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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