Wrong policies of the government have been responsible for the prevalent food insecurity in the country, alleged activists. They also said the proposed National Food Security Act ignores the root causes of hunger and it deliberately leaves untouched the structural roots of the malnutrition crisis.
Releasing a report on India’s food security scenario and the reasons behind it on Tuesday activist Vandana Shiva said following Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings on self-reliance together with struggles for land and tenure security brought India closer to self-sufficiency and food sovereignty.
“Addressing food insecurity needs change in the policies that create hunger,” said Ms Shiva.
“The need of the hour is to shift to a decentralised, democratic and sustainable food system that recognises the farmer as key producer and acknowledges him as the primary custodian of food security,” she said.
But the policies pursued after economic reforms of the 90s have steadily undone the country’s sovereignty over its systems of production and distribution, said Ms Shiva. In her report, the activist said that the liberalisation of the Indian economy following the WTO and World Bank diktats based on the free trade myths of efficiency, productivity and consumer benefit led to adoption of the new agricultural policy focused on privatisation, intensive industrial agriculture and agricultural technologies such as hybrids. This affected the Indian countryside in a dramatic manner, alleged Ms Shiva. The report further observed that the hunger and the other malnutrition crisis are both outcomes of mistaken approaches that undo rather than ensure food security.
“If we think of it in terms of availability, access and intake, we realize that the Indian problem is not one of lack of food, but of lack of entitlements to it,” said Ms Shiva. Further, policies such as the US-India Agriculture Knowledge Initiative (which was signed along and the blind promotion of genetically engineered crops have further eroded our food sovereignty and food security, the report stated.