World Hunger Far More Deadly Than Global Terror

[RiazHaq]

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In a recent article "The Distant Thunder of an Unexploded Bomb" discussing the failed terror attack in Times Square and its consequences in faraway places, author Ras Siddiqui invokes the memory of "a horrible famine in British India around the time of World War II" portrayed in a film “Distant Thunder” by celebrated Indian director Satyajit Ray.

Ray's film focuses on the famine in India during the British Raj when the colonial rulers diverted food from Bengali civilians to the British forces fighting the Japanese in Asia. Unfortunately, there is no thunder, distant or otherwise, today when it comes to hunger in India. Most hunger deaths occur in silence, without making any headlines in the Indian and Western media. There is often denial of this unfolding tragedy that claims thousands of innocent, often young, lives every day in India and other parts of the world in Asia and Africa....many times more than the tragic deaths from terrorism in the entire world.

About 3000 Pakistanis died tragically in terrorist attacks last year in various parts of the country, according to government data. Putting it in perspective, however, hunger in India has proved far more deadly than terror in Pakistan. It claims as many Indian children's lives every day as all of the terror related deaths in Pakistan in a year, according World Bank HNP data.

Both tragedies are essentially man-made and preventable, and both need to be condemned and stopped by decisive action by all concerned.

Indian Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen who saw the Bengal famine in his childhood says as follows:

"When India achieved independence, more than 50 years ago, the people of India were much afflicted by endemic hunger. They still are."

As if to reinforce it, the BBC has a story today about little children in India eating mud to fight hunger.

"In Ganne, just off the main road about an hour south of the city of Allahabad, this is a simple fact of life.

It is home to members of a poor tribal community, who live in small huts clustered around a series of shallow quarries.

Inside one of the huts sits a little girl called Poonam. She is three years old, and in the early stages of kidney failure.

Like many children in Ganne she has become used to eating bits of dried mud and silica, which she finds in the quarry. Tiny children chew on the mud simply because they are hungry - but it is making them ill.

When reports first emerged of children eating mud here local officials delivered more food and warned the villagers not to speak to outsiders. But Poonam's father, Bhulli, is close to despair."

The only other country where I know children regularly eat "dirt cookies" is Haiti.

Haq's Musings: India's Hunger Far More Deadly Than Global Terror

[chinapakistan]

Oh, if this were our future super power, I am losing confidence for the future of human being.

[Marxist]

In a recent article "The Distant Thunder of an Unexploded Bomb" discussing the failed terror attack in Times Square and its consequences in faraway places, author Ras Siddiqui invokes the memory of "a horrible famine in British India around the time of World War II" portrayed in a film “Distant Thunder” by celebrated Indian director Satyajit Ray.

Ray's film focuses on the famine in India during the British Raj when the colonial rulers diverted food from Bengali civilians to the British forces fighting the Japanese in Asia. Unfortunately, there is no thunder, distant or otherwise, today when it comes to hunger in India. Most hunger deaths occur in silence, without making any headlines in the Indian and Western media. There is often denial of this unfolding tragedy that claims thousands of innocent, often young, lives every day in India and other parts of the world in Asia and Africa....many times more than the tragic deaths from terrorism in the entire world.

About 3000 Pakistanis died tragically in terrorist attacks last year in various parts of the country, according to government data. Putting it in perspective, however, hunger in India has proved far more deadly than terror in Pakistan. It claims as many Indian children's lives every day as all of the terror related deaths in Pakistan in a year, according World Bank HNP data.

Both tragedies are essentially man-made and preventable, and both need to be condemned and stopped by decisive action by all concerned.

Indian Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen who saw the Bengal famine in his childhood says as follows:

"When India achieved independence, more than 50 years ago, the people of India were much afflicted by endemic hunger. They still are."

As if to reinforce it, the BBC has a story today about little children in India eating mud to fight hunger.

"In Ganne, just off the main road about an hour south of the city of Allahabad, this is a simple fact of life.

It is home to members of a poor tribal community, who live in small huts clustered around a series of shallow quarries.

Inside one of the huts sits a little girl called Poonam. She is three years old, and in the early stages of kidney failure.

Like many children in Ganne she has become used to eating bits of dried mud and silica, which she finds in the quarry. Tiny children chew on the mud simply because they are hungry - but it is making them ill.

