Hunger Watch

The Right to Food Campaign, an informal network of organisations and individuals committed to the realisation of the right to food in India, has released a survey of 4,000 people living on the margins across 11 States in September and October.
The survey, called Hunger Watch, recorded responses from marginalised and excluded communities, such as the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and minority religious communities including Muslims, 80% of whom earned less than ₹7,000 a month before the lockdown in March.

The survey reveals that six or seven months after the lockdown, people continued to go to bed hungry, skip meals frequently, and are unable to afford nutritious diets because of loss of income.
It calls into question the government’s decision to withdraw free foodgrains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) after November.
- Under PMGKY notified in March 2020, the Union government announced that 80 crore poor people would get 5 kg wheat or rice and 1 kg of preferred pulses for free every month.

Over half the people surveyed said their consumption of rice and wheat had decreased and 25% said this had “decreased a lot.” Similarly, 64% reported a decrease in consumption of pulses, while nearly 30% said this had “decreased a lot”.
On consumption of vegetables, 73% reported a drop in consumption of vegetables, while nearly 40% said there was a drastic decrease in their use. About 71% of those who were nonvegetarians could not afford eggs or meat.
Nearly 66% of people said they were having less than the quantity of food they used to eat.

There was also discrimination on the lines of caste and religion while accessing food during the lockdown. One in four Dalits and one in four Muslims reported they faced discrimination and about 12% of Scheduled Tribes felt discriminated against.
Similarly, sex workers, domestic workers, as well as single women faced additional difficulties as many of them had no PDS or any documents without which they were dependent entirely on charity from civil society organisations for their food requirements.
This food insecurity is a direct result of economic precariousness — 43% of those surveyed had no income immediately after the lockdown in April and May, and only 3% of them have returned to the pre-lockdown income levels. As many as 56% without any income in the beginning of the lockdown still had no income.

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