How would you describe the present crisis?
More people will be under-nourished. The world's largest under-nourished nation will become further under-nourished. The poorer you are, the worse it is. Seventy to 80 per cent of the salary of the poor is spent on food.
I wrote to Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and requested him to have a fair price shop in all the areas where there is a national employment guarantee programme because these people get Rs 80 a day or like in Kerala Rs 120 a day, but they need to buy food and food prices are going up every day. I urged him to at least ensure that these people have access to food at a reasonable price.
Do you see light at the end of the tunnel? Is there a way out?
The crisis of the 1960s, when we were leading a hand-to-mouth existence, led to the birth of the Green Revolution. Every calamity is an opportunity.
The crisis of the first decade of the 21st century should lead to an Evergreen revolution. This is a war against hunger where every state, every union territory has its responsibility.
We can't play politics with hunger; all political parties should work together. We need a pan political approach to agriculture. If we miss this opportunity, we will have a very serious situation.
Another famine?
Famine may not come but we will have famine of work, famine of income, breakdown of law and order and greater social unrest.
Image: Indian labourers clean wheat at a wholesale grain market in New Delhi. Photograph: Manan Vatsyayna/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: They ain't humans, but they are smart
Advertisement
