playstation Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 300 million Indians go hungry everyday! One piece of bread a day / Was all I had, Sometimes I would break it in half, Sometimes, I could make it toast, My children's bellies full / My stomach churning, I drank water / To calm the burning, I had more than most / Reminding myself of those, Who have a handful of rice / Once a week, They know fear / They know pain, They know hunger / Far better than I ever could. Alisha Rose's poem, Hunger, brings out the essence of a grave problem that plagues not only India, but the entire world. According to the Global Hunger Index, India ranks 65th out of 88 countries, with a hunger rate of 23.9. India, which was largely unaffected by the recent global economic slowdown, however, appears to have made little progress in tackling hunger and malnutrition. The situation remains 'alarming' in the country on this front. Countries like Uganda (38th); Mauritania (40th); Zimbabwe (58th) and many others have a better record than India on this front. Even war-torn nations have managed to combat the scourge of hunger quite well, while India -- even though it boasts of being the second fastest growing economy in the world -- languishes far behind and millions in the country go hungry. 21 per cent of the Indian population is undernourished The report -- released on Wednesday by the International Food Policy Research Institute, German aid group Welthungerhilfe and Irish aid group Concern Worldwide -- said that the number of malnourished people was rising as a result of recent events. "The current situation of food crisis, financial crunch and global recession has further undermined the food security and the livelihoods of the poor," it said. The index ranks countries on under-nourishment, prevalence of child malnutrition and rates of child mortality. It said 21 per cent of the Indian population was undernourished (between 2003 and 2005), 43.5 per cent Indian children under the age of five were underweight (between 2002 and 2007) and the under five-years age infant mortality rate in 2007 was 7.2 per cent. 46% of Indian children below the age of 5 are underweight In September 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh projected a food stock of 50 million tonne. Yet, close to 300 million Indians go without food every day! India continues to burnish its international image with initiatives like Brand India, a public-private campaign whose stated mission is to 'build positive perceptions of India globally'. But when the prime minister acknowledged the country's undernourished children as a 'national shame', the statement highlighted how India's economic success co-exists with its persistently high rates for hunger, malnutrition, and income poverty. According to the World Bank, 46 per cent of Indian children below the age of five are underweight, and the World Food Program says that close to 30 per cent of the world's hungry live in India. Does solution lie in biodiverse ecosystems? According to a recent report in The Hindu, biodiverse ecosystems contain naturally evolved genetic strengths and unique food technologies developed by traditional communities in different climates, soils and temperatures. Harnessing and sharing these capabilities equitably will help humanity adapt to rising temperatures and the poorest of the poor feed themselves in harsh climates. To that end, the Chennai Declaration set out a series of strategies that are the product of three days of intense discussion, at the M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation, of the senior representatives from organisations across the world such as the UN Environment Programme, UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, International Rice Research Institute, International Fund for Agricultural Development, World Food Prize Fund, and India's National Biodiversity Authority and Ministry of Environment and Forests. "The declaration makes a bridge of issues at global, national and local levels between the challenges for conservation and food security," said Angela Cropper, deputy executive director, UN Environment Programme. These include: according economic value to the services nature and agriculture rendered and setting up mechanisms for payment for such services; acknowledging that the custodians of biodiverse resources are farmers and fisherfolk; finding markets for neglected but nutritious crops; including rural communities in biodiversity strategies; refocussing research and development priorities and promoting biodiversity literacy through public education to build an ethic of conservation. Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, present at the valedictory session, pledged to take forward the 'wonderful ideas' contained in the declaration. He said he would do his best to integrate climate change mitigation strategies with biodiversity conservation in both national policy and in international discussion in Mexico later this year. 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. You can read the whole article here f**k man ....300 million thats 30 crore people.... thats like 1 out of every 3.5 people in india is hungry now(if my calculations are right)... shouldn't be complaining now when mum cooks kaddu aloo and khichidi next time. quite some time back i read that quite a few million tons of food got spoiled in governments storage place ...this was when tomato was abt Rs 45kg...why did not they release it from their storage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hahaman Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 n here we r enjoying evryday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel81x Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 nice eye opening article but I blame hunger on greed in this case, when they can easily utilize the wastes they have on a daily basis to feed the hungry, they trash the stuff, making it uneatable and then you've got poor people eating it from the trash as well when in fact they could just start a service and get hotels/outlets to put any un-used food into a bin and push it to needy people. And the go-down story with the tomatoes makes complete sense because they probably waited till right around the time they went bad to see if they could sell it instead of giving it to the poor. Then again its easy for us to make these kinds of 'rational' calls but when your a guy with tonnes of tomatoes and nowhere to sell them you start thinking about how to raise a profit on it and they get stuck in limbo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solitaire Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 n here we r enjoying evryday And here people are worrying about spending extra money on CEs and UEs while there are people who can't make ends meet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killzone123 Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 why not we start something ourselves to make a difference in this...even if by our initiative we feed 5 hungry people that will be a big thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jDaMn Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 why not we start something ourselves to make a difference in this...even if by our initiative we feed 5 hungry people that will be a big thingI'm in, even if we don't have any ideas as yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solitaire Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 I'm in, even if we don't have any ideas as yet I'm in once is start earning. which will be a few years on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aftrunner Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 No way its 300 million. I smell BS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killzone123 Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 I'm in, even if we don't have any ideas as yet well a idea is something like a wing or a group of people from ivg who are interested in this ... it will then depend on how many people are there from each city...then every week we can target a particular city..and the ivg members from that city can meet up and buy something and go to a particular area where we know homeless people are and give them whtever we can by our contribution... see we always complain when these sort of articles come up...even what gaurav said we spend so much on UE CE etc ...but complaints does not solve anything in end...why not do something...even a little difference can feed someone a meal..and that would be much better then just complaining in a thread...what i mentioned above is a rough sort of idea that just came in my mind..we can always improve on that or some other idea..depends in the end on how many people actually want to be a part of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killzone123 Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 I'm in once is start earning. which will be a few years on lol no one asking for 500 or 5k bro yet ...even if you spare 100 or 50 buks somewhere..you can feed a hungry mouth yourself...anyways .