FOCUS
HUNGaMA on Hunger & Malnutrition
– the shame of a ‘Super Power’
"I have said earlier on a number of occasions and I repeat, that the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame. Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high. We have also not succeeded in reducing this rate fast enough", said Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. He was speaking while releasing the ‘Hunger and Malnutrition Survey Report 2011, a 140 page report prepared by Nandi Foundation, in Mumbai. Not very far from there, in Chennai, development economist, Prof Utsa Patnaik was reacting to what Dr Singh had said earlier. "There is no point in shedding ‘crocodile tears’ as the shameful situation was a self inflicted one, that resulted from flawed policies." She was delivering her inaugural address at the "TG Narayanan Memorial Lecture on Social Deprivation" under the auspices of the Media Development Foundation and the Asian College of Journalism.
This was how two economists saw from their own perspective, this national shame called "HUNGer and MAlnutrition".
"Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him", Mahatma Gandhi had said, many decades ago. We have already crossed 64 years since he was assassinated.
WHAT IS INDEPENDENT INDIA’S RECORD OF HANDLING THE POOREST AND THE WEAKEST AMONG US INDIANS?
Aren’t we still groping for answers after 11 Five yearly development plans?
We have any number of politician thinkers who keep harping that India is the second fastest growing economy in the world, but invariably tend to forget that India continues to be the country with largest number of underfed and therefore undernourished.
Hunger, Roget’s Thesaurus denotes, starvation, empty stomach, craving for food. Malnutrition, represents a dietary condition resulting from lack of adequate food, half starving leading to insufficient nutrition. According to Global Hunger Index (GHI), nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished, one of the highest rates in the world, and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa. Now, this is indeed a national shame.
The 2011, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has ranked India @134 in a survey of 187 countries. The ranking clearly shows India has done rather badly in ensuring a better quality of life for its citizens, year after year. In fact, when it came to manage hunger, GHI had clocked India at 94, whereas Pakistan at 88 and China at 47, did much better than India. But the saddest commentary was when GHI placed Ethiopia better than India at 93. And neither Pakistan nor Ethiopia were boasting of near double digit growth.
Why is India like this? Could it be that our planners, were obsessed with growth at the the cost of human development?
In 1947, when India became politically independent, country was bereft of adequate resources to look after its close to 350 million population. Colonial masters had plundered its resources to the maximum extent. Some kind of a state intervention was necessary. Therefore a planned approach to the redistribution of national wealth became imperative, since the overwhelming majority of Indians were poor.
Looking back over the 64 years of free India’s march towards an egalitarian society, it is an extremely mixed feeling of euphoria tempered by a profound sadness. 64 years saw some 11 developmental plans, that has not done exactly well in its redistributive exercise. While it is true that country has seen the creation of hundreds of billionaires, there is a huge chunk of close to 50% of Indians, beyond boulevards, who are still struggling to meet two ends. The dichotomy that ‘India is rich and Indians are poor’ is a classic statement of the reality on the ground.
Poverty alleviation, which is the precursor for both hunger and malnutrition, has been on the national agenda for all the development plans of 64 years. It is true that state interventions have made some difference at different levels. A section of the population have seen upwardly mobile lifestyles backed by increased income and empowerment. But the overall scene is still pretty bad. UNDP ranking of Human Development Index, so also the Global Hunger Index have exposed the underbelly of the ‘Super Power’ in the making.
Our planning efforts have seen the growth in agricultural production. This growth has led to procurements of millions of tons of food grains ‘both wheat and rice’. But where did this procured food go? It went into Food Corporation of India’s godowns, all over the country. Some distributed, some rodents ate, some rotted in open, since FCI rented out their premises to Liquor barons to store liquor. Another aspect of Yeh Mera India.
Way back in Dec. 2002, Shabnam Minwala of Times of India wrote: "If we were to pile up the sacks of grain sitting in Food Corporation of India’s warehouses, they would reach the moon and back again. But not even a handful of these 50 million tons made their way to Murari’s hut in Shahbad, Rajasthan, last September. After weeks of surviving on wild grass and seeds, the agricultural labourer’s mother, father, wife and baby died of starvation."
