Abstract
One of every four of the world’s undernourished populations reside in India. From the legacy of famines in British India to the continued reports of starvation deaths, malnutrition continues to plague India. Further, for decades, children from marginalised castes and communities have been the most stunted. The stringent lockdown has also ensured that India has been one of the most affected countries by the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of families slipping into poverty and destitution. However, since most food security measures are not universal, and relief measures inadequate, vulnerable communities continue to be excluded and severely deprived. Therefore, this research argues that the time is ripe for the universal expansion of a range of food security entitlements—from the public distribution system and community kitchens to school meals and employment guarantees. Simultaneously, while agricultural production is at a record high after four bumper harvests, the guarantee of minimum support prices is also essential to accede to the demands of protesting farmers to stem the agrarian crisis.
Indian children are still among the skinniest and shortest on the planet…
Angus Deaton: The Great Escape (Deaton, 2013: 163)
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Notes
- 1.
Musahars are considered to be at the lowest rung of the Dalit caste hierarchy and are referred to as rat eaters due to their diets. Their literacy rate was 22% in 2011, though their population size is 2.7 million in Bihar.
- 2.
http://www.impds.nic.in/portal (last checked 4 June 2021).
- 3.
https://fci.gov.in/stocks.php?view=46 (last checked 4 June 2021).
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Narayan, S. (2022). Stunted Food Security: Time for Universal Entitlements. In: Behera, A., Mishra, S. (eds) Varying Dimensions of India’s National Security. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7593-5_14
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