Growth and development cannot overlook hungry stomachs: Amartya Sen

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen while speaking at a Right to Food campaign recently said, "India's stride towards development, prosperity and economic growth cannot happen with a major chunk of the children (around 40%) being malnourished or born underweight."

Appreciating the government for bringing about the Food Security Act, he said that improper distribution of food and malnourishment were injustice done onto the citizens of the country.

Amartya narrated his experience of his stay in regions like Nalanda, Gaya, Rajgir and Patna in Bihar. He could see the change in the administration even in the backward areas. According to him, India had a reason to be optimistic about, as a wider cross-section of people had access to food and that illustrated the change an able leadership can bring about.

The Right to Food Act was a pre election promise of the Congress government. It later proposed National Food Security Bill and mentioned the same in the Budget speech under which poor families would get 25 kg of rice/wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg.

The magnitude of malnourishment, especially in woman, mothers, children and babies at birth, in India was tremendous.

As reported by the Sunday Tribune, Amartya Sen said that India had beaten African nations in child malnourishment. Malnourishment incapacitates the mind and debilitates the body. It is a situation of manifest injustice and we have the means to remove it but there is a certain level of smugness about India's achievements. He said, one must recognise that poverty, lack of food, illnesses and state of education in India were closely linked and were of the same magnitude."

The Indian distribution system though has achieved a level, still needed to be strengthened and effective ways of distribution needed to be designed.

There was a general perception that if the supply of food has been ensured, then the poor do not need the employment guarantee scheme. But the way of getting to all is through diverse necessities.

Commenting on the mid-day meal scheme, Sen said that India had finally achieved what Europe achieved 200 years earlier. Europe had introduced the scheme in the 19th century.

Kids belonging to the wealthier families complain that they find it uncomfortable having food with the kids belonging to the poor families and prefer eating their Tiffin. Media is obsessed with the richer kids and consequently the quality of food gets more weight-age than the fact that many are able to fill their hungry stomachs.

Sen asserted that we have to stand by the mid-day meal scheme so that poorest schools do not lose the grants and benefits they have." Sen, who teaches at Harvard University in US, concluded, "It was easier to teach children in a full stomach than hungry children who could not concentrate and had short attention spans." The discussion was hosted by an umbrella of non-profit groups campaigning for the right to food.link