Running a household of seven people was not easy for 20-year-old Pooja Verma, who was doing two jobs before the pandemic. The domestic help worked as a beautician in a parlour, while her brothers worked as daily wage earners. Living in a shack on a vacant plot in Gurgaon, he and his family were always in the throes of hunger. But once the Covid-induced lockdown began in March 2020, for almost a month, they were left half-hearted. “The pandemic lockdown killed us financially. Within a month, all the savings were exhausted. By May 2020, we were able to get only one meal, thanks to the generosity of the landlords in whose homes I worked as a maid. ”
Pooja says that her Aadhaar is registered at her village address in Uttar Pradesh, so her family could not avail PDS benefits in Haryana. She says, “There is no trace of peace. But to update address on Aadhaar, we need documents which we do not have. They are sorry that they could not avail any government covid relief scheme.
He has only one story among millions. Enterprises in villages and slums, and heartbreaking stories of hunger during the lockdown will emerge.
Hunger Games is not a new thing in India. Sometimes, these stories reach us in the form of CSR advertisements on the media, sometimes in the form of death figures in news reports.
Concern for India’s food security raised its head again recently, when the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 ranked India at 101st out of 116 ranks, up from 94 in 2020. The ranking places India below its neighbors Sri Lanka, China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Nepal.
The GHI is a peer-reviewed report published by Concerns Worldwide and Wealthungerhilfe, designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional and national levels. Its aim is to initiate action to reduce hunger around the world.
Predictably, the Indian government took strong objection to the ranking, saying, “It is shocking that the Global Hunger Report 2021 lowered India’s rank based on the ratio of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization, a United Nations body). The malnourished population, which is devoid of ground reality and facts and suffers from serious methodological issues. The publishing agencies of Global Hunger Report, Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe have not done due diligence.”
It also termed the methodology used by the FAO as unscientific and alleged that the evaluation was the result of an opinion poll involving four questions posed by Gallup over the telephone, with no measurements of weight and height. The Center also says that the report disregards its massive effort to ensure food security of the entire population during the pandemic, on which verifiable data is available. Even the representativeness of the vote was questioned.
A senior official, on condition of anonymity, said, “The government’s response is justified. Many of the efforts made to fight hunger were blatantly ignored while calculating the ranks. Also, the four parameters used are faulty.”
Notably, FAO’s report ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021’ states that four Asian countries—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka—are absolutely at risk of job/business losses and shortages induced by the pandemic. were not affected. income level. Rather, they have improved their position on the indicator ‘Proportion of undernourished population’ by the following percentages: 4.3, 3.3, 1.3 and 0.8, between 2018-20 and 2017-19, respectively.
The FAO defines hunger as an uncomfortable or painful bodily sensation caused by insufficient consumption of dietary energy. It becomes chronic when a person does not regularly consume enough calories (dietary energy) to lead a normal, active and healthy life.
Hitting out at the Modi government, the Congress tweeted from its official handle: “Our country is better than a PR obsessed government that can’t be bothered to feed its people.” Congress leader Kapil Sibal tweeted, “Congratulations to Modi ji: 1) poverty 2) hunger 3) making India a global power 4) for our digital economy 5) … and many more. Global Hunger Index: 2020: India ranked 94th, 2021: India at 101st position, behind Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.
India’s ranking has also been criticized from several quarters. Deepa Sinha, an assistant professor of economics at Delhi’s Ambedkar University and a member of the Right to Food campaign, said the methodology of calculating GHI is lacking, but the Indian government’s response is also wrong.
“The main criticism of the Indian government is that the GHI is based on a Gallup survey. this is wrong. GHI is based on FAO undernutrition data, which is based on government data. So, the methodology can be debated, but that is because, as many others have pointed out, it may have led to an underestimation of appetite, rather than an underestimation of it. In fact, according to a more robust methodology, India would have performed much worse in the post-Covid period.”
Notably, child nutrition trends across India, based on stunting and wasting, had improved in 2016-18, but the government has failed to provide data since 2018. With economic shocks like the Covid-19 lockdown, job losses, migration, closure of anganwadis and schools failing to provide mid-day meals to children, its impact could have easily been prevented.
Sinha also points out: “The problem with the GHI is that there is no annual data for all countries, so the ranks are not comparable.” But she emphasizes GHI’s message that India continues to lag behind in its rankings, which needs to be addressed. Hunger means not just filling the stomach, but also nutrition.
“Covid has affected food consumption and nutrition in India. A small survey has revealed that amid high inflation and disruption in government food schemes like ICDS, expensive food items like pulses and oil are disappearing from the plates. We should take GHI as a warning sign and try to do better in the next report rather than deny it,” she suggests.
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The Government of India claims that:
It has implemented Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and Atma Nirbhar Bharat Yojana (ANBS) in response to the pandemic. There were 32.2 million tonnes of food grains in 2020 and 32.8 million tonnes in 2021
Free allocated to 80 crore people.
… It has increased MGNREGA wages by Rs 20 with effect from April 1, 2020, to provide an additional Rs 2,000 benefit to about 13.62 crore (136.2 million) families.
… It has given an ex-gratia of Rs 500 per month for three months between April and June 2020 to 204 million women having accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.
It has given Rs 1,000 per month from April to June 2020 to 30 million aged widows and “disabled” people to tide over the covid-19 induced financial hardships.
(It appeared in the print edition as “Hunger Games 2021”)
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