on in Bhubaneswar over whether people are dying of hunger or of ``natural causes'', villages in the western districts of the state are reeling under the aftermath of a failed monsoon. This newspaper reported on Thursday that the desperate folk of Bargarh - one of the drought affected districts - are digging deep into the ground for the poisonous kulihakanda roots in a bid to stem their hunger. If they die from such unwholesome meals, the Biju Janata Dal will no doubt claim that they died from ``natural causes''- nature being the convenient scapegoat for human ineptitude and callousness.Yet, there is no reason why the state government could not have anticipated such a development, seeing the pattern of the last monsoon. Regions like Bargarh, as indeed Bolangir, Deogarh, Sambalpur, Naupara and Kendrapara to the east - to name some of the worst affected districts - are not exactly unfamiliar with the ravages of famine. Every drought, especially in regions inhabited by tribals, results in a similar pattern: The rains fail. The crops dry up. The able-bodied migrate in search of jobs. The most vulnerable are left behind to eke out an existence as best they can and they include the old and infirm, the women and children. Remember also that, even in the best of times, communities in these districts are among the most malnourished in the country, with the highest infant mortality rates. Under such conditions, the slightest reversal - like the failure of just one monsoon - is enough to devastate the lives of large numbers.Managing a drought then without loss of human life is a challenge for every good administration. If 21 of Orissa's 30 districts are affected by drought, as is being claimed, states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh too have had to wrestle with the same spectre. Arguably, the political rulers in these states have done better than the Biju Janata Dal-led coalition seems to have. At any rate, reports of starvation deaths have not started trickling in from these states, as they have from Orissa. This demands more than the soft option of demanding funds from the Centre. It demands exemplary action - both in the short and long terms. The Patnaik government must immediately set up free kitchens, institute food-for-work schemes more extensively and ensure that effective healthcare is locally available. As for the future, the situation requires ensuring nothing less than the nutritional security of a people. And ``nutritional security'', as renowned nutritionist C. Gopalan has reminded us, is more than mere``food security''; more than just freedom from starvation. It includes, within its ambit, the regular intake of a wide range of foods that allows people to achieve their full physical and mental potential.
