World Food Day

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World Food Day

By Dr Arvind Kumar

World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in 1945. Ironically, about one billion people still suffer from food shortages around the world and it is the bounden duty of the international duty to take a united stand against hunger.

While asserting that the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of hungry people in the world is a pillar for achieving all eight of the globally-agreed targets with a 2015 deadline, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has lamented: "We are continually reminded that the world's food systems are not working in ways that ensure food security for the most vulnerable members of our societies. When people are hungry, they cannot break the crippling chains of poverty, and are vulnerable to infectious diseases. When children are hungry, they cannot grow, learn and develop."

Recent reports of food wastage in India are very disturbing in the wake of appalling world hunger. The dark side of India's economic growth has been that peasants, workers and excluded social groups have been further dispossessed, compounding malnutrition, hunger and even leading to starvation deaths. It is the bounden duty of the Government as well as the people not to waste food and deliver the saved food to the needy.

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