After 10 years, in 2012, it is just as bad, as is evident from the report just released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. According to this report, prepared by Nandi Foundation, as much as 42% of children under the age of five are underweight, meaning malnourished. 59% are stunted, meaning chronically malnourished and 11% are severely wasted, meaning acutely malnourished.
So, the lack of food is what leads to hunger, which when left with insufficient provision of eatables leads to malnutrition. Long such periods of denial, lead to chronic and acute malnutrition. Thus food is the essential material which body needs for its well being. Good food is indispensable for health at all stages of life and for satisfactory growth during infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Right food in adequate quantity is the key to good health.
Millennium Development Goals have envisioned a hunger free world. Would it be possible? Rich and poor are found in every country all over the world. But rich are rich everywhere. They can live on their own terms. But poor are not same everywhere. They are less poor, more poor, very poor and poor below subsistence level. So the degree of denial is different to different places. A poor in Europe probably not as poor as say Sub Saharan Africa or even India. A poor person in U.S or Europe may not go to bed hungry, but same cannot be true of Africa or India where hunger among poor is lurking all over.
The first five year plan of 1951-56, accepted as the basis of government policy, the principle of "Food for All", since good part of Indians in post past-colonial rule had numberless hungry stomachs, which had to be addressed as a priority. Somehow over the years, the focus kept shifting, to and forth, and reached a stage where a Food Security Bill became the sine quo non, the only enforceable option as a right.
Of course, the increasing population, which different policies – some serious but mostly half baked – failed to curb the growth, has contributed to a great extent to the failure of the well meant, well intentioned measures to support the hungry. These well meant, well intentioned statutes were made to derail or rather to be sabotaged at the alter of selfish babu/politician nexus. This nexus is the single most important factor for the failure of many seriously legislated policies. The most important among them is the Public Distribution System.
Jean Dreze, an European, who made India his home, who is also a Prof at Delhi School of Economics and a member of National Advisory Council writes in the Hindu on this PDS. "The whole system looked like it has been designed to fail. Ration shops were in the hands of corrupt private dealers, who made money by selling PDS grain in the open market. People were powerless to argue with the PDS dealer. Hunger haunted the land". He was writing on his experience in the Sarguja Distt. of Chhattisgarh many years ago. However he feels, 'where there is will, there is a way'. Good intentions behind the policy measures can be translated into extremely satisfying end results. Thus he adds that ‘despite raging multiple negatives achieved by the Chhattisgarh government in different domain, it is to the credit of this government that it succeeded in reviving the PDS very significantly’. Recounting his recent trip to Sarguja, he writes, commending the PDS "what is more, the system is working everywhere we went, we found that people were getting 35 kgs of grain on time, every month. For people who live on the margins of subsistence, this is dream".
Thus, in the quest for hunger eradication and therefore reduction in the number of malnourished children and a section of the population, strengthening the PDS system becomes most important. So that the good intention of successive governments, is translated into a heart warming reality.
The current debate on National Food Security Act which stresses the importance of making the whole system of PDS transparent is a welcome development. While it is true that laudable objectives were always there, but somewhere along the line the human avarice overtook these avowed objectives and usurped the system itself. Therefore the provision in the draft of the bill that all PDS related records are to be placed in the public domain and to be kept open to public scrutiny is a very significant development to address the malaise of hunger.
What is also important is the enforceability of this law. The proposed law is an opportunity to provide accessible administrative and legal remedies for individuals whose right to food is violated. This can certainly serve as a catalyst for action so also give the state enough scope to mandate protection for this right.
However the stipulated guarantee of 25 kgs as proposed by the present legislation is less than the 35 kgs these BPL families were already getting. While it is laudable that enactment of law makes this entitlement as right, the reduction in the quantity of grain has failed to enthuse the Congress leadership under the present UPA chairperson.
Thus a certain degree of ambivalence appears apparent. UPA Chairperson and her NAC wants 35 kgs to be continued with a guarantee of delivery, but the chairman of the drafting committee, the FM: Pranab Mukherjee, commits only 25 kgs. This ambivalence has led to the accusation that despite persisting food insecurity of the bulk of the population and the near emergency with respect to the nutrition of children and other vulnerable groups, the government in New Delhi is still not taking the job of ensuring universal food security with the necessary seriousness.
