DR BINAYAK SEN ON FAMINE SITUATION IN THE COUNTRY
Posted on: 07/Sep/2010 1:31:55 AM
Binayak Sen, National Vice President , People’s Union for Civil Liberties [PUCL ] was vice-president was delivering lecture on ‘Chhattisgarh today: A critical understanding of political and human rights situation` at Loyola College on Monday. Dr. Sen, a medical practitioner and human rights activist was very vocal that Famine was in existence for years . He said that With at least one-third of the adults and nearly half of the children undernourished, we had a situation where famine walked beside us.
The National Nutritional Monitoring Bureau, Hyderabad, took surveys on the state of nutrition of people through decentralised State-based centres using various parameters. One of the simple parameters to measure with accuracy the nutritional levels was the body mass index (BMI). A BMI score of below 18.5 denoted chronic undernutrition and national surveys of adults had revealed that 33 per cent — one-third of the population — was chronically undernourished.
A recent report by the same bureau has stated that 37 per cent of the men and 39 per cent of the women had a BMI score of below 18.5. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), any community of which 40 per cent had a BMI score of below 18.5 could be denominated as affected by famine. By this account, over 50 per cent of people belonging to Scheduled Tribes and 60 per cent of people belonging to the Scheduled Castes in the country were chronically undernourished.
It was a known fact that 45 per cent of children in the country were undernourished by weight for age, Mr. Sen said, explaining the famine-like situation. The phenomenon of deprivation of land and natural resources was common to all States irrespective of the ruling party.
Its time that the governments really looked at life in rural areas and farm sector with nationalistic approach as therein lies ingredient that can make India a super power and not just becoming Nuclear powerful
