‘Traditional wisdom can fight hunger’

The countdown for hunger-free India has begun, said noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan, referring to the target year of 2007 for e...

The countdown for hunger-free India has begun, said noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan, referring to the target year of 2007 for ensuring that every citizen in India has food to eat.

He was delivering the ninth Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial lecture at the India Habitat Centre today on Women’s Empowerment and Building a Food and Water Secure India. Justice Bhandare, a high court judge, had worked tirelessly for an egalitarian society and specially for women’s rights. A Foundation has been set up in her memory that works towards uphold the same ideals.

Swaminathan pointed to the latest census figures of 2001 revealing a warped sex ratio in the country, largely in the more prosperous states of Haryana and Punjab. He pointed out that while women excel in academics, less than 10% are in professional jobs and less than five per cent are in the scientific field. He said this is because support systems like flexible working hours and crèches are lacking.

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But the problem of hunger, he said, begins when the child is conceived. He called for a ‘‘Life cycle approach’’. While the country already has a number of schemes like Mid Day Meals and Food for Work, they need to look at the problem in an integrated way and make policies aimed at every age — from pregnant women to old age.

‘‘Schemes like Self Help Group and micro-credit for women will only work when there are horizontal linkages to the markets,’’ he pointed out. The food basket has to be expanded to include not just rice and wheat but many traditional wisdoms.

He also talked of the growing number of women working in agriculture. The belief is that while men hunted, it was the women who began agriculture. He pointed to numerous instances, isolated but endearing, in Orissa, Kerala where women have stored seeds which are no longer in use — like medicinal rice and drought-resistant varieties of grains.