[mrunal]

i tried to post in Essay section but it says I don't have enough priviledges to post there,
so I'm posting this here.


This is an important topic with respect to, Mains General studies (social problem's question ) , Essay & Interview

Here is a brief outline for it.

Towards the ideal of a hunger-free India

"To a people famishing and idle,

the only acceptable form in which God can dare appear is,

work and promise of food as wages."

Mahatma Gandhi (Naokhali, 1946)

poverty is also the first among the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDG),represent a global common minimum programme for human security and well-being.

The Food and Agriculture Organization: FAO says

• achieving the goal of reducing hunger by half by 2015,
• some 75 million more were added to the hunger trap during 2007, principally due to the rise in food prices.
• Nearly 30 million of the 75 million additions are from India.

Five-point action plan :


a) Institutional structures for public policy and coordinated action in nutrition


concurrent attention to food

• (macronutrients and micronutrients, clean drinking water)
• non-food factors (such as sanitation, environmental hygiene, primary health care, nutrition, literacy and work and income security).
• It'll need a fusion of
  1. political will and action,
  2. professional skill
  3. peoples' participation.

b) Learning for success: converting the unique into the universal


learn from successful examples of the elimination of malnutrition, as for example,

• Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Kerala has adopted a universal Public Distribution System (PDS).
• Tamil Nade
  • unique combination of the
    • ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services)
    • TINP (Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project)
      • TINP identified a community worker to concentrate on families with children in the 0-3 age group.
  • From 1982, Tamil Nadu has been operating a universal noon-meal programme for school children, which now covers
    • old age pensioners,
    • destitute,
    • widows
    • pregnant women. Support is being extended to nursing mothers. Further,

• Tamil Nadu is providing rice to the poor at Re. 1 a kg from September 15, 2008.
  
  This will require focussing on two important target groups:

• children under two years of age
• women, especially
  1. adolescent girls
  2. pregnant and nursing women.

c) Action at the local level: community food and water security system


Community food and water security systems including grain, seed, fodder and water banks can be promoted by local bodies. The food basket should be widened so as to include a wide range of millets such as ragi, besides legumes, vegetables and tubers.

[top]d) Action at the State level: coordinating nutrition security initiatives

The State Level Committee on Nutrition Security chaired by the Chief Minister

• implementation of ongoing nutrition safety net programmes
  • (national, bilateral and international)

A media coalition must be formed to include representatives of the print media, audio and video channels, new media including the Internet, and traditional media such as folk dance, music, and street plays.


e) Action at the national level: mainstream nutrition in national missions


Programmes such as the

1. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (Rs. 25,000 crore),
2. National Horticulture Mission (Rs. 20,000 crore)
3. National Food Security Mission (Rs. 5,000 crore)

should have a nutrition advisory board, so that cropping and farming systems are anchored on the principle of food-based nutrition security.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Food Security


all NREGA sites, should have a nutrition clinic operated by a knowledgeable person and a PDS facility.

If food is not available at affordable prices at NREGA sites, most of the Money earned will go towards purchasing staple foods at high cost and under-nutrition will persist.

Some more steps:


• All MLAs and MPs who are provided with Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 2 crore a year respectively for local area development (under MPLADS) should set apart the funds to eliminate malnutrition from their constituencies based on the Gandhi district plan of assisting every family to earn their daily bread.
• corporate social responsibility to projects

1. enhancing the productivity and profitability of small scale farming
2. women's self help groups,
3. strengthening nutrition safety nets
4. eliminating leakages in the delivery system.
   India must not remain home to the largest number of malnourished people in the world.

Reference
Hunger Free India (Essay):Mrunal