prepare a case study on things that can be ensure food security in odisha
Answers
The makers of modern Odisha had dreamed of a hunger- and- disease- free State but that remains a day dream now sans any desired change. In the 1866 Odisha famine, about 10 lakh people died of hunger and diseases and even today the old issues like drought, flood, diarrhoea, malaria, malnutrition and hunger are still predominantly visible. In 1984 the case of sale of Banita by Phanas Punji of Kalahandi had drawn national attention and recently the eating of mango kernel by tribals of Kashipur in Rayagada hugged headlines. The hunger death has been continuing nonstop in south -west and KBK region. Every day poor and distress women, children and old people are dying as they are deprived of food and medicine in different parts of the State.
It is fact that the economic progress has made affluent some sections of people, but the distress and deprivation of a majority of its population get reflected in chronic unemployment, distress migration, food and nutritional insecurity, diseases and low quality of living. Every day media reports on miserable condition of people in different parts of the State shows a very poor progress in improving the standard of living.
In spite of efforts in many fronts by the State and non-State actors, Odisha remains as before in the poverty chart. It is below national average in social development indicators, such as health, education and rural social infrastructure etc. India ranks 130th out of 188 countries in the 2015 UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) and 97th among 118 countries on Global Hunger Index (GHI) in 2016 under the category of ‘serious’. India is home to largest malnourished and hungry population of the world due to lack of access to food. It has been reported that the level of inequality is very high between the rich and the poor and among different social groups. The reduction of poverty in Odisha has been consistently slow in comparison to other States. It is mostly the vulnerable poor people in rural hamlets, slums, landless wage earners, migrant workers, scavengers, PVTG, single women, children of poor parents, PWD and elderly people who are in most distress condition without sufficient nutritious food to survive. A vast majority of them belongs to socially excluded communities who are experiencing social issues along with poverty. A number of social issues have been affecting the overall social environment, culture and mindset of the people of the region and making the inhabitants more vulnerable. The backward social and educational status has been limiting access to rights and entitlements and all other State sponsored opportunities.