Paper: GS-II, Subject: Society and Social Justice, Topic: Poverty, Hunger, and Developmental issues, Issue: India’s role in tackling global hunger.
Context:
2025 UN report points out that 673 million people (8.2% of world population) are undernourished in 2024, down from 688 million in 2023.
India’s Role in Global Progress:
- Policy-driven Gains: Investments in food security, digital technology, governance, and service delivery.
- Decline of Malnourishment: As per National Sample Survey (2022-24) undernourishment fell from 14.3% (2020-22) to 12% (2022-24). 30 million fewer people hungry compared to previous assessment.
Factors behind the progress:
- PM POSHAN (2021) – Has a school feeding programme for kids.
- Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) – focus on dietary diversity & nutrition sensitivity.
- Impact: Ensured portability, improved access for migrants, and reduced leakages.
Challenges still persist:
- Healthy diet unaffordable for 60% of Indians.
- High prices, weak cold chains, poor market linkages.
- Even as hunger declines malnutrition, obesity, micronutrient deficiencies are still rising which is more acute in poor urban & rural populations.
Measures needed:
- Boost nutrient-rich food (pulses, fruits, vegetables, animal-source foods).
- Invest in post-harvest infrastructure (cold storage, logistics).
- Strengthen farm-market linkages to reduce wastage (13% of food lost).
- Support women-led enterprises & Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), esp. climate-resilient crops.
- Leverage platforms like AgriStack, e-NAM, geospatialtools for market access and productivity.
Conclusion: India needs to sustain momentum by shifting focus from food delivery to nutrition security and from resilience to empowerment to meet the goals of SDG-2 (Zero Hunger) by 2030. It requires resilience, innovation, inclusion.
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