A print media report informs "FM losing sleep over rising subsidy bill". The report states that the government has said that its subsidy bill is likely to increase by over Rs: 1 lakh crore, over and above the original estimate of Rs: 1.34 lakh crore. The subsidy is on food, fertilizer and petroleum products. "As Finance Minister when I think of the enormity of the subsidies to be provided, I lose my sleep."
As a Finance Minister at the centre, the predicament of Pranab Mukherjee is understable. But that leaves many questions unanswered.
When the UPA II came back to power Prime Minister had declared on the floor of the parliament that "Not a single Indian will be allowed to go hungry" Dr Manmohan Singh was probably serious when he said it. However the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGM) entrusted with the job of drafting the National Food Security Act did neither carry his seriousness nor his conviction to their job. Incidentally it is Finance Minister, who is the Chairman of the EGM.
Economic & Political Weekly commented on this travesty of social justice, deserve reproduction. "The principal concern seems not to ensure food security to all and therefore to ensure nutritional minimum, but to contain the government’s expenditure. After all, meeting the demands of fiscal deficit is more important than putting in place universal rights to as basic a requirement as food. The draft bill as drawn up by the EGM denies the notion of universal rights, keeps entitlements to as little as 25kg a month and even seeks to vary the issue price. Continuing debate within government and outside about how many poor there are in India has come in handy for the ‘cost cutters’. But food security means a right to food and rights cannot be ‘targetted’. They have to be universal. Therefore, the only meaningful legislation on food security is one that covers the entire population." Any incremental cost as a result of 35 kg instead of the 25 kg per household per month shall only be 0.5% of our national GDP, while the economic losses associated with malnutrition are estimated to be around 3% of India’s GDP annually. The question EPW is asking is "Should the government even think of denying the right to food on ‘cost considerations’?"
Here we need to realize that food security is not merely the supply of energy but the adequate nutrition is also at its core. The HUNGaMA report has very dearly shown the shocking levels of malnutrition, especially among children in different parts of our ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’. No wonder EPW is very harsh while saying "It is here that the tragedy of India unfolds. Indeed, serious doubts arise as to the very decency of Indian society".
Executive Summary of Hunger & Malnutrition Survey Report 2011 informs that "Survey shows that positive change for child nutrition in India is happening including in the 100 Focus Districts. However rates of child malnutrition is still unacceptably high particularly in these Focus Districts where 40% of children are underweight and almost 60% are stunted".
Doesn’t this conclusion leads us to some questions not raised at all? Neither by the think-tank of the surveying team nor those who intend to make use of it in policy making and policy decisions, including our economist Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who released the HUNGaMA Survey Report.
In the end looking back in perspective of our well meant intentions of being poor friendly in all our interventions through budgets, it is true that all our 5 yearly development plans have been targeting the poverty and there have been increasing outlays to address the issue. However with all this increase in allocations and spending the issue of hunger and malnutrition persisted. It is well known that leakage and siphoning in the spending did line the pockets of unscrupulous, diabolic and extremely selfish officials, middlemen, senior babus and politicians, which did in fact rendered the well intentioned efforts of successive governments always incomplete. But underlying all the problems is the problem of all problems, the ever growing numbing numbers. The problem of unchecked population growth as an issue, unfortunately became part of the national amnesia. Unless this scourge is recognized and addressed especially among the poorer sections of society, who keep producing children left, right and centre, all Union Finance Ministers-Pranab Mukherjee or no Pranab Mukherjee-shall continue to complain of 'Sleepless Nights' on subsidies. A harsh truth all governments refused to take note of, in their larger agenda of vote bank politics.
– the shame of a ‘Super Power’
(According to Global Hunger Index (GHI), nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished, one of the highest rates in the world, and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa. Now, this is indeed a national shame.
The 2011, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has ranked India @134 in a survey of 187 countries. The ranking clearly shows India has done rather badly in ensuring a better quality of life for its citizens, year after year. In fact, when it came to manage hunger, GHI had clocked India at 94, whereas Pakistan at 88 and China at 47, did much better than India. But the saddest commentary was when GHI placed Ethiopia better than India at 93. And neither Pakistan nor Ethiopia were boasting of near double digit growth.
Our planning efforts have seen the growth in agricultural production. This growth has led to procurements of millions of tons of food grains ‘both wheat and rice’. But where did this procured food go? It went into Food Corporation of India’s godowns, all over the country. Some distributed, some rodents ate, some rotted in open, since FCI rented out their premises to Liquor barons to store liquor. Another aspect of Yeh Mera India.)
