I’d invite our readers to read Sainath’s editorial in The Hindu about food security and as to how the Maharashtra Government ended famine in its state; i.e. by refusing to recognise the term in law. Excerpt below;
In 1963, the government of Maharashtra ended famine forever in the State. It did this without adding a morsel to anyone’s diet. It did so simply by passing an Act in the Legislature that deleted the word ‘famine’ from all laws of the State. No kidding. This was called ‘The Maharashtra Deletion Of The Term “Famine” Act, 1963” (And was dug up after decades by an independent researcher from Bangalore.)
The basis for this? Let the Act explain itself. It asserts that “there is now no scope for famine conditions to develop.” Why so? Because “the agricultural situation in the State is constantly watched by the State government.” And “relief measures as warranted by the situation are provided as soon as signs of scarcity conditions are apparent.” Goodbye Famine.
The next para says the term ‘famine’ “has now become obsolete, and requires therefore to be deleted” (emphasis added) from “other laws on the subject in their application to the State.” It decrees that “for the words ‘famine or acute scarcity’ the word ‘scarcity’ shall be substituted,” in all laws of the State. Lucky Maharashtra — it can’t ever have acute scarcity either.
The entire article may be read here.
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I agree that this trend of brushing things under the carpet is disturbing but its really not very surprising. The powers that be are extraordinarily callous when it comes to ensuring food security for the poor of this nation. As testament all one needs to do is look at the images of the wheat and other crops rotting for want of storage. I remember we had studied this dilemma in our Economics class in first year. Our professor told us about cases where nations had simply destroyed crops rather than release it free of cost to the poor, because to release it on the open market would allow the prices of crop pan country to drop. This is ludicrous to me on the basic level of humanity. While I am not oblivious to how the market works I wonder how politicians can justify the murder of their brethren to themselves. These are times you wish they were haunted by their sins like Macbeth.