What About Azadi From Hunger?

Hundreds of nutrition warriors are scripting a change in the India story. The goal: a country not just well fed, but also well nourished

- Damayanti Datta

It’s a crisis that hides in plain sight. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi singles it out in his radio talks, from the ramparts of the Lal Qilla, for his 49.3 million followers on Twitter. He hammers home his impatience for the scourge to go away: “Main bechain hoon, main besabr hoon, main vyakul hoon” and pledges a new tryst with destiny: a malnutrition-free India by 2022. A new national lexicon is gaining ground for something that isn’t often in the news.

At the heart of global geopolitics, India is an emerging superpower at 72. But away from the spotlights, here starvation stalks, families battle chronic hunger to stay alive, lack of food starts from the womb, underweight mothers give birth to undersized children, while low immunity snuffs out vulnerable lives. Five years into power, the NDA government faces its toughest challenge. And now, the Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, has sounded out a clarion call for action: “India needs a nutrition revolution.”

Ruby Devi stays put in a darkened room. Neighbours come calling, to drag her out of that corner, to eat, feed her son or breastfeed her daughter. She talks about her husband, Jhingru Bhuiyan’s year-long battle with stroke and paralysis, repeated attempts to get a ration card, inability to buy food or medicines, months of eating just rice, days of having not even a grain at home, the unlit chullah, loans, begging and his death. No expression, no tears, no anger. But as you take leave, she comes alive: “What will happen to us? Can you ask the sarkar for free food? A ration card?”