A national exigency called hunger
The country is dreaming of becoming world super power under the able leadership of Prime Minister Modi. In keeping with this dream, the country often credits itself with economic and technological progress and releases data to support that claim too. The country dreams of roaming the surface of the moon and living on Mars. Yet, amidst all this, the reality that often hurts the dreams is that of millions of countrymen going without food. We may have got political freedom, but freedom from hunger is still a farfetched dream. Government data says more than 50% of the people suffer from malnutrition today.
According to the economic survey of 2017-18, malnutrition of mothers and children is the biggest challenge India is facing currently. Shortage in supply of nutritious food, malnourishment and unhealthy food habits, insufficient consumption of water for drinking, lack of hygiene and inadequate health services are contributing factors to this menace which leads to three out of ten children suffering through their lives. Malnutrition causes irreversible damage to children. It ruins their childhood. It affects their physical and mental health. Most children suffer from malnutrition even before they are born because of the lack of proper nutrition and attention given to pregnant mothers. Nearly 20% of children are born with less than average bodyweight. About 90% of the brain development happens in the first two years of their birth. Malnourishment leads to complicated health conditions of children, including insufficient brain development and turns them into victims of early setting in of diabetes and cardiac problems. With increase in physically unfit generation, the productivity of the country gets affected too.
Over 33.6% women in the country suffer from long term malnourishment. About 55% of them are anemic. Hence, more than half of the women are having babies under most dangerous conditions. Due to anemia, India’s overall loss to GDP stands at Rs 1.5 lakh crore. This figure is more than three times of the budgetary allocation to health in 2017-18. A family of a newborn is eligible to get nutritious food for the baby worth up to Rs 10,332 up to 45 months since the birth of the child.
But the scheme is suffering a massive blow due to corruption and adultrated food supply for this purpose. The recent amendment to National Maternity Benefit Scheme ensures postpartum women are given six months paid maternity leave. Crores of women working in unorganized and private sectors are kept away from this facility. More than 95% of women working in private and unorganized sectors are from very poor background and they have to return to work within a short span of time. Hence they can neither nourish their bodies that have gone through most challenging time, nor can they feed their children for six months since they fear loss of their jobs if they do not return to work as soon as possible.
One stark reality we need to understand is about the link between malnutrition and our socio-economic problems. We are trying to tackle challenges such as TB etc in isolation, as health challenges and we try to find remedies. But we fail to see the link between TB and malnutrition, as a socio-economic challenge. Hunger is the mother of all diseases in our nation. According to World Health Organisation, Diarrohea leads to worms. Consumption of polluted drinking water, living in unhygienic surroundings and unhealthy lifestyle lead to health problems. These health challenges affect the growth of children at a very young age and then the body loses its ability to extract and use nutrition from foods in later stages of life.
Indian body composition is smaller than that of the poorest countries that consume least calories of foods in the world. Children fall easy prey to diseases when they go without nutrition. And when ill, does any child have the capacity to study?
We hope to see the best of scientists and sportspersons being born in India. We hope to see our young men and women succeed. But, when children are born malnourished, and continue to experience challenges of malnourishment, how do we expect them to succeed?
Government says population is the reason for poverty. What we are unable to see is the inefficient distribution of resources that lead to such conditions worsen. With note ban and control on sale of cattle is leading to increased hunger indices.
Our politicians have hundreds and thousands of crores to buy another politician when they want to come together and enjoy the perks of power. At the same time, a common person standing in the queue returns home empty handed. The recent economic crises has pushed the poor further into poverty and the rich into affluence. If this continues, the country may have to declare hunger as a national exigency soon!
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US vetoes Palestinian bid to gain statehood at the United Nations
United Nations, Apr 19: The US has vetoed a resolution in the UN Security Council on the latest Palestinian bid to be granted full membership of the United Nations, an outcome lauded by Israel but criticised by Palestine as “unfair, immoral, and unjustified".
The 15-nation Council voted on a draft resolution Thursday that would have recommended to the 193-member UN General Assembly “that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership in the United Nations.”
The resolution got 12 votes in its favour, with Switzerland and the UK abstaining and the US casting its veto.
To be adopted, the draft resolution required at least nine Council members voting in its favour, with no vetoes by any of its five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Palestinian attempts for recognition as a full member state began in 2011. Palestine is currently a non-member observer state, a status that was granted in November 2012 by the UN General Assembly.
This status allows Palestine to participate in proceedings of the world body but it cannot vote on resolutions. The only other non-member Observer State at the UN is the Holy See, representing the Vatican.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz praised the US for vetoing what he called a “shameful proposal.”
“The proposal to recognise a Palestinian state, more than 6 months after the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and after the sexual crimes and other atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists was a reward for terrorism”, Katz wrote on X, after the US veto.
US Ambassador Robert Wood, Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs, said in the explanation of the vote at the Security Council meeting on Palestinian membership that Washington continues to strongly support a two-state solution.
“It remains the US view that the most expeditious path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners,” he said.
“This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgement that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.”
Wood said there are “unresolved questions” as to whether Palestine meets the criteria to be considered a State.
“We have long called on the Palestinian Authority to undertake necessary reforms to help establish the attributes of readiness for statehood and note that Hamas - a terrorist organisation - is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, an integral part of the state envisioned in this resolution,” he said, adding that “For these reasons, the United States voted “no” on this Security Council resolution.”
Wood noted that since the October 7 attacks last year against Israel by Hamas, US President Joe Biden has been clear that sustainable peace in the region can only be achieved through a two-state solution, with Israel’s security guaranteed.
"There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish state. There is no other path that guarantees Palestinians can live in peace and with dignity in a state of their own. And there is no other path that leads to regional integration between Israel and all its Arab neighbours, including Saudi Arabia,” he said.
The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, sharply criticised the US veto, saying that it was “unfair, immoral, and unjustified, and defies the will of the international community, which strongly supports the State of Palestine obtaining full membership in the United Nations.”
Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, said that “our right to self-determination has never once been subject to bargaining or negotiation.
“Our right to self-determination is a natural right, a historic right, a legal right. A right to live in our homeland Palestine as an independent state that is free and that is sovereign. Our right to self-determination is inalienable...,” he said.
Getting emotional and choking up as he made the remarks, Mansour said that a majority of the Council members “have risen to the level of this historic moment” and have stood “on the side of justice, freedom and hope.”
He asserted that Palestine’s admission as a full member of the UN is an “investment in peace.”
On April 2, 2024, Palestine again sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres requesting that its application for full UN membership be considered again.
For a State to be granted full UN membership, its application must be approved both by the Security Council and the General Assembly, where a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting is required for the State to be admitted as a full member.
Earlier in the day, Guterres, in his remarks to a Council meeting on the Middle East, warned that the region is on a “knife edge”.
“Recent escalations make it even more important to support good-faith efforts to find lasting peace between Israel and a fully independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state,” Guterres said.
“Failure to make progress towards a two-state solution will only increase volatility and risk for hundreds of millions of people across the region, who will continue to live under the constant threat of violence,” he said.
The UN, citing the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that between October 7 last year and April 17, at least 33,899 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 76,664 Palestinians injured. Over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, including 33 children, have been killed in Israel, the vast majority on October 7.
As of April 17, Israeli authorities estimate that 133 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including fatalities whose bodies are withheld.