The 2011, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has ranked India @134 in a survey of 187 countries. The ranking clearly shows India has done rather badly in ensuring a better quality of life for its citizens, year after year. In fact, when it came to manage hunger, GHI had clocked India at 94, whereas Pakistan at 88 and China at 47, did much better than India. But the saddest commentary was when GHI placed Ethiopia better than India at 93. And neither Pakistan nor Ethiopia were boasting of near double digit growth.
Our planning efforts have seen the growth in agricultural production. This growth has led to procurements of millions of tons of food grains ‘both wheat and rice’. But where did this procured food go? It went into Food Corporation of India’s godowns, all over the country. Some distributed, some rodents ate, some rotted in open, since FCI rented out their premises to Liquor barons to store liquor. Another aspect of Yeh Mera India.)
"I have said earlier on a number of occasions and I repeat, that the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame. Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high. We have also not succeeded in reducing this rate fast enough", said Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. He was speaking while releasing the ‘Hunger and Malnutrition Survey Report 2011, a 140 page report prepared by Nandi Foundation, in Mumbai. Not very far from there, in Chennai, development economist, Prof Utsa Patnaik was reacting to what Dr Singh had said earlier. "There is no point in shedding ‘crocodile tears’ as the shameful situation was a self inflicted one, that resulted from flawed policies." She was delivering her inaugural address at the "TG Narayanan Memorial Lecture on Social Deprivation" under the auspices of the Media Development Foundation and the Asian College of Journalism.
This was how two economists saw from their own perspective, this national shame called "HUNGer and MAlnutrition".
"Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him", Mahatma Gandhi had said, many decades ago. We have already crossed 64 years since he was assassinated.
WHAT IS INDEPENDENT INDIA’S RECORD OF HANDLING THE POOREST AND THE WEAKEST AMONG US INDIANS?
Aren’t we still groping for answers after 11 Five yearly development plans?
We have any number of politician thinkers who keep harping that India is the second fastest growing economy in the world, but invariably tend to forget that India continues to be the country with largest number of underfed and therefore undernourished.
Hunger, Roget’s Thesaurus denotes, starvation, empty stomach, craving for food. Malnutrition, represents a dietary condition resulting from lack of adequate food, half starving leading to insufficient nutrition. According to Global Hunger Index (GHI), nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished, one of the highest rates in the world, and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa. Now, this is indeed a national shame.
The 2011, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has ranked India @134 in a survey of 187 countries. The ranking clearly shows India has done rather badly in ensuring a better quality of life for its citizens, year after year. In fact, when it came to manage hunger, GHI had clocked India at 94, whereas Pakistan at 88 and China at 47, did much better than India. But the saddest commentary was when GHI placed Ethiopia better than India at 93. And neither Pakistan nor Ethiopia were boasting of near double digit growth.
Why is India like this? Could it be that our planners, were obsessed with growth at the the cost of human development?
In 1947, when India became politically independent, country was bereft of adequate resources to look after its close to 350 million population. Colonial masters had plundered its resources to the maximum extent. Some kind of a state intervention was necessary. Therefore a planned approach to the redistribution of national wealth became imperative, since the overwhelming majority of Indians were poor.
Looking back over the 64 years of free India’s march towards an egalitarian society, it is an extremely mixed feeling of euphoria tempered by a profound sadness. 64 years saw some 11 developmental plans, that has not done exactly well in its redistributive exercise. While it is true that country has seen the creation of hundreds of billionaires, there is a huge chunk of close to 50% of Indians, beyond boulevards, who are still struggling to meet two ends. The dichotomy that ‘India is rich and Indians are poor’ is a classic statement of the reality on the ground.
Poverty alleviation, which is the precursor for both hunger and malnutrition, has been on the national agenda for all the development plans of 64 years. It is true that state interventions have made some difference at different levels. A section of the population have seen upwardly mobile lifestyles backed by increased income and empowerment. But the overall scene is still pretty bad. UNDP ranking of Human Development Index, so also the Global Hunger Index have exposed the underbelly of the ‘Super Power’ in the making.
