GS Paper III

News Excerpt:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched a report titled Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2023: Statistics and Trends.

India related findings:

• 74.1% of Indians were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021, compared to 76.2 in 2020.
• The report states that 16.6% of the country's population is undernourished, with impacts on health, nutritional well-being, economic and social costs.
• India recorded the highest rate of stunted growth among children under five years of age, with 18.7% facing this major health problem.
• The report also noted that 53% of the country's women aged between 15 and 49 had anemia.
• The report warns that 1.6% of the country's adults are obese as of 2000, which has increased to 3.9% by 2016.
• India has improved its prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding among infants 0-5 months of age, with a percentage of 63.7%, higher than the world prevalence of 47.7%.
• India has the highest prevalence of low birthweight in the region (27.4%), followed by Bangladesh and Nepal.

Asia and Pacific related findings:

• In Pakistan, 82.2% and in Bangladesh, 66.1% of the population faced difficulties in finding healthy food.
• Sri Lanka, Iran, Indonesia, Myanmar, Fiji, and Mongolia are the only countries showing an increase in the percentage of people unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021 compared to 2020.
• Rising food costs, if not matched by rising income, will lead to more people unable to afford a healthy diet.
• Asia and the Pacific region, which accounts for half of the world's severe food insecurity, continues to suffer from protracted effects during the COVID-19 pandemic and the "5Fs" crisis – Food, Feed, Fuel, Fertilisers, and Finance.
• Southern Asia showed higher prevalence of severe food insecurity compared to other subregions, while Eastern Asia had the lowest prevalence.
• The report highlights the progress in meeting Sustainable Development Goals and World Health Assembly (WHA) global nutrition targets.

Causes of rising hunger:

• Food insecurity and malnutrition jeopardize the life chances of youth: The youth are emerging into adulthood in a context of inherently unequal and unsustainable food systems that fail to deliver food and nutrition security and that are highly vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation.
• These shortcomings are particularly problematic given the unique food and nutrition needs of youth and the data showing these needs are not being met in low and middle-income countries.
• Gender discrimination: Women and girls make up about 60 percent of severely hungry people.
• In many low- and middle-income countries, women, particularly in lower-income groups, are responsible for producing and preparing food and obtaining water and firewood.
• During periods of food scarcity, women and girls often eat last and least, making them more vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity.
• The loss of food sovereignty weakens food systems: The loss of food sovereignty, particularly in the world’s low- and middle-income countries, has been hastened by several major factors, including colonialism, poor governance, and the intensive capitalization of food systems, the widespread growth of monocultures in agriculture, and some of the negative outcomes of the Green Revolution.
• In many areas, local farmers are excluded from seed systems and have limited control over what they plant, relegating indigenous crops to the status of neglected crops.

Way Ahead:

• The concept of food sovereignty needs attention to four critical factors: people and their rights, the quality of food produced, cultural aspects of food systems, and environmental well-being.
• A global forum held in Nyeleni Village, Mali, in 2007 resulted in a declaration that defined food sovereignty as “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food” produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.
• In this way, the gender discrimination can also be tackled.
• Need for nutrition and food security assistance: Food produced in indigenous manner has long term nutritious values and positive effects on human health.
• The current youth generation eventually in near future turning towards dependable population, will lead to rise in non-communicable diseases if at present not prevented from intake of bad cholesterols.
• Water, sanitation, and hygiene needs to be taken care of as it can help the families to live and eat better.
• Policy making and Youth participation: Although policymakers have begun to seek out young people’s voices and perspectives, the share of youth in formal decision-making forums is negligible, and the increased focus on youth participation in some policy dialogues is necessary for the meaningful impact.
• Economic recovery and market systems through up-skilling the entrepreneurial energy: In the coming years, the skilling-up programmes can open new possibilities for business; trainings provided by private sector can help to improve skills and product quality.

Mains PYQ

Q. How far do you agree with the view that the focus on the lack of availability of food as the main cause of hunger takes the attention away from ineffective human development policies in India? (UPSC 2018)

Q. There is a growing divergence in the relationship between poverty and hunger in India. The shrinking of social expenditure by the government is forcing the poor to spend more on non-food essential items squeezing their food budget. Elucidate. (UPSC 2019)