Hunger Lives in this House

The desperation of the hungry in the remote interiors of India throws sobering light on the celebrations of a free country on the rise

- Tarique Anwar

HUNGER enters Phuli's doorless home atop a hill in Rajasthan's Udaipur district and fills up the bellies of nine children who have known hunger more intimately than rice. Their one-room refuge in Umariya village, built with stone boulders and covered with a patchwork of straw, reed and tarpaulin, has little space for them to sleep or to breathe. But hunger trumps all other woes. "Two meals a day feel like a celebration for us," she says, cradling her youngest child, a skeletal figure in torn clothes. The only dream the 35-year-old chases, unsuccessfully on many days, is to feed all nine kids, including the three abandoned by her sister-in-law who lost her husband.

Phuli's husband, Masru, 38, is a sharecropper in neighbouring Gujarat, where he tills the fields for one-sixth of the yield. On his days off, he works at construction sites, earning Rs 3,000-4,000 per month. He returned home in February with two quintals of wheat. Phuli says she had to mortgage her belongings to feed the family of 11. They eat less to make their foodgrain stock last until the next harvest. Also, in emergencies, such as if someone falls ill, portions of the same grain are sold to pay the bills. Their diet is meagre, often supplemented with foraged wild vegetables, grasses, and mushrooms. According to the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), reliance on foraged food led to 20 deaths, including 12 children, in Baran district within a month in 2002.