Our planning efforts have seen the growth in agricultural production. This growth has led to procurements of millions of tons of food grains ‘both wheat and rice’. But where did this procured food go? It went into Food Corporation of India’s godowns, all over the country. Some distributed, some rodents ate, some rotted in open, since FCI rented out their premises to Liquor barons to store liquor. Another aspect of Yeh Mera India.
Way back in Dec. 2002, Shabnam Minwala of Times of India wrote: "If we were to pile up the sacks of grain sitting in Food Corporation of India’s warehouses, they would reach the moon and back again. But not even a handful of these 50 million tons made their way to Murari’s hut in Shahbad, Rajasthan, last September. After weeks of surviving on wild grass and seeds, the agricultural labourer’s mother, father, wife and baby died of starvation."
After 10 years, in 2012, it is just as bad, as is evident from the report just released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. According to this report, prepared by Nandi Foundation, as much as 42% of children under the age of five are underweight, meaning malnourished. 59% are stunted, meaning chronically malnourished and 11% are severely wasted, meaning acutely malnourished.
So, the lack of food is what leads to hunger, which when left with insufficient provision of eatables leads to malnutrition. Long such periods of denial, lead to chronic and acute malnutrition. Thus food is the essential material which body needs for its well being. Good food is indispensable for health at all stages of life and for satisfactory growth during infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Right food in adequate quantity is the key to good health.
Millennium Development Goals have envisioned a hunger free world. Would it be possible? Rich and poor are found in every country all over the world. But rich are rich everywhere. They can live on their own terms. But poor are not same everywhere. They are less poor, more poor, very poor and poor below subsistence level. So the degree of denial is different to different places. A poor in Europe probably not as poor as say Sub Saharan Africa or even India. A poor person in U.S or Europe may not go to bed hungry, but same cannot be true of Africa or India where hunger among poor is lurking all over.
The first five year plan of 1951-56, accepted as the basis of government policy, the principle of "Food for All", since good part of Indians in post past-colonial rule had numberless hungry stomachs, which had to be addressed as a priority. Somehow over the years, the focus kept shifting, to and forth, and reached a stage where a Food Security Bill became the sine quo non, the only enforceable option as a right.
Of course, the increasing population, which different policies – some serious but mostly half baked – failed to curb the growth, has contributed to a great extent to the failure of the well meant, well intentioned measures to support the hungry. These well meant, well intentioned statutes were made to derail or rather to be sabotaged at the alter of selfish babu/politician nexus. This nexus is the single most important factor for the failure of many seriously legislated policies. The most important among them is the Public Distribution System.
Jean Dreze, an European, who made India his home, who is also a Prof at Delhi School of Economics and a member of National Advisory Council writes in the Hindu on this PDS. "The whole system looked like it has been designed to fail. Ration shops were in the hands of corrupt private dealers, who made money by selling PDS grain in the open market. People were powerless to argue with the PDS dealer. Hunger haunted the land". He was writing on his experience in the Sarguja Distt. of Chhattisgarh many years ago. However he feels, 'where there is will, there is a way'. Good intentions behind the policy measures can be translated into extremely satisfying end results. Thus he adds that ‘despite raging multiple negatives achieved by the Chhattisgarh government in different domain, it is to the credit of this government that it succeeded in reviving the PDS very significantly’. Recounting his recent trip to Sarguja, he writes, commending the PDS "what is more, the system is working everywhere we went, we found that people were getting 35 kgs of grain on time, every month. For people who live on the margins of subsistence, this is dream".
Thus, in the quest for hunger eradication and therefore reduction in the number of malnourished children and a section of the population, strengthening the PDS system becomes most important. So that the good intention of successive governments, is translated into a heart warming reality.
The current debate on National Food Security Act which stresses the importance of making the whole system of PDS transparent is a welcome development. While it is true that laudable objectives were always there, but somewhere along the line the human avarice overtook these avowed objectives and usurped the system itself. Therefore the provision in the draft of the bill that all PDS related records are to be placed in the public domain and to be kept open to public scrutiny is a very significant development to address the malaise of hunger.
What is also important is the enforceability of this law. The proposed law is an opportunity to provide accessible administrative and legal remedies for individuals whose right to food is violated. This can certainly serve as a catalyst for action so also give the state enough scope to mandate protection for this right.
