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• The World Bank in a report titled ‘ South Asia's Hotspots: The Impact of Temperature and
Precipitation Changes on Living Standards’ concludes that climate change could
accentuate poverty and inequality in India.
• According to the report, rising temperatures and changing monsoon rainfall patterns from
climate change could cost India 2.8 per cent of GDP and depress the living standards of
nearly half the country's population by 2050.
• This decline is living standard can be attributed to can be attributed to a fall in agricultural
yield and the health impact effected by such a change.
• According to the report, central, northern and north-western India are most vulnerable to
change in climate adding that the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh could see a
decline in living standards of up to 9 per cent.
• According to another study by Centre for Economics, Environment and Society, Climate
Change will not only increase the population living under poverty but also aggravate the
conditions of those living in poverty.
• Climate change, through rising temperatures and increasing precipitation, affects
agricultural productivity and food prices. Thus, it will drag the rural incomes back to below
the poverty line and erode the gains made by India in rural poverty reduction since the
reforms in 1991.
• Climate Change will also worsen India’ performance on social indices and hinder the
achievement of the sustainable development goals.
• Regional variance: Much of India's poverty is concentrated in rural areas and in low-in-
come States. The difference among the States in terms of the proportion of people living
below the poverty line is stark: Chhattisgarh has 39.9 per cent of people living below
poverty while the correspond- ing figure for Andaman & Nicobar Islands is 1 per cent.
Between 2004-05 and 2011-12, the percentage of people below poverty line has decreased
significantly from 13.8 per cent to 5 per cent in Goa. However, Chhattisgarh has seen only
marginal reduction, from 40.9 per cent to 39.93 per cent.
• Feminization of Poverty: Feminization of poverty, especially rural poverty, is another
challenge. Poverty affects women more than men as women have limited access to
resources, be it food and nutritional security, or health care and public services, apart from
the skewed ownership of assets.
• Rapid Urbanization: While bringing a range of economic benefits, rapid urbanisation has
brought with it enormous challenges, most noticeably in the form of demand-supply gaps
in housing, infrastructure, employ- ment, and other economic opportunities and services.
• Human Resources Development: New knowledge and technologies are transforming the
conventional structures of skills, work and employment. There is a need to refashion
education and skill development so that the existing, emerging and future labour force has
the capability and requisite opportunities to engage in appropriately gainful employment.
This would also require befit ting labor reforms. There is also a need to invest in and
enhance quality and accessibility of health care, especially for the economically weaker
sections and people in vulnerable situations.
3. Hunger
3.1. What is Hunger?
• Hunger is a condition in which a person cannot eat sufficient food to meet
basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. Hunger can manifest itself in different ways –
undernourishment, malnutrition and wasting.
o Undernourishment, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), occurs when
people do not take in enough calories to meet minimum physiological needs.
o Malnutrition is when people have an inadequate intake of protein, energy and
micronutrients. Starved of the right nutrition, they can die from common infections
such as measles or diarrhoea.
o Wasting, usually the result of starvation or disease, is an indicator of acute malnutrition
with substantial weight loss.
• One in nine people around the world don’t have enough to eat, and the numbers are rising.
According to the UN estimates, more 800 million people go Hungary each yearAfter falling
steadily between 2005 and 2014, the number of undernourished people increased in 2015,
rising for a third consecutive year in 2017. The numbers are going to increase further in
2020 due to crisis caused by Covid -19. If current trends continue, the number of hungry
people will reach 840 million by 2030.
3.3. Causes
• Poverty is one of the main causes of hunger. A person without economic resources can’t
afford nutritious food. This makes it difficult to work or earn a living and often means that
people remain in a poverty trap.
• Conflicts disrupt farming and food production. Millions of people are often forced to flee
their homes, and then they find themselves deprived of access to sufficient food. The vast
majority of hungry people in the world live in countries affected by conflicts. Wars or
uprisings can also be a direct consequence of hunger - it’s natural to explode with anger
when access to food becomes impossible.
• Extreme weather conditions such as floods, tropical storms and long periods of drought
have aggravated the food insecurity around the world. farmers, fishermen, pastoralists and
forest dwellers suffer most during and after a natural disaster – they don’t have enough to
eat and they are often forced to leave their homes. Rising temperatures as a result
of climate change also affect the environment dramatically and can turn healthy soil dry
and infertile.
• Over Consumption is another major reason. Even in industrialised countries there are large
groups of people living in poverty, unable to feed themselves properly. Overeating and
• Food Security
o India’s food security programme is the largest of its kind in the world. The
implementation of the revamped Public Distribution System under the National Food
Security Act (NFSA), 2013, which moved from welfare to a rights-based approach, with
a coverage of around 813 million people, is a paradigm shift in the approach towards
the issue of food security at the household level, for almost two-thirds of India's
population.
o Under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), 25 million families from economically weaker
sections are entitled to 35 kg of food grains per household per month while the
remaining ‘priority category’ households get 5 kg of food grains per person per month.
The food grains are distributed through a network of over 5,40,000 Fair Price Shops all
over the country and at highly subsidised prices.
o India has launched the ‘One Nation One Card’ scheme in 2020 which enables
beneficiaries to get access to subsidised grains from anywhere in the country. This
ration card portability will provide a major boost to the food security system and
benefit over 130 million migrant population.
• Nutritional Security:
o Several schemes such as Anganwadi Services, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana
(PMMVY) and the Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) under the umbrella Integrated
Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) are initiated to address the problem of
malnutrition among women and children in the age group of 0-6 years.
1. One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India. Bring out the
causes and consequences of Child Malnutrition in India and also suggest a strategy to
tackle the same.
