Author: Dipendra Singh Tomar, 1st year of B.A.,LL.B., Alliance University, Bangalore
Life without food. Life but not food. A report released by bhookh.com says over 25 lakhs Indian die every year because of hunger. In 2020 also Hunger remains a No. 1 cause of death in the world.
Around the world every second country is chasing for covid-19 vaccine independently or by joining hand with partner country and spending thousands of million, billion in their currency to fight against coronavirus to increase the immunity in a community and to lower the death rate by the coronavirus
But, the biggest problem lies with hunger. The number of deaths by hunger is double the number of deaths by covid-19 or more than that. And the money spent on hunger sector is half than spending on covid-19, not only by India almost every country in the world.
Serious category
Goal second of sustainable development goal (SDG) is zero hunger which is to achieve by 2030. India ranks in the global hunger index 2020 are 94 out of 107 countries under the serious hunger category. In 2019 India's rank in global hunger index was 102 out of 117. So no politician or any government claims that they improve the condition.
Around hunger level of country
Their more than four goals in SDG related to hunger. Hundreds of programmes and events are organised by countries and NGOs related to hunger but after all these efforts hunger remains a top cause of death in every corner of the world. Its main root is related to poverty (goal first of SDG) and poverty-related to unemployment and it relates to the education level of the country. There are many reasons contributed to deaths by hunger. Hunger contributes to the burden on the health system of the country. Hunger also affects the productivity of the country. The most important thing that a human needs to work or to live an enjoyable life is mental peace\health. More than a percentage of India’s population which is in crores sleeps without food which directly affects the health\mental peace.
If we think about all the dimensions in details it is also related to child labour work which directly affects their education in which child started working in shops/factories/industries to help his family or in the pressure of family because of hunger. Sometimes work in hazardous factories leads to a serious health condition or even death. It is also directly related to suicide level of the country by depression/pressure/unemployment any many reasons. In covid-19 situation, the level of suicides is at its peak. Lockdown, after that work from home in this thousand of people, loses their jobs now they are unemployed which directly contribute to hunger level.
What can do?
Almost every second country is spending crores of money from their economy budget on vaccines. And many governments take COVID-19 at a topmost priority which is to be done and it is for people of their country it's good but, the problem is that some of them are taking other issues in the limelight which is going to make a situation worse than it is.
Government need to take all the issue not only coronavirus at their top priority, but the issue relating to unemployment/cases by women/child labour/education all are also an equally important issue and government must take some steps on it. The issue relating to health which is not caused by coronavirus also needs to heed.
Which affects the most?
Hunger level of the country or rank in hunger index is most affected by unemployment level and increase in population level of country analogue to decrease in resources and jobs in the country. Unemployment affects the hunger level of the country most. Unemployment is a root cause of many problems inversely or alike. Unemployment most affects the uneducated person of society. An educated person who is unemployed is like a virus for the poor unemployed uneducated person because the unemployed educated person uses many illegal tricks to deceive the against party. And that uneducated unemployed person day-by-day in depts and it is leading to a hunger problem for him and his family.
A reasonable question in mind of a reasonable person of a country related to hunger level.
People should ask the present government what they have done for the hunger level of the country in his last seven odd years?
What have they done for the unemployment level which directly affects the hunger level of the country?
What have they done for goal 2 of SDG that’s the target is to be achieved by 2030?
What have they done for the educational level in extremely rural areas which also affect the hunger level of the country?
The Huge level of the country depends on many factors which we ignore in our daily life. A day-to-day work also changes a hunger level of family/country in future but we ignore it by only thinking that does not give any benefit at present.
The Government of India also needs to rethink its policy related to hunger and it needs to wider their scope in related fields.