World Food Day is celebrated on 16 October. This year it highlights the “Right to Food,” emphasizing the need for a hunger-free world where everyone has access to food. While India has made progress toward food security, there are still failures in ensuring that everyone gets enough food. Some people still go hungry because they don’t have the means to buy food. One possible solution is to set up food banks that collect surplus food to prevent waste and distribute it to those in need. Overall, the article stresses that countries that are proud of being food-sufficient should also work toward becoming hunger-free by ensuring no one is left behind.
The article published in the editorial section of The Hindu Newspaper explains that ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition is a global goal set for 2030. However, this goal is hard to achieve because of several challenges, including conflicts, climate change, and economic problems, especially in vulnerable and food-deficient regions. Hunger and malnutrition happen when people don’t have enough access to healthy food, either because they can’t afford it or the food is not available. Simply having food isn’t enough – it also needs to be nutritious. For a country to be food-secure, it must ensure everyone can access affordable and healthy diets.
Around the world, hunger is still a big problem. In 2023, 757 million people (9.4% of the world’s population) were undernourished. Africa has the highest percentage of hungry people, with 20.4% facing hunger, while Asia has the largest number of hungry people, with 384.5 million. By 2030, it’s expected that half of the world’s hungry people will be in Africa. Hunger is more common in rural areas, though it also affects women more than men, although the gap is closing.
The cost of a healthy diet has been rising worldwide. In 2022, the average cost of a healthy meal was $3.96 per person per day, and in Asia, it was $4.20. While the number of people who can’t afford a healthy diet slightly decreased from 2.88 billion in 2021 to 2.83 billion in 2022, many people in low-income countries still struggle to access nutritious food. This high cost makes the goal of zero hunger by 2030 seem difficult to achieve. A solution could involve controlling food prices and making sure that people spend less of their total income on food, which would make healthy meals more affordable.
In India, a large part of the rural population (63.3% in 2011) couldn’t afford a required healthy diet, even if they spent all their income on food. This shows that food security has not improved much, and economic access to healthy diets remains uneven. To solve this, India needs to improve its agriculture and food system to make sure healthy diets are available and affordable for everyone.
Diets in India are often unhealthy. Many people, even the richest, eat more processed foods and fewer protein-rich or nutritious foods. This problem is not just about affordability; it’s also about availability, awareness, and acceptance of healthier foods. In South Asia, a healthy diet can cost about 60% of the average daily income, making it hard for many to afford nutritious food. Even though basic foods like cereals are more affordable in India because of subsidies, the lack of a healthy diet is still common.
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranks India poorly compared to other nations, but the article argues that hunger is more complicated than what the GHI measures. The GHI focuses on nutrition and child mortality, but hunger also involves whether people are getting enough meals daily. According to surveys in India, 3.2% of the population doesn’t get 60 meals per month, and 2.5% of the population might not have two square meals a day. That’s about 3.5 crore (35 million) people in India who still suffer from hunger.
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The Editorial Page of The Hindu is an essential reading for all the students aspiring for UPSC, SSC, PCS, Judiciary etc or any other competitive government exams.
This may also be useful for exams like CUET UG and CUET PG, GATE, GMAT, GRE AND CAT
To read this article in Hindi –https://bhaarat.hellostudent.co.in/