The Hindu, October 2, 2008
| Achieving the goal of nutrition security for all Indians will need a fusion of political will and action, professional skill, and peoples’ participation. |
“To a people famishing and idle, the only acceptable form in which God can dare appear is work and promise of food as wages.” These were the words of Mahatma Gandhi when he was healing the wounds arising from the Hindu-Muslim divide at Naokhali in 1946. He thus stressed the symbiotic bonds among work, income and food security. Eradication of hunger and poverty is also the first among the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which in my view represent a global common minimum programme for human security and well-being.
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In 1981, Indira Gandhi suggested after meeting Vinoba Bhave at the Paunar Ashram in Wardha district that the district should be converted into a “Gandhi district,” since Gandhiji spent an important part of his life there. She asked me to chair a small group to prepare a blueprint to develop Wardha into “Gandhi district.”
Our first task was to develop a definition for a Gandhi district. We defined it as one where no one is below the poverty line and no one goes to bed hungry, not because of doles but because of opportunities for sustainable livelihoods. In other words, bread with human dignity was to be the hallmark of the proposed district.
At that time, over 80,000 families were below the poverty line and hence specific suggestions were given to raise all these families above the poverty level by creating opportunities for productive and remunerative work. Unfortunately, this plan to dedicate Wardha to Gandhiji is yet to be implemented. Even now, it will be worthwhile to update the report and transform Wardha into a hunger-free and poverty-free district dedicated to Gandhiji.
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