When reports first emerged of children eating mud here local officials delivered more food and warned the villagers not to speak to outsiders. But Poonam's father, Bhulli, is close to despair."

The only other country where I know children regularly eat "dirt cookies" is Haiti.

Haq's Musings: India's Hunger Far More Deadly Than Global Terror

Same, Old wine in new bottle (poverty of India).

[RiazHaq]

About 3000 Pakistanis died tragically in terrorist attacks last year in various parts of the country, according to government data. Putting it in perspective, however, hunger in India has proved far more deadly than terror in Pakistan. It claims as many Indian children's lives every day as all of the terror related deaths in Pakistan in a year, according World Bank HNP data. About 7000 Indians of all ages die of hunger every day, according bhookh.com.

Here are some hunger facts from bhookh.com.


1. Hunger remains the No.1 cause of death in the world. Aids, Cancer etc. follow.
2.There are 820 million chronically hungry people in the world.
3.1/3rd of the worldÂ’s hungry live in India.
4.836 million Indians survive on less than Rs. 20 (less than half-a-dollar) a day.
5.Over 20 crore Indians will sleep hungry tonight.
6.10 million people die every year of chronic hunger and hunger-related diseases. Only eight percent are the victims of hunger caused by high-profile earthquakes, floods, droughts and wars.
7.India has 212 million undernourished people – only marginally below the 215 million estimated for 1990–92.
8. 99% of the 1000 Adivasi households from 40 villages in the two states, who comprised the total sample, experienced chronic hunger (unable to get two square meals, or at least one square meal and one poor/partial meal, on even one day in the week prior to the survey). Almost as many (24.1 per cent) had lived in conditions of semi-starvation during the previous month.
9. Over 7000 Indians die of hunger every day.
10. Over 25 lakh Indians die of hunger every year.
11. Despite substantial improvement in health since independence and a growth rate of 8 percent in recent years, under-nutrition remains a silent emergency in India, with almost 50 percent of Indian children underweight and more than 70 percent of the women and children with serious nutritional deficiencies as anemia.
12.The 1998 – 99 Indian survey shows 57 percent of the children aged 0 – 3 years to be either severely or moderately stunted and/or underweight.
13.During 2006 – 2007, malnutrition contributed to seven million Indian children dying, nearly two million before the age of one.
14.30% of newborn are of low birth weight, 56% of married women are anaemic and 79% of children age 6-35 months are anaemic.
15.The number of hungry people in India is always more than the number of people below official poverty line (while around 37% of rural households were below the poverty line in 1993-94, 80% of households suffered under nutrition).
Sources :
UN World Food Programme
UN World Health Organization: Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, 2006
UN Food and Agriculture Organization: SOFI 2006 Report
National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (India)
National Family Health Survey 2005 – 06 (NFHS-3) (India)
Centre for Environment and Food Security (India)
Rural 21 (India)

Haq's Musings: India's Hunger Far More Deadly Than Global Terror

Chowk: Personal: India Hunger Facts--Hunger Deadlier Than Terror

[seiko]

Ok so whats your point??Terrorism in Pakistan is ok but Hunger in India is a big no no??

[RiazHaq]

Ok so whats your point??Terrorism in Pakistan is ok but Hunger in India is a big no no??

Both are tragic, although there is a huge difference in terms of size and scale of the two. Unfortunately, hunger that claims hundreds of times more lives than terror in South Asia has been relegated to a minor problem in terms of focus and attention relative to terror.

Not only is continuing mass hunger in India far more deadly, it will prove much more destabilizing than the current wave of global terror in the long run.

It's very sad state of affairs.

Social Inequality Threatening India's Economic Stability | Fast Company

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...oss/index.html

[booo]

trying to downplay terrorism

[Nan Yang]

As if to reinforce it, the BBC has a story today about little children in India eating mud to fight hunger.

"In Ganne, just off the main road about an hour south of the city of Allahabad, this is a simple fact of life.

It is home to members of a poor tribal community, who live in small huts clustered around a series of shallow quarries.

Inside one of the huts sits a little girl called Poonam. She is three years old, and in the early stages of kidney failure.

Its so sad. Looks like India's democracy is broken.

[below_freezing]

its k, hunger doesn't kill white people, so no one worries about that.

terrorists on the other hand do. so there's huge worry about that.

[Durran3]

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If the world super powers want to play a responsible role in helping global poverty and helping the world food program they need to investing in Biofuels and find other alternative energy sources