What is food security?
A person is said to be food insecure when they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. This may be due to unavailability of food and/or lack of resources to obtain food. Food insecurity can be experienced at different levels of severity.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), food security is a situation when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life. Food security is a challenge that is becoming a hard target to achieve as the days pass.
Food security, as defined by the World Food Summit (WFS) and the Food and Agricultural Organization, ‘exists when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary and food preferences for an active life.
Why we need food security?
Food security is required to ensure that each individual has access to safe and healthy food at all times of the year.
Food security entails ensuring adequate food supply to people, especially those who are deprived of basic nutrition.
During a natural disaster, the rates of food rise (due to shortage of food). Food security is required so that it ensures that food grains are distributed at cheap rates to the poor, so that they do not starve.
Why we need hunger map?
World Food Production’s Hunger Map depicts the prevalence of undernourishment in the population of each country in 2016-18. From Africa and Asia to Latin America and the Near East, there are 821 million people – more than 1 in 9 of the world population – who do not get enough to eat.
The Hunger map plays a key role in providing high frequency data to track food security trends in real-time and support decision-making processes. Alibaba Group and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) announced in September 2019 that they will launch a digital map to track food-security issues across the globe.
The Hunger Map LIVE launched on 16th October 2019, on World Food Day. The map is available for anyone to use.
What’s the data of hungry people in India?
According to FAO estimates in ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2020 report, 189.2 million people are undernourished in India. By this measure 14% of the population is undernourished in India. Also, 51.4% of women in reproductive age between 15 to 49 years are anemic. Further according to the report 34.7% of the children aged under five in India are stunted (too short for their age), while 20% suffer from wasting, meaning their weight is too low for their height. Malnourished children have a higher risk of death from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria.
The Global Hunger Index 2019 ranks India at 102 out of 117 countries on the basis of three leading indicators prevalence of wasting and stunting in children under 5 years, under 5 child mortality rate, and the proportion of undernourished in the population.
India is home to the largest undernourished population in the world.
189.2 million people i.e. 14% of our population is undernourished;
20% of children under 5 are underweight;
34.7% of children under 5 years of age are stunted;
51.4% women in the reproductive age (15-49 years) are anaemic;
What percentage of people is below poverty line in india?
The percentage of the population living below the poverty line in India decreased to 22% in 2011-12 from 37% in 2004-05, according to data released by the Planning Commission in July 2013. This blog presents data on poverty estimates data till 2011- 2012 are as follows :
| Year | Rural | Urban | Total |
| 1993 – 94 | 50.1 | 31.8 | 45.3 |
| 2004 – 05 | 41.8 | 25.7 | 37.2 |
| 2009 – 10 | 33.8 | 20.9 | 29.8 |
| 2011 – 12 | 25.7 | 13.7 | 21.9 |
What is status of hunger in city of Mumbai and adjoining area?
Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra and financial capital of India is home to millions of people living in various slum pockets in Kurla, Bandra, Dharavi, Ghatkopar and other places. Typically characterized by poor access to clean water, lack of food and proper nutrition and poor health and hygiene, children in most Mumbai slums suffer from malnutrition.
The census, done by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Action Aid, reveals that more than 37,000 children live on the streets of Mumbai and a startling 25 per cent of them (more than 9000) go hungry every day.
Food insecurity, as measured by the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), was found in a large number of households in the urban slums of Mumbai; 59.7 % (n = 169) households were categorized as severely food-insecure, 16.6 % (n = 47) as mildly to moderately food-insecure, and 23.7 % (n = 67) as food-secure. Further analysis revealed that severe food insecurity was significantly associated with lower monthly household income and other socioeconomic status measures such as lower household monthly per capita income, lower rank in the standard of living index (SLI) and less monthly per capita expense on food items. Households where the woman was the primary income-earner and contributed the largest share to the monthly household income, and was older, less educated, with less media use or access were more likely to experience severe food insecurity.
Where are hungry people in Mumbai and adjoining areas?
Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra is home to millions of people. Most of the hungry people lives in various slum pockets in Kurla, Bandra, Dharavi, Ghatkopar and other places. Many are homeless and live under public bridges, on the sky walk, near religious shrines, in public parks and public places like beach, park etc
Government Approach so far
The Government of India significant steps to curb hunger:
The introduction of mid-day meals at schools, anganwadi systems to provide rations to pregnant and lactating mothers, and subsidized grain for those living below the poverty line through a public distribution system.
The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, aims to ensure food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable through its associated schemes and programmes, making access to food a legal right. The Government of India allocates foodgrains at highly subsidized prices to states and union territories under the NFSA, 2013 covering up to 75 percent of population in rural and 50 percent population in urban areas.
“Government is also implementing other welfare schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA), National Health Mission(NHM), Integrated Child Development Services Scheme.
Food security policies and programs have to be implemented immediately and effectively in order to ensure that subsidies and food items are allocated to the households of the vulnerable urban poor.
Conclusion: The fight against hunger is not just about distributing food. It requires long term solutions enabling communities to be able to plan and cope on their own by introducing a wide range of actions such as farming, forestry and helping families to create their own income to buy food. By creating self-reliance & sufficiency, vulnerable communities can work by themselves out of poverty. Action against Hunger aims to achieve nutrition security at household level and empower women to improve the family diet therefore improving the nutritional status of women and children.