Mission 2007: A Nutrition Secure India
By: M.S. Swaminathan
India, inspite of the
impressive progress made in enhancing food production in recent decades, is
the home of a very large number of chronically undernourished children,
women and men. A recent analysis of the reasons for food insecurity in
rural and urban India by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and the UN
World Food Program has revealed that inadequate purchasing power arising
from inadequate employment / livelihood opportunities is the primary cause
of under- and mal-nutrition. This situation is due to both high population
pressure on land, and slow growth rate in non-farm employment
opportunities. Maternal and foetal under-nutrition results in the incidence
of low-birth weight babies, with serious long term consequences to the
mental and physical development of the child.
Because of substantial
grain reserves with the Government as a result of the operation of a minimum
support price for wheat, rice and other cereals, the Government of India has
introduced in recent years a wide range of nutrition safety-net programs for
those suffering from poverty. India operates he world’s largest Integrated
Child Development Service (ICDS) and nutritious school meal program. Inspite
of all such innovative social support programs, the incidence of both
endemic and hidden hunger (caused by micro-nutrient deficiencies) is high.
Recently, a special Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) has been introduced in
150 out of the 600 districts of India. The National EGS provided 5 kgs. of
wheat or rice per person per day and 25% of the total wage in cash.
The following are the other
steps being taken to bring down significantly poverty-induced endemic hunger
by 15 August, 2007, which marks the 60th anniversary of
India’s independence.
-
Implement all
nutrition safety net schemes in an integrated manner on a life-cycle
basis; fill gaps with reference to adolescent girls and pregnant
women to avoid children with low birth weight, as well as to infants
with 0-2 age group.
-
Promote the widening
of the food security basket by encouraging the establishment of
Community Grain Banks based on local grains (millets, pulses, etc).
-
Organise a Food
Guarantee Programme combining the principles of Employment Guarantee
Scheme and Food for Work. Engender the Food for Work Programme so as to
assist women to undertake a wide variety of human and social development
programmes.
-
Sustain, strengthen
and spread the on-going self-help revolution (SHGs) by ensuring
backward linkages with technology and credit and forward linkages with
markets.
-
Enhance the
productivity of cropping and farming systems by helping to bridge
the prevailing wide gap between potential and actual yields, through
mutually reinforcing packages of technology, services and public
policies.
-
Promote a Food based
approach to Nutrition Security through the widespread cultivation and
consumption of vegetables, fruits and a wide range of millets, legumes,
tubers and by introducing a nutrition dimension in land use planning.
-
Ensure access to clean
drinking water, environmental hygiene, primary health care and
elementary education.
These steps may help to
remove the image of India being a country with grain mountains and hungry
millions.
Prof. M S Swaminathan,
F.R.S. is
Chairman, National
Commission on Farmers, Govt. of India; President, Pugwash Conferences on
Science and World Affairs; Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation,
Chennai, India. |
