India and Hunger - The incomplete debate

A recent thread of mine titled 'Indian I-Day: Do we really deserve to celebrate?' was locked by Internations Quality Assurance team as 'some member of the community did not abide by the guidelines of the forum'.

However, I do not think this should be a deterrent to an important discussion on poverty and hunger in India. Some of the members had send me private messages, warning that this is not the right platform to discuss the issue and that we should not lay bare India's 'internal politics' to the rest of the world. I think that is asinine and silly.

Hunger remains to be a crucial problem in India and it's quite evident that not enough is being done to tackle this issue, even after 65 years of Independence. Some members say instead of talking about it on forums, we should do something 'concrete' about it.

But philanthropy and charities (such as 'AkshayaPatra', 'Save a Child India' etc.) are not solutions, they are little feel-good acts and I strongly believe they cannot eradicate poverty and hunger.

Political will and transparency are the need of the hour. The National Food Security Bill, which is currently with the standing committee of the Indian Parliament and was expected to be passed in the monsoon session, appear to be flawed as the current demarcation made to provide food at subsisided rates is bound to create conflict among people. Instead, universalisation of the Public Distribution System and providing 50 kg of cereals to entitled beneficiaries would be of greater help.

Well, that is just a suggestion and I am sure once we start thinking and talking about it, we will have more such ideas.

We can't just keep basking in our glorious past and leave the future in the hands of destiny and politicians.

I request the members not to involve in personal attacks on this thread. The intention of this thread is to get a wider perspective of how to deal with the issue and a fruitful debate will allow us to share a collated list of suggestions to the lawmakers.