Section: Poverty and Hunger
Title: Who Is Accountable for Starvation Deaths?
Relevance: GS 2
Why has this article been published?
Recently, three young girls died of starvation in New Delhi.
Questions raised by this incident :
This incident raises a number of questions; not only on the failure of the state to protect its citizens from hunger 70 years after independence but also on the development model that India seems to be following.
Not the first such incident
The death of these children follows a series of reports of alleged starvation deaths over the last six months, mostly from Jharkhand but also from other states such as Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.
Reasons for Starvation Deaths
- In each of these cases, there have been failures of the system in reaching entitlements to the affected families.
- The National Food Security Act (NFSA) includes provisions for subsidised grains from the public distribution system (PDS), school meals for schoolgoing children, maternity entitlements and supplementary nutrition for young children through anganwadi centres.
- In this case, while these services were available in the area, the girls and their parents did not have access to any of these in the months preceding their deaths. This was because it was more difficult for them to get enrolled as they were migrants and did not have the necessary documents.
- In all cases of alleged starvation deaths reported so far there has been denials of either NFSA entitlements or social security pensions (for the aged/single women) due to bureaucratic hurdles and/or resource constraints imposed by the state.
- These cases of deaths associated with protracted periods of hunger highlight the fact that despite the availability of such an elaborate system of social sector schemes, the most marginalised are being left out.
Way Forward
- Along with tightening the implementation mechanism for the existing schemes, other initiatives such as community kitchens in urban areas, diversified food baskets through the PDS particularly in tribal areas, provision of school meals during vacations and so on; that have been tried and found successful in different states need to be replicated across the country.
- Further, requirements such as mandatory Aadhaar authentication which in a number of these cases has been an underlying cause for exclusion should not be allowed.
- A truly universal system of social security that pays special attention to reaching out to the most vulnerable communities needs to be put in place.
- While there is a need to improve the system of entitlements provided by the state, there is also a need to introspect how it is that despite over two decades of high economic growth the country is faced with a situation where people are dying of hunger and starvation.
- The deep-rooted inequity in the current economic model which, while benefiting a few, is resulting in many being deprived of basic livelihood security and dignified employment opportunities, needs to be acknowledged.
- There must be a national debate on issues of equitable distribution of resources.
- At the very least, what the state and political parties can do is to initiate such a discussion and offer creative solutions rather than spending their energy in trying to establish whether the deaths were due to starvation at all or not.
Conclusion
What is clear in each of the cases of death is that the persons who died lived in extreme poverty, and they did not have access to food, nutrition and health services for various reasons. There must be accountability for this state of affairs. It simply cannot be business as usual anymore.
