the problem of poverty and hunger are common to all developing economies . discuss this in the story :hunger
Answers
According to reports, there are a staggering 795 million hungry people in the world. Sadly, from this, 98% live in the developing countries. Out of these, three quarter live in the villages of Asia and Africa. Completely dependent on agriculture, these people have no other way to make a living. Always prone to crisis, they keep moving to the cities and towns in search of employment. Reports also say that half of the hungry people consist of farmers with marginal land holdings and they regularly suffer because of droughts and floods. Another set are the landless who are dependent on farming while 10% are into fishing, forestry and herding.The remaining 20% work as daily laborers and live on the edges of the big cities in the developing countries.
An estimated 145 million children are malnourished and underweight in the developing countries, as child hunger is inherited with 17 million underweight children born annually resulting from inadequate nutrition before and during pregnancy. Around 50% of pregnant women are iron-deficient in developing countries, which means that 315,000 women die from hemorrhage during childbirth. The state of affairs when it comes to food and hunger is very dismal, to put it mildly, in developing countries.
‘Hunger’ is a short story by Nasira Sharma. The place is war savaged Afghanistan. The author writes of a conversation between Rizwan and Kasim, one a person aspiring to become a journalist and the other an used clothes vendor. To get a reporter’s job in a local daily, Rizwan has to conduct three interesting interviews. So he sets out for the market. When he reaches there, he finds no one is willing to talk to him as people, in the midst of chaos and conflict, have become suspicious of strangers. Finally, he spots a person with a bundle of clothes on his head.
After much persuasion, Kasim begins responding to Rizwan’s questions. He comes from a village. His father and grandfather were landless labourers, who tilled other peoples’ land. He has left a young son, wife and two younger brothers back home to earn by hawking old clothes in the city. Rizwan tells Kasim to seek help from the Government as there are schemes available for people like him. He could then acquire land and money which would help him improve his lifestyle by stepping out of hunger and poverty. Kasim pays no heed to Rizwan’s wise counsel.
After interviewing Kasim, Rizwan trudges to the office of the newspaper to deliver the text of the interview. He too is a victim of depravity and feels stomach wrenching hunger as he moves along at a snail’s pace. On arrival at the office, he slumps into a chair as a member of the staff asks him to write his name and leave his days work on the table.
The author in a lucid way has portrayed two characters who are victims of poverty and hunger which is common to all developing economies. These two characters, however, have different outlook towards life. While the journalist has aspirations and is ready to fight the battle of life in an intelligent manner, the poor vendor has none and believes in destiny. Kasim will take his poverty to the grave like his father and grandfather. His brothers, who have dropped out of school, and his son will repeat the sequence for they are born in poverty, must toil like beasts and die when their limbo stop functioning. Rizwan on the other hand will someday surely be a winner.