— Dr H K Goswami A report, prepared and released by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (AO) reveals that 2008 had seen the biggest increase in hungry people in the world. According to its preliminary data, more than 960 million people – one in every six people in the world – now go to bed hungry, and 40 million suffered malnourishment in 2008 because of higher prices. The United Nation’s highest humanitarian aid agencies, which house and feed over 100 million people, are facing a deep and potentially long term crisis of funding as governments across the globe slash their aid budgets due to the ongoing financial crisis. Despite cutting over $1 billion from its budget for 2009, largely through savings in the cost of fuel, senior executives of the World Food Programme (WFP) on December 16, 2008, said that it would struggle to meet its commitments to feed 49 million people in 12 of the world’s most hunger-striken countries and was already planning to cut rations, including to Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
The World Food Programme requested $5.2 billion from international donors for 2009, but has so far managed to raise barely $500 million in guaranteed pledges, with $450 million tied to the crisis in Darfur, leading to warnings that warehouses for some of its most critical operations could run out of food. Without a rapid injection of funds, the WFP adds, life-saving food assistance operations will come under threat in 2009 in Bangladesh, Chad, Haiti, Kenya, Uganda and the Republic of the Congo. Food aid operations in Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia could also be jeopardised without new funding by the middle of 2009.
African leaders have already expressed fears that the rich world could cut aid budgets because of the global financial crisis. The World Food Programme’s problems come as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has admitted that it has also seen a sharp drop in donations for its aid efforts. Donations from governments for the organisation which cares for 33 million people were down by 6 per cent. “This is of grave concern”, said Peter Kessler of UNHCR on December 16, 2008. “Agencies have different funding structures”, said Greg Barrow, senior executive of the World Food Programme in Rome on December 16, 2008. “We raise our budget almost entirely from voluntary donations from governments, almost 95 per cent. We have managed to raise our budget down for 2009 by almost $1 billion. But what we are concerned about is the 12 biggest humanitarian emergencies. We do not have enough confirmed donations for nine of them and we are already having to cut rations in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.” The World Food Programme is also capping the size of families it can support to six and telling larger families they will have to share their food. “It is the only way that we can stretch the resources”, Greg Barrow said.
Significantly, hunger levels among several Indian states are also distressing. A report, prepared and released by the United States (US) based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in collaboration with Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide, California, reveals that Punjab, the granary of India, ranks below countries like Honduras and Vietnam in terms of hunger levels while Madhya Pradesh has the most severe level of hunger in the country, followed by Jharkhand and Bihar. The Country Report, released on October 14, 2008, two days ahead of the World Food Day (October 16), says that “When Indian States are compared to countries in the 2008 Global Hunger Index (GHI), Madhya Pradesh ranks between Ethiopia and Chad. Punjab, the best performing State, is below Gabon, Honduras and Vietnam. “India is home to the world’s largest food insecure population, with more than 200 million people who are hungry”, the India State Hunger Index (ISHI) reveals. The country’s poor performance is driven by the high levels of child under-nutrition and poor calorie count. ‘India’s rates of child malnutrition are higher than most countries in sub-Saharan Africa”, the ISHI says.
India, which scored 66th place in the 2008 Global Hunger list of 88 countries, does not have a single State in the “low hunger’ or moderate hunger” categories. Despite years of robust economic growth, India scored worse than nearly twenty five sub-Saharan African countries and all of South Asia, except Bangladesh.
The India State Hunger Index measures hunger on three leading indicators and combine them into one index. The three indicators are: prevalence of child malnutrition, rates of child mortality and the proportion of people who are calorie deficient. This approach is similar to the 2008 Global Hunger Index, which includes India, and was released on October 14, 2008.
The India State Hunger Index found that 12 States fell in the “alarming’ category, and one State, namely, Madhya Pradesh, fell in the “extremely alarming” category. Four States, namely, Assam, Haryana, Punjab and Kerala, were in the ‘serious’ category. India’s slightly better performance relative to Bangladesh is entirely due to better access to food in India, which in turn is a consequence of India’s higher agricultural productivity. On the other two components of the Global Hunger Index, namely, child mortality and child under-weight, India ranks below Bangladesh.
In a few States, such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, calorie deficiency contributes almost as much as child under weight. The State Hunger Index identified that strong economic growth does not necessarily translate into lower hunger levels. Even States with high rates of economic growth in recent years, such as Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, and Maharshtra, have high levels of hunger, while States with relatively slower economic growth, such as Punjab, achieved a lower hunger level.
(The writer is former Principal, Mangaldoi College). ASSAM TRIBUNE
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