India facing unprecedented food crisis

India, home to a quarter of the world's hungry people with nearly 40 per cent of the population malnourished, is facing an unprecedented food crisis, international charity organisation Oxfam said on Wednesday.

"Despite the doubling of the size of its economy since 1990, the number of hungry people in India has increased by 65 million because economic development excluded the rural poor and social protection schemes failed to reach them," Oxfam National Humanitarian Hub Manager Zubin Zaman told reporters in Guwahati.

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Zaman also called on the private sector to shift to a business model where profit is not made at the expense of poor producers, consumers and the environment.

Oxfam launched its global 'GROW' campaign for hunger free world in Guwahati, along with Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Patna.

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"The four-year-long campaign has been launched to address the problem of spiralling food prices and endless cycles of regional food crisis which will create millions of hungry people unless we transform the way we grow and share food," Zaman said.

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The campaign will make efforts to lead transformation to a fairer sustainable system by investing in agriculture, valuing the world's natural resources, managing the food system better and delivering equality to women who produce much of the world's food.

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