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Ten Point Agenda For Action during the tenth Five Year Plan period (2002 - 2007)
The participants in this consultation on "Towards a Hunger-free India" convened jointly by the Planning Commission of the Government of India, the M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation of India, and the United Nations World Food Programme, firmly believe that hunger is the worst form of human deprivation and that there is now no technological, social or economic justification for its widespread persistence. Targeting our resources at the most under privileged is hence an absolute imperative. We will be able to partly judge the success of the Consultation’s long term achievement in the light of two key dates: the number of Indians who remain undernourished in 2007, which is the 60th Anniversary of India's Independence and also the final year of the 10th Five Year Plan; and 2015, the target date set by the Rome World Food Summit for reducing the number of children, women and men going to bed hungry by fifty percent. Both the Government of India and the respective ministries and organizations we represent, hereby pledge ourselves to work towards a significant reduction in the number of hungry in India by these dates. We, would like to reaffirm the definition of food security accepted by the Heads of States who attended the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996: "food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life". In the light of this definition, we would like to reiterate the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, clean drinking water, primary health care and education. The question of hunger needs to be viewed in a framework of food insecurity which covers the following dimensions; (a) Availability of food, which is a function of home production and net imports, (b) Access to food, which is a function of purchasing power, sustainable livelihoods and employment opportunities, (c) Absorption and Utilization of food, which is a function of access to clean drinking water, environmental hygiene and primary health care and nutrition practices, (d) Vulnerability, which covers external factors affecting food security, viz. natural and human-made disasters, and (e) Sustainability, which involves attention to the conservation and enhancement of natural resources like land, water, forests and biodiversity. After a detailed debate and analysis of the above dimensions of hunger and food insecurity, we affirm that the real challenge is not only one of achieving self-sufficiency in the production of food grains, but of reducing disparities in regional food availability and making use of production potentials in an environmentally sustainable manner. Creating employment opportunities and promoting sustainable livelihoods are critical for ensuring that the poorest gain access to food. Better health care facilities, access to safe drinking water and sufficient micro-nutrient intake will ensure that food is properly absorbed. Ending gender discrimination, and in particular, increasing female literacy are crucial for improving child care and nutrition practices. In areas prone to disaster, development must be safeguarded through investments in disaster mitigation. Our strong belief is that to have an effective programme, we need to first understand the region and culture specific problems at the grassroots level of a village, a community and individuals within a household. We call upon policy planners and administrators to develop a set of policies and programmes and to achieve convergence and synergy among existing programmes, so as to ensure sustainable food security at the national level and the elimination of household level poverty-induced chronic hunger by the year 2007. We have identified the
following ten action points, which could be initiated at various levels as
integrated components of a "Freedom from Hunger Movement". 1. Identification of the
vulnerable individuals The first step is to identify families and individuals suffering from endemic hunger and malnutrition. This is best done by the Gram Sabha. Usually, such families/individuals tend to have limited or no access to productive assets like land, cattle, fishponds and education. They often live by daily unskilled wage work. The methodology of the Food Insecurity Atlas of Rural India is a tool that can help in identifying the hotspots of hunger. 2. Information Empowerment Families/individuals identified as vulnerable to endemic hunger can be given Household Entitlement Cards which give information on all Government projects (both Central and State Government) relating to poverty and hunger elimination, to which they are entitled. The various government projects should be dis-aggregated by gender, age, class and caste and precise information provided on methods of accessing the benefits to which people are entitled. Land ownership records should be periodically updated and made available to all concerned. Such steps will enable all eligible persons to derive benefit from their entitlements, for which provisions exist in the budget of the Central and State Governments. Also the Panchayats / local bodies should be empowered legally, administratively and financially to assume the responsibilities assigned to them under schedule eleven of constitution amendment 73. 3. Eliminating Protein Calorie Malnutrition and Energy Deprivation Existing projects like the targeted Public Distribution System and nutrition programmes (eg. Integrated Child Development Services, Mid Day Meals and Antyodaya Anna Yojana) will have to be mobilised to ensure that they reach those who have so far been bypassed by such schemes. The PDS should include the distribution of nutritious cereals like jowar, bajra, ragi and millets because they have a low cost and high calorie / protein / micro-nutrient advantage. Knowledge on childcare and healthcare practices as well as support services should be targeted to pregnant and nursing mothers, so as to ensure effective protein-calorie nutrition of young children. ICDS should encourage increased involvement of women in the management of feeding programmes. Greater attention is needed to appropriate supplementary nutrition for children in the 0-2 age group, the most critical period in terms of brain and body growth, and also the most neglected in ICDS, and the group with the highest established levels of malnutrition. This will ensure better health and nutrition of both the infants and mothers. Reaching the un-reached and giving operational content to Gandhiji’s concept of Antyodaya are major challenges. Food assistance agencies should accord priority to cost-efficiency and programme-effectiveness. The large surplus food reserves available with Government provide unique and uncommon opportunities for establishing a national grid of Community Grain Banks. Such Banks administrated by local self-help groups could become the vehicle for administering food for work, antyodaya anna yojana, targeted public distribution system and all such schemes designed to assist the vulnerable sections of the population. 4. Eliminating Hidden Hunger
