When hunger is history and gram swaraj a reality

What should we consider as our principal achievements on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of our independence on August 14-15, 2007? In my view, providing every child, woman and man in our country an opportunity for a healthy and productive life through concurrent attention to nutrition and education should be our overriding priority.

We no longer experience famines unlike in the colonial period when serious famines occurred almost once in five years. However, food security at the level of every household defined in terms of access to balanced diet and clean drinking water, is still a far cry. Over 250 million children, women and men will go to bed tonight partially hungry.

According to the mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Plan by the Union Planning Commission, we are off-track in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goal of reducing the incidence of hunger by half by 2015.

What is worse is the widespread incidence of maternal and foetal under-nutrition leading to the birth of babies characterized by low birth weight (LBW). Such LBW children face even at birth handicaps in terms of brain development and cognitive abilities.

Denying a child the right to realize its innate genetic potential for physical and mental development is the cruelest form of inequity. Any nation which undervalues its human resource and over-values its material resources like land and building will always remain poor. This is the basic cause of the Indian enigma, where excellence in many areas of human endeavour and science and technology co-exists with extensive poverty and deprivation and inhuman living conditions for 25 per cent of the population.

This is not a God-given destiny, but entirely man-made. How then can we shape our destiny in the direction of making hunger history and gram swaraj a reality?

Hunger has three dimensions—chronic under-nutrition arising from inadequate purchasing power; hidden, caused by the deficiency of micronutrients in the diet like iron, iodine, zinc and vitamin A; and transient, caused by earthquakes, tsunami, drought, floods and other natural calamities.

The hunger hot spot areas in our country are largely rainfed with poor infrastructure and communication. The present conditions of food insecurity prevailing in the earthquake affected areas in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in Pakistan are examples of transient hunger. Where there is a problem there is invariably also an affordable and implementable solution.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act will help to reduce chronic under-nutrition. In my view, this should be developed into a Food Guarantee Act by August 15, 2007, combining the features of the Food for Work and Employment Guarantee programmes. We must increase consumption if we are to induce our farmers to produce more. Enabling small farmers to enhance productivity will help to eradicate hunger considerably.

Unlike in industrialized countries, where 2 to 3 per cent of the population depend upon agriculture for their livelihood, over 60 per cent of our population depend on crop and animal husbandry, fisheries, agro-forestry and agro-processing for their daily bread.

The National Commission on Farmers (NCF) has suggested methods of enhancing small farm productivity in their first two reports submitted to the Government of India in December 2004 and August 2005. Improving soil health, particularly addressing micro-nutrient deficiencies in the soil, besides improved water conservation and management will help greatly to bridge the prevailing wide gap between potential and actual yields in most cropping systems.

Hidden hunger caused by micronutrient deficiencies can be overcome through an integrated food-cum-fortification approach, including multiple fortification of salt. Transient hunger can be eliminated through a national grid of Community Grain Banks operated by local women’s Self-Help Groups. Priority in the location of the Grain Banks should go to areas where communication tends to be disrupted during the monsoon season or during natural calamities as in hilly areas and islands.

There is no time to relax on the production front. Both absolute and factor productivity (i.e. response to fertilizer, water, etc.) are going down. The rate of growth in food production is now much below that of population growth rate. The multiple role of agriculture as the backbone of our food, livelihood and ecological security systems as well as of national sovereignty is yet to be widely realized.

Farmers in industrialized countries operate large farms supported by heavy inputs of capital, technology and subsidy. In contrast, the 25 per cent of the global farming population living in our country suffer from serious constraints in the areas of technology, input supply, services and public policies, particularly in the areas of pricing, marketing and rural infrastructure.

Our agriculture is increasingly becoming a gamble in the market and without arrangements for assured and remunerative marketing, farmers will lose interest in farming. There is need for an integrated strategy which involves attention to defending the gains already made, extending the gains to dry farming areas and making new gains through farming systems diversification, value addition and enlarging home and external trade.

Defending the gains will involve proactive research to meet the challenges of climate change and the incidence of new diseases. In particular, we should immediately strengthen our capacity in Biosecurity as suggested by NCF last year. H5N1 strain of bird flu virus can kill millions of both poultry and human beings. Alien invasive species of pests, pathogens and weeds can do immense harm to our crop and animal security.

The challenges are formidable but they can be overcome if we use the power of democratic decentralization through Panchayati Raj institutions. Every Gram Panchayat can develop and operate a community food and water security system. By harnessing the tools of the internet and community radio, every village can become a knowledge centre.

Knowledge Connectivity should become the backbone of the Bharat Nirman movement. Fortunately, a National Alliance, consisting of all the stakeholders, assisted by an International Support Group, has been formed to make Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre a reality.

Complex problems can be solved only by disaggregating the analysis as well as the action plan. This is where the over 3 million elected members of Panchayats, including over a million women members, can become the torch bearers of an India Empowered Movement designed to make hunger and illiteracy problems of the past.