(a) whether the Government has taken note of the UN Annual Hunger Report which indicates that India has the highest number of hungry people in the world;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto; and
(c) the steps taken/proposed to be taken to provide food and check hunger in the country?
(a) and (b) : Yes, Madam. The Government has taken note of the UN Annual Hunger Report. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO) in its Annual report “The State of Food Insecurity in the World” takes stock of progress made towards achieving the internationally established Millennium Development Goal(MDG1) and World Food Summit(WFS) hunger targets. In this report, review of progress has been made since 1990 for every country and region as well as for the world as a whole.
As per the report, India has 194.6 million undernourished people but the number has been declined from 210.1 million in base year of 1990-92 showing a change of 7.4% towards progress to achieve WFS target. Similarly, proportion of undernourished in total population in India has also come down from 23.7 % in 1990-92 to 15.2% in 2014-16 showing a change of 36%.
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(c) The Government is implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 to provide food security to the population. So far, 12 States/UTs have implemented the NFSA Act, 2013. The Act provides for coverage of upto 75% of the rural and 50% of the urban population to receive highly subsidized foodgrains under TPDS. The Act also contains provisions for nutritional support to Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers or children below 14 years of age.
The Government of India has also accorded high priority to the issue of hunger and malnutrition in the country and is implementing several schemes/programmes through State Governments/UT Administrations to improve food security situation in the country. These include Targeted Public Distribution System(TPDS), Wheat Based Nutrition Programme (WBNP) for providing Supplementary Nutrition, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme for pre-school children and pregnant and lactating mothers through the Ministry of Women and Child Development, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) through Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Mid-Day-Meal (MDM) Scheme for primary and upper primary children through Ministry of Human Resource Development, Annapurna Scheme for the senior citizens, Nutritional Programme for Adolescent Girls, Emergency Feeding Programme, etc.
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