No starvation death in India in last 3 years, says minister

Tehelka, Nov 12, 2010

BY Bijay Kumar Singh
Delhi

There have been reports that as many as 150 persons including children reportedly died in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh in the last year. However, Minister of State for Agriculture KV Thomas in his reply to Parliament earlier this week claimed there were no starvation deaths in the country during the last year.

“No state government, Union Territory administration has reported any incidence of starvation death during last three years,” he said in Parliament last week.

Reacting to Thomas’ claim, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Tarun Vijay claimed that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance party at the Centre was covering up starvation deaths.

“It is not true. It is a statement which does not reflect ground reality. The minister seems to be unconcerned. In the last two years, many cases of starvation have been reported in Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput belt of Orissa, and Uttar Pradesh. Even the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) report in 2008-09 reported starvation deaths in India,” he said.

Bijo Francis, spokesperson, Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), agreed. “I have to say Professor Thomas is living in Mars to have such an opinion. We at the AHRC in the past three years have reported several cases of starvation deaths in India. In all these cases, the UN Rapporteur on Right to Food has written to the government of India calling for action,” he said.

“The Congress party of which Professor Thomas is part has made use of cases reported by the AHRC for its election campaign in states like Uttar Pradesh. However, he could be technically correct that ‘no state has reported instances of starvation’ to the central government, as they call it in bureaucratic jargon,” he added.

He raised some other points. “Beyond all this, does the central government require a state government to seek its support to address malnutrition in the country? Because a state government has not informed about the issue to the central government, does it absolve the central government from its constitutional and mandate to address the issue?” he asked.

Jamini Kumar Srivastava, spokesperson, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), too, said that state governments not responding to notices from the NHRC was a cover-up.

“Taking suo motu cognizance of the media report carried on the February 24, 2010, which alleged that chronic hunger has lead to death of 50 persons in Balangir district of Orissa, NHRC issued notice to the chief secretary, government of Orissa, but still we have not received any reply from Orissa government,” he said.