Death by hunger

Many moons back, when I was young, I remember my father acquainting me with what I presumed was a bizarre phenomenon: people died because of hunger. I never quite understood then. How can a person be hungry and die because he did not have any food to eat? It was somewhat shocking too. That was my first introduction to hunger death.

Many moons still have passed by, a lot of water has flowed under many a non constructed bridge and now I have a young son. I am sure he would not understand if I acquaint him with this still prevailing situation of death caused by hunger. To me, it is still shocking that we live in a country, in and at a time and in a place where people have no food to eat and where people die because of starvation!

We are otherwise proud to have a growing group of billionaires.

It is a curse to be born poor and to live life below the poverty level. More so if you are born in India. The authorities simply refuse to accept deaths due to a lack of food. There is a food ration system. People have ration cards, but no food. I have never quite understood why the rich should have ration cards. Perhaps the ration card has different uses for the two classes of people. For the rich, the ration card is a must if you want to get hold of a passport, buy properties, establish your proof of domicile or get a driving license, etc. For the poor, the ration card is a must if he wants to get food to ward off death.

There is flood, drought, man made calamities, poor crop cycles and other natural disasters which force the poor people to eat rats and roots. When the government does not seem to acknowledge deaths caused by hunger, how can it be expected to eradicate this menace? Diseases and unhygienic living conditions lead to death, but the most disgusting thing is death due to malnutrition.

We have been doing everything except providing a man the most basic commodity for him to survive - food.

Meanwhile tons of food go wasted and rot in the FCI warehouses.