Hunger can be defined as an uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food, the want or scarcity of food in a country. World hunger refers to the aggregated to the world level. The target set at the 1996 World Food Summit was to halve the number of undernourished people by 2015 from their number in 1990-92.The estimated number of undernourished people in developing countries was 824 million in 1990-92.In 2009 the number had climbed to 1.02 billion.
According to the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index 2011 India’s food security continues to be alarming. It ranks 67 of the 81 countries of the world with the worst food security status. This means that there are only 14 countries in the world whose citizens have worst nutritional status.
The GHI is based on 3 indicators – the proportion of the population that is undernourished, the proportion of children who are under weight and under five child mortality.
India’s GHI for 2011 was 23.7 lower than it was 15 years ago giving it a rank of 67.Pakistan,Nepal,Rwanda and Sudan did better than India while Bangladesh, Haiti and Democratic Republic of Congo were countries which are worse than India.
India is being among the countries with the least improvement in last 10 years. It has however moved from having an extremely alarming food security situation to alarming.China, Brazil and India are among the countries that have more than halved their GHI scores over the last decade.
The Indian government is not able to introduce a Food Security Bill in the monsoon session and there is little agreement over who qualifies as poor enough to receive subsidized food grain. There is growing volatility in global food markets which is due to three factors: increasing use of food crops for biofuels, extreme weather conditions and climate change and increased volume of trading in commodity future markets.
The report says, ‘The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, to purchase enough food.’
According to the new measure called the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) developed by UNDP acute poverty prevails in eight Indian states which includes Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. They account for more poor people than in the 26 poorest African nations combined.
The new measure called the Multidimensional Poverty Index was developed and applied by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative with UNDP support. The measure reveals the nature and extent of poverty at different levels: from household up to regional, national and international level.
An analysis by its creators reveal that there are more than MPI poor people in 8 Indian states (421 million in Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, MP, Orissa, Rajasthan, UP and West Bengal) than in the 26 poorest African countries combined (410 million).The MPI supplants the Human Poverty Index which had been included in the Annual Human Development Reports since 1997.
The MPI assesses a range of critical factors or deprivations at the household level from education to health outcomes to assets and services. Taken together these factors provide a fuller portrait of acute poverty than simple income measures.
Some alarming statistics:
1/3rd world’s poor is in India. It also has a higher proportion of its population living on less than $ 2 per day than even sub-Saharan Africa.
1/3rd world’s poor is in India. It also has a higher proportion of its population living on less than $ 2 per day than even sub-Saharan Africa.
828 million people or 75.6% of the population is living below $2 a day.42% of the population is living below the new international poverty line.
33% of the global poor are Indians which equals to 14 billion people. Sub-Saharan Africa considered the world’s poorest region is better.
Nagaland, Delhi and J&K have the least number of poor.
41.8% of the rural population survive with monthly per capita consumption expenditure of Rs 447.
They spend only Rs 447 on essential necessities like food, fuel,light and clothing.
According to the Planning Commission’s recent estimates poverty in India came down from 35.97 % in 1993-94 to 27.54% in 2004-05.
Prescription drugs like the opiate pethidine have replaced cannabis and heroin as the drugs of choice among young people in India. Most teenagers start with cannabis before moving to opiates and prescription drugs. The reason is the easy availability of prescription drugs.
Sharing needles is driving new infection in the north-eastern states. Drug injectors account for 1.7% of India’s HIV infections up from 0.9 % two years ago. With Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh emerging as the new epicentres of injecting drugs these numbers are expected to rise in India. The injecting drug use accounts for approx one in three new HIV cases outside sub-Saharan Africa.
According to UNAIDS 2009 report, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia HIV prevalence can be as high as 70% among people who inject drugs. The rise in infections has prompted public health experts to ask governments to decriminalise drug users and lift bans on drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine which are used for substitution maintenance therapy at de-addiction centres.
Drug addicts are reluctant to register at de-addiction centres for fear of harassment by the police .They are patients and not criminals. Scientific evidence has to be incorporated into illicit drug policies that are pushing injectors from prevention and care services infections.
In India adult HIV prevalence has dropped from 0.45% in 2002 to 0.29% in 2008 to its lowest ever number of 2.27 million. All states except Andhra Pradesh are reporting less than 1% infection down from five states in 2002. However unprotected sex ( 87% heterosexual and 1.5% homosexual )remains the biggest route of infection in India.
While the world is focusing on using innovations in science, diagnostics and understanding the virus, India has chosen to stick to the tried and tested methods of controlling HIV.According to NACO, the main focus is on scaling up of existing prevention methods such as preventing mother-to child transmission and ensuring blood safety ,focusing on prevention efforts on the communities where transmission is the highest such as migrants, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers.
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