However the stipulated guarantee of 25 kgs as proposed by the present legislation is less than the 35 kgs these BPL families were already getting. While it is laudable that enactment of law makes this entitlement as right, the reduction in the quantity of grain has failed to enthuse the Congress leadership under the present UPA chairperson.
Thus a certain degree of ambivalence appears apparent. UPA Chairperson and her NAC wants 35 kgs to be continued with a guarantee of delivery, but the chairman of the drafting committee, the FM: Pranab Mukherjee, commits only 25 kgs. This ambivalence has led to the accusation that despite persisting food insecurity of the bulk of the population and the near emergency with respect to the nutrition of children and other vulnerable groups, the government in New Delhi is still not taking the job of ensuring universal food security with the necessary seriousness.
A print media report informs "FM losing sleep over rising subsidy bill". The report states that the government has said that its subsidy bill is likely to increase by over Rs: 1 lakh crore, over and above the original estimate of Rs: 1.34 lakh crore. The subsidy is on food, fertilizer and petroleum products. "As Finance Minister when I think of the enormity of the subsidies to be provided, I lose my sleep."
As a Finance Minister at the centre, the predicament of Pranab Mukherjee is understable. But that leaves many questions unanswered.
When the UPA II came back to power Prime Minister had declared on the floor of the parliament that "Not a single Indian will be allowed to go hungry" Dr Manmohan Singh was probably serious when he said it. However the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGM) entrusted with the job of drafting the National Food Security Act did neither carry his seriousness nor his conviction to their job. Incidentally it is Finance Minister, who is the Chairman of the EGM.
Economic & Political Weekly commented on this travesty of social justice, deserve reproduction. "The principal concern seems not to ensure food security to all and therefore to ensure nutritional minimum, but to contain the government’s expenditure. After all, meeting the demands of fiscal deficit is more important than putting in place universal rights to as basic a requirement as food. The draft bill as drawn up by the EGM denies the notion of universal rights, keeps entitlements to as little as 25kg a month and even seeks to vary the issue price. Continuing debate within government and outside about how many poor there are in India has come in handy for the ‘cost cutters’. But food security means a right to food and rights cannot be ‘targetted’. They have to be universal. Therefore, the only meaningful legislation on food security is one that covers the entire population." Any incremental cost as a result of 35 kg instead of the 25 kg per household per month shall only be 0.5% of our national GDP, while the economic losses associated with malnutrition are estimated to be around 3% of India’s GDP annually. The question EPW is asking is "Should the government even think of denying the right to food on ‘cost considerations’?"
Here we need to realize that food security is not merely the supply of energy but the adequate nutrition is also at its core. The HUNGaMA report has very dearly shown the shocking levels of malnutrition, especially among children in different parts of our ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’. No wonder EPW is very harsh while saying "It is here that the tragedy of India unfolds. Indeed, serious doubts arise as to the very decency of Indian society".
Executive Summary of Hunger & Malnutrition Survey Report 2011 informs that "Survey shows that positive change for child nutrition in India is happening including in the 100 Focus Districts. However rates of child malnutrition is still unacceptably high particularly in these Focus Districts where 40% of children are underweight and almost 60% are stunted".
Doesn’t this conclusion leads us to some questions not raised at all? Neither by the think-tank of the surveying team nor those who intend to make use of it in policy making and policy decisions, including our economist Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who released the HUNGaMA Survey Report.
In the end looking back in perspective of our well meant intentions of being poor friendly in all our interventions through budgets, it is true that all our 5 yearly development plans have been targeting the poverty and there have been increasing outlays to address the issue. However with all this increase in allocations and spending the issue of hunger and malnutrition persisted. It is well known that leakage and siphoning in the spending did line the pockets of unscrupulous, diabolic and extremely selfish officials, middlemen, senior babus and politicians, which did in fact rendered the well intentioned efforts of successive governments always incomplete. But underlying all the problems is the problem of all problems, the ever growing numbing numbers. The problem of unchecked population growth as an issue, unfortunately became part of the national amnesia. Unless this scourge is recognized and addressed especially among the poorer sections of society, who keep producing children left, right and centre, all Union Finance Ministers-Pranab Mukherjee or no Pranab Mukherjee-shall continue to complain of 'Sleepless Nights' on subsidies. A harsh truth all governments refused to take note of, in their larger agenda of vote bank politics.
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