The world we live in is full of ironies. Although difficult to reveal in normal circumstances, these contradictions surface when a small and relatively wealthy section of society is targeted. Feelings of outrage, compassion, unity and resilience are often expressed when an act of violence takes a few lives along with it into oblivion. Yet, it is bewildering to note that in spite of availability of enough food to feed everyone, more than 20000 children lose their respective battle for life daily, almost half of them for want of food, yet none of us bat an eyelid. Nearly 800 million people suffer from hunger across the world, but nobody seems to care. The World Food Day is the right time to do some introspection in this regard.

Indifference to the hunger of the poor is not something new, neither is migration of poor people to far off lands for better opportunities. However, recent geo-political events and increase in extreme weather conditions (owing to climate change) have created the necessary conditions for mass migration of these poverty-stricken people. These large scale movements present a fairly complex and colossal challenge.

Although, majority of these movements are within the national borders, but some also move outside their countries. Influx of these migrants in foreign lands create apprehension in the minds of the natives, who view these migrants as a source of competition for low-paid jobs. Their arrival also creates tremendous pressure on the local social security and welfare system. The reaction of locals can be measured by the backlash in the form of xenophobic attacks.

But amidst all this, the underlying causes responsible for mass migrations are often overlooked. Most of these migrant people hail from rural regions where 75% of the world’s poorest reside and are dependent on agriculture and other rural professions for their livelihoods. To stop these movements, it is quintessential to create necessary conditions that will make these people safe in their homelands and to provide resilient sources of livelihoods to them.

The theme of this year’s World Food Day is: “Change the future of migration. Invest in food security and rural development.” The theme reflects on the role investment in food security and rural development can play in achieving the twin goals of livelihood opportunities and nutrition for the poorest of poor. The rural development shouldn’t just imply agricultural development. It should have an over-arching framework that also includes small dairy or poultry production, food processing or horticulture enterprises. In the long term, sustained emphasis on rural development will inevitably lead to elimination of hunger, buoyant livelihoods, better access to social welfare, lesser conflicts and innovative solutions to environmental degradation and climate change.

At Fiinovation, we believe it is our collective responsibility to end the scourge of malnutrition-related deaths. This World Food Day, all of us should step up the efforts to combat starvation at individual level by avoiding wastage of food, by organizing community kitchens, spreading awareness about malnutrition and its implications for society and country etc. We are of the belief that meaningful results will continue to remain elusive in the absence of collective action by the society and the state.

Varun Sharma
Senior Associate
Fiinovation