Approach:
The question demands an adequate response to the problem of malnutrition in India,
by way of bringing out the causes as well as consequences of child malnutrition.
Further we also have to provide a strategy to tackle the problem.
Answer:
Malnutrition is the condition resulting from insufficient, excessive or imbalanced
consumption of nutrients or some specific deficiency. It has been found to be
particularly rampant among the children of our country. Rates of malnutrition among
India’s children are almost five times more than in China and twice those in Sub-
Saharan Africa. It has been estimated that one in every three malnourished children in
the world lives in India.
A number of factors are responsible for malnutrition. Some causes specific to
malnutrition in Indian children are:
• Insufficient health services and unhealthy environment.
• Eating habits of India and unawareness about nutritional values of food products
• Poverty and illiteracy: It is also a major impediment to afford the nutritious food
products
• Low birth weights: Full-term low birth weight Indian infants have a lower growth
trajectory
• Feeding Practices: Breast feeding is nearly universal in India, but late introduction,
inadequate quantity and low calorie density of semisolid food is responsible for
increase in underweight and stunting rates between 6-11 months.
• Infections: Under-nutrition could be both the cause (increased susceptibility to
infections) and effect (increased nutrient requirement and greater nutrient loss) of
infection.
• Dietary Intake of Children: Malnutrition in children is mainly due to imbalance
between energy intake and expenditure. There have been major changes in
lifestyles and physical activity patterns in the last decade.
Malnutrition, especially among children, is an obstacle that prevents individuals and
even societies from developing their full potential. Other consequences can be
categorized into two types, viz. direct and indirect.
• Direct: the occurrence of sub clinical nutrition deficiency diseases such as
o Kwashiorkor
o Marasmus
o Vitamin and Mineral deficiency diseases etc.
• Indirect:
o High morbidity and mortality among young children
o Retarded physical and mental growth and development
o Lowered vitality of people leading to lowered productivity and reduced life
expectancy
o Stillbirth and slow birth
o Given its impact on health, education and economic productivity, persistent
malnutrition is a major obstacle to human development, impacting India’s
much awaited demographic dividend and the country’s prospects for future
economic growth
2. What are the propositions in the National Food Security Act, 2013 regarding reforms
in the Targeted Public Distribution System?
Approach:
• Answer should focus on TPDS and clearly list out the provisions for the same in the
Act.
Answer:
National Food Security Act urges the Central and State Governments to progressively
undertake necessary reforms in the Targeted Public Distribution System. The reforms as
proposed by the act include:
• doorstep delivery of food grains to the Targeted Public Distribution System outlets;
• application of information and communication technology tools including end-to-
end computerisation in order to ensure transparent recording of transactions at all
levels, and to prevent diversion;
• leveraging ''Aadhar'' for proper targeting of benefits under this Act;
• full transparency of records;
• preference to public institutions or public bodies such as Panchayats, self-help
groups, co-operatives, in licensing of fair price shops and management of fair price
shops by women or their collectives;
• diversification of commodities distributed under the Public Distribution System
over a period of time;
• support to local public distribution models and grains banks;
• introducing schemes such as cash transfer, food coupons, or other schemes to the
targeted beneficiaries in order to ensure their food grain entitlements.
Under nutrition is the outcome of many factors majority of them being non-nutritional
in nature. They include:
• Insufficient dietary intake and absorption
• Inadequate prevention and management of disease/infections linked to the lack of
access to health and child care services
Answer:
India’s ranking in Global Hunger Index 2017 has slipped 100 among 119 countries from
97th rank. Moreover, with more than 30 percent of India’s children as malnourished
and India being among the countries having highest malnutrition, National Nutrition
Strategy (NNS), envisaging ‘Kuposhan Mukt Bharat’ is a welcome move.
Significance of the NNS
• A holistic approach: The strategy seeks to enable integration of nutrition-related
interventions cutting across sectors like women and child development, health,
food and public distribution, sanitation, drinking water, and rural development.
• Special focus on maternal care and nutrition thereby reducing maternal mortality
by 1/5th through directed nutritional program.
• It seeks to reduce malnutrition through its focus on the monitorable targets.
• It adopts Life Cycle Approach so that intergenerational cycle of malnutrition is
controlled.
• It focuses on preventive action by linking it with sanitation and timely intervention.
Role of local self government
Subjects allocated in the 73rd and 74th Amendments include those addressing the
immediate and underlying determinants of undernutrition such as Health and
Sanitation, Drinking Water among others. Therefore it is essential that local self
governments own, promote, monitor and sustain nutrition initiatives - effecting
convergence of action at the grass roots. This is even more relevant in light of the
implementation of the Fourteenth Finance Commission recommendations, with greater
devolution of resources to States and also to PRIs and ULBs.
Through a decentralized approach, the local self governments (LSGs) would be in better
position to devise program according to the local needs. For example, if there is no
deficiency of iron in a region and if the uniform approach of providing iron supplement
is implemented then it would cause more harm than good. Therefore, it is for the
respective LSG of the region to figure out the actual deficiency.
Similarly, the LSGs keep the program under direct monitoring, thus helping to find out
the shortcomings at implementation stage. For example, the concept of social audit in
MGNREGA improves the accountability mechanisms of the program. NNS should be
implemented on the similar lines.
The Nutrition Strategy framework envisages a Kuposhan Mukt Bharat linked to Swachh
Bharat and Swasth Bharat. The aim is to ensure States to create customised State and
District Action Plans addressing local needs and challenges. This is especially relevant in
view of enhanced resources available with states to prioritise focused interventions
with a greater role for panchayats and urban local bodies.