Defending the indefensible

INDIA was placed 100th out of 119 countries on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) according to a recent report, ranking below North Korea and Bangladesh. It is no satisfaction that we fare better than Afghanistan and Pakistan. But, it would not be surprising if India plunges further below because of its burgeoning population. The issue of hunger in India is “serious” but not yet “alarming”, says the report where India’s 2017 GHI score is 31.4, a notch below scores that denote alarming hunger. Indeed, this is incongruous for a country which, until recently, took extreme pride in projecting itself as the world’s fastest growing economy, and, is now fixated on bullet trains. 

 As expected, the report acquired a political colour — Congress rule versus BJP rule. A critical issue was trivialised and drained of all its moral reprimand. It soon became a social media slugfest between the supporters of former PM Manmohan Singh and the incumbent, Narendra Modi. The intensity was such that after two days of releasing the report, its authors had to issue an inconsequential rejoinder stating that GHI scores from different years were “not directly comparable” with one another.   

 Although, such rejoinders are both rare and unusual, it further underscored the fact that India’s 2014 GHI rank was 55 with a score of 17.8 and situation of hunger has intensified since 2014. Extreme poverty is the main reason for this social evil. Elected representatives are unable to tackle this menace because of their inability to take the fruits of faster economic growth beyond an affluent section of society. They have failed miserably in the task of redistributing wealth equitably since Independence. A callous governance system, both at the Centre and states, is to be blamed. Take for example, the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Poor labourers, who have been assured jobs under the scheme, are awaiting a reasonable wage hike since 2009. No wonder then more than one-third of India’s population still lives in extreme poverty. Instead of defending something indefensible, the government must rethink its priorities and work for an inclusive growth model.