caused by Micronutrient Deficiencies A multi-pronged strategy consisting of direct interventions like the fortification of food, the administration of oral doses of vitamin A, iron and iodine fortified salt, as well as the promotion of the cultivation of vegetables and trees like amla in the small areas surrounding huts/homes (home garden), can be introduced in every village. ‘India-mix’ which is fortified with essential vitamins and distributed through ICDS centres in selected states should be extended to all States and Union Territories. The highest priority should go to the elimination of hidden hunger as soon as possible since this is an easily achievable task. The programmes can be designed on a campaign mode as in the case of vaccination for important diseases. 5. Safe Drinking Water and
Environmental Hygiene Environmental hygiene can be improved through co-operation among local communities. Every village and town should have a plan for the treatment and recycling of solid and liquid wastes. Waste recycling could also become a remunerative enterprise and self-help groups can be trained to take up such environment enhancing enterprises. Clean drinking water is necessary to ensure the efficient biological absorption and digestion of food in the body. In addition, the consumption of boiled water should be encouraged and facilitated. This one step could help in reducing infant and child mortality rates significantly. 6. Enhancing Purchasing Power through Sustainable Livelihoods There is need for synergy among the farm and non-farm employment programmes in different agro-climatic zones. Efforts should include the corporate and business sectors in contract farming and buy back arrangements of the farm products. This will increase employment opportunities in the rural areas. Productivity enhancement and market development need priority attention. Livestock and agro-forestry are important to livelihood security in semi-arid and arid areas. Appropriate infrastructure for perishable commodities including livestock and poultry products as well as fruits, vegetables and flowers should be developed as soon as possible. The Rural Infrastructure Development Fund needs to be harnessed for this purpose. Every individual should be able to earn his/her daily bread through economically and ecologically viable means of self-employment. To this end, the organisation of an innovative National Programme for Sustainable Livelihood Security with provisions for both skilled and unskilled work and for value-added on-farm and non-farm employment should be considered for inclusion in the Tenth Five Year Plan. Assistance under such a programme can take the form of food, cash and infrastructure. 7. Special Attention to
Women and Children While all the above programmes should accord equal attention to men, women and children, special steps are essential to attend to the needs of pregnant and nursing mothers and pre-school children. There are several national and state schemes intended to help adolescent girls, pregnant and nursing women. They can be listed in the Household Entitlement Cards, to ensure that the coverage of such projects includes the excluded. Education, social mobilisation and regulation are essential for overall empowerment of women including prevention of female foeticide and infanticide. The highest priority in Panchayat level monitoring should go to both the incidence of Low Birth Weight (LBW) children and the male-female sex ratio. The serious consequences of LBW in relation to brain development and subsequent health should become widely known. Sex ratio is an important indicator of the status of women in the society. Women’s role as nutritional caretakers as well as their work outside the house have to be equally acknowledged. Their educational level, nutritional status and control over food resources and assets are all determinants of household food security. Thus strengthening opportunities and options for women and making them key players is the first step to alleviate hunger. 8. Strengthening Food Based
Safety Nets There is an immediate need to strengthen food based safety nets in a manner that food assistance plays an important role in ensuring minimum nutritional intake for the most undernourished people. ICDS and the Mid Day meal programme are very relevant examples. The focus of food assistance should shift from merely appeasing hunger in the short term towards enabling development of human faculties. Programmes such as FFW (Food for Work) should use food consumption to encourage investment and leave behind a lasting asset which will continue to help the community, household or individual into the future. With respect to natural resource management and disaster mitigation, FFW can be used to promote sustainable livelihoods for the food insecure. This requires action by concerned Ministries, Government and Non Government Organisations, in a variety of sectors, integrated under a coherent policy framework for food assistance. Action with respect to geographic and gender targeting as well as to age and social status together with refocusing on specific nutritional gaps, will lead to greater and more speedy impact. Drawing from the best experience available there is an urgent need to develop more effective mechanisms for the delivery of food assistance programmes. 9. Linking Disaster
Mitigation with Development Both at the national and global level there is an immediate need to link disaster mitigation with development. Without disaster preparedness, development itself is at risk. Increased attention is needed to find ways of mitigating the effects of natural disasters so that a single calamity does not push some people over the edge. An example of a mitigation activity is local level grain and water banks, which provide assistance at both the community and household level. Food Assistance is a powerful tool in tackling hunger at times of natural disasters: the challenge is to ensure that distributions are in accord with the demands of development, while at the same time safe-guarding the most vulnerable sections of society. Where appropriate, additional food assistance should be targeted to disaster-prone areas that are home to many food insecure people. It should strengthen the ability of these households to cope better with short term shocks. Food assistance should combine with other investments under the umbrella of a broad food security strategy. 10. Greater Market Access to
Farm products Industrialised countries must provide greater market access to the farm products of developing countries. If trade and not aid is to become the pathway for poverty reduction, trade should become not only free but also fair. At the same time, greater attention and investment will be needed to strengthen our efforts in the areas of ecotechnology, post-harvest technology, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and adherence to FAO Codex Alimentarius standards. Emphasis on food quantity and safety is vital not only for attracting and retaining global markets, but even more importantly to protect the health of the poor. In addition, restrictions on farmers selling their products anywhere in the country should be removed. If foreign farmers could enjoy the privilege of removal of quantitative restrictions on exports to India, Indian farmers should enjoy the same privilege not only abroad but also within the country. In conclusion, we are of this firm view that given an appropriate blend of political will and action, professional skill and people's participation, India will make substantial progress in realising Mahatma Gandhi's vision of a hunger-free nation by August 15, 2007. There could be no better way of commemorating the 60th anniversary of India’s independence.
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