Food- a basic necessity that pinches many
This is a contribution post by Jasmine Bhatia
Hunger varies from person to person. Each person’s capacity of withstanding hunger is different. But the side effects of being hungry for a long time can result in a prolonged illness.
Hunger statistics
A tool and report that records, analyze, and tracks hunger globally is the Global hunger index. This tool measures hunger at national, regional, and global levels.
Recent data from GHI 2022, shows surprising and alarming stats on India’s hunger ranking. India ranks 107 out of 121 countries. It had a score of 29.1 which is a serious condition.
What principles does GHI work on?
Global hunger Index considers 4 important factors to ascertain the levels of hunger.
1) Malnutrition – The lack of the right proportion of minerals and nutrients occurring either due to lack of food or not eating the right food for nourishment roots malnutrition.
2) Stunting in children – The development and growth of a child in their early life are the most crucial for their overall health. Else children suffer from repeated infections and this hinders their growth development as per their age.
3) Child’s rapid weight loss – Child wasting, a term that highlights a child where he/ she is underdeveloped based on his height, and physical and psychological ways. This is a critical condition as it increases the chances of death too with inadequate nutrition.
4) Early Mortality Rate- Food is life and without the intake of energy we get from food, we cannot survive. Prolonged condition of hunger increases the mortality rate among children. This is scary and alarming too.
Inference steps
The data shocks with a dangerous situation in the coming times. This triggers the need to take action and contribute towards stopping hunger, being a social cause.
The cause of such a crisis has several reasons like:
- Unemployment that leads to poverty.
- Climate change that shoots up the cost of commodities.
- An economic crisis like the Ukraine- Russia war that left people homeless and resulted in scarcity of food.
- A sudden outbreak of a serious condition like the pandemic.
These are some of the causes that at times not in our control.
However, there are certain times when things are in our control yet due to negligence, or poor habit, we do not help in contributing to society.
What can we do as a citizen?
- Excess Food wastage v/s food shortage
Small steps bring big changes. In a few places, people die of hunger and in other places, food is thrown in the bins because it is not liked or made in excess.
Kids’ lunch boxes, Kitty parties, office, casual meetings, and celebrations all have sometimes less and sometimes more leftovers.
Action step
Give it to someone who needs – An easier way is to find someone in the location itself or contact an NGO where it is taken and given to the needy.
- Promote Education
Education is a silent sword that can kill unemployment.
Action step
- Unused books of children, half scribbled notebooks can be donated for someone who deprived from studying.
- If we have time, during weekends, few hours of basic teaching can be done who wants to learn.
- Provide employment
Unemployment makes one helpless. Interested to work but unable to find one is a major concern.
Action Step
Few job profiles do not need high skilled labourers. Even, if we can do a little to generate income source to the needy, it contributes in a huge way.
Little by little, a little becomes a lot. It costs nothing to someone who has excess food to contribute but it matters a lot to someone who fills their tummy with food.
Try to be the change and see how times change!
Jasmine Bhatia is a blogger, volunteer, home maker, learner and an optimistic person by nature. She believes our life is a beautiful creation of the universe given to each one of us and each day is blessed with new thoughts, new opportunities, new challenges and new learning from every little cell of life. Her articles are written with a motive to re-fill the dose of positivity and believe in the beauty of the lessons of life that it gives to all of us. Find her on Twitter.
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