Saturday, January 14, 2006

Stealing Food from India's Poor

Jayati Ghosh writes on how the UPA government's decison to reduce the distribution of foodgrain to the the poor in India is leading to a situation that is nothing short of a national crisis.

Yet, the dominant media ignores these developments- preferring the story about Chidambram voted as the best Finance Minister in Asia, for example. Meanwhile, the situation of the poorest of the poor turns catastrophic:
Only four respondents out of 1,000 said they had eaten two square meals the previous day. Out of the remaining households, 48 per cent had eaten two poor/partial meals, 35 per cent got one poor/partial meal plus one distress meal, 11 per cent could get just one poor/partial meal, 0.2 per cent had eaten only one distress meal and 5 per cent had eaten only jungle food on the previous day.
The UPA will wait for the next election for being taught the same lesson that the NDA/ BJP government was taught in May 2004.


(Graph: from The Frontline magazine)

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