Source: news.bbc.co.uk
UNITED KINGDOM, July 31, 2009: India is facing more hunger and malnutrition, a report by Indian campaign group, the Navdanya Trust, says. The trust says that there are more than 200 million people – or one-in-four Indians – going without enough to eat. The prominent environmentalist Vandana Shiva, who runs the trust, said there were now more hungry people in India than in sub-Saharan Africa.
The government has not responded to the report which was released on Thursday. But it has repeatedly pointed out that huge progress has been made in recent years to improve the country’s food security as its population grows by an estimated 18 million people a year.
The trust’s report follows a UN study released in June which said that hunger in South Asia had reached its highest level in 40 years because of food and fuel price rises and the global economic downturn.