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solitaire Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 lol no one asking for 500 or 5k bro yet ...even if you spare 100 or 50 buks somewhere..you can feed a hungry mouth yourself...anyways .. Well for now my dad does much more than that and I'll let him do the talking... lets see Besides my plan with my savings (around 6k now) is to donate it to the PFA or Blue Cross (I know not human, but helpful to someone atleast) before I leave for higher studies. That's why I'm saving that money and whatever I get from selling my games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playstation Posted March 28, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 And here people are worrying about spending extra money on CEs and UEs while there are people who can't make ends meet. I think we should not blame those people..coz even if you dont spend on Collector editions and Ultimate editions...I am sure you are as much guilty as everyone of us...you got ps3 too that money could have filled many empty stomachs ...its their hard earned money its their wish where to spend it. why not we start something ourselves to make a difference in this...even if by our initiative we feed 5 hungry people that will be a big thing I had pm'ed Sam abt this long time back ...I was thinking of Rs 10-20 per member every month doantion to one account and with Abt so many members - it easily should reach atleast Rs 4000-5000 that should be good enough to help the few we Can Under IVG community . ...i dont mind if donation is as much as Rs 50 per month but just that so everyone would have no objections i had purposed Rs 10. it was just an idea i passed on to sam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jDaMn Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 I'm in once is start earning. which will be a few years on Ideas and time are always useful - money we can get from other members j/k.. but it does sound good - even reputed organizations like Unicef waste tons of donor money (not sure, I think I read this somewhere). IVG members have plenty of value in terms of hardware/software. Moreover, we're in a number of cities. Can we organize something like a gaming expo (using our equipment) or such where money raised can be donated? Aft - even if it's not 300, the number is very high. A (2008) BBC article puts it at 200+ million. You could also look at the UN site for info on this - If I remember correctly, they have an entire section dedicated to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solitaire Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 I think we should not blame those people..coz even if you dont spend on Collector editions and Ultimate editions...I am sure you are as much guilty as everyone of us...you got ps3 too that money could have filled many empty stomachs ...its their hard earned money its their wish where to spend it. I know we all spend, just saying, the way we spend more on one end of the spectrum, there are those right at the other end too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killzone123 Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 Besides my plan with my savings (around 6k now) is to donate it to the PFA or Blue Cross (I know not human, but helpful to someone atleast) before I leave for higher studies. That's why I'm saving that money and whatever I get from selling my games. thats really nice of you I had pm'ed Sam abt this long time back ...I was thinking of Rs 10-20 per member every month doantion to one account and with Abt so many members - it easily should reach atleast Rs 4000-5000 that should be good enough to help the few we Can Under IVG community . ...i dont mind if donation is as much as Rs 50 per month but just that so everyone would have no objections i had purposed Rs 10. it was just an idea i passed on to sam. well nice..but 10-20 rs transferring to a donation account somewhat seems impractical...or even 50 for that matter...impractical i mean how to transfer a amount or deposit in a account anyways nice thought basically Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jDaMn Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 thats really nice of you well nice..but 10-20 rs transferring to a donation account somewhat seems impractical...or even 50 for that matter... anyways nice thought basically Yes, even 50 from all of us combined does not mean much - we have to get others involved. Kill, go ahead and make a thread on this, we can check interest level + ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solitaire Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 thats really nice of you My Dad though says I'm a very smart businessman cos I get the money from him to buy a game (which itself happens occasionally) and then sell the game, but don't give him the cash, instead I keep it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alphabeta Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 I think it is nice to donate money and stuff ......but if we can actually solve the problem or at least find the core of the problem we might do more service to the country and people than simply donating money. I think the biggest problem regarding food and other basic necessities is distribution. Yes, there are a lot of con men and greedy people in between but there is something in the system that makes it very easy for people to hoard and make money on the sly. If we can cut down the cost for distribution somehow or at least find the obstacles to it - be it either lack of infrastructure, convoluted laws, poor and out dated technology, lazy and incompetent and corrupt authorities - whatever, we can do a lot more than simply donating money. Donating money is still a good idea but my cynicism views it as more of a band aid rather than a preventive measure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jDaMn Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 Guys, pls PM me if you're interested in this. Not asking for any money+time right now - if you can help out in any way (ideas, support..), let me know, we'll work on the specifics later. If we get enough people/a workable idea, we can ask the rest of the guys for opinions/help. Killzone - pls check PM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killzone123 Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 I think it is nice to donate money and stuff ......but if we can actually solve the problem or at least find the core of the problem we might do more service to the country and people than simply donating money. I think the biggest problem regarding food and other basic necessities is distribution. Yes, there are a lot of con men and greedy people in between but there is something in the system that makes it very easy for people to hoard and make money on the sly. If we can cut down the cost for distribution somehow or at least find the obstacles to it - be it either lack of infrastructure, convoluted laws, poor and out dated technology, lazy and incompetent and corrupt authorities - whatever, we can do a lot more than simply donating money. Donating money is still a good idea but my cynicism views it as more of a band aid rather than a preventive measure. well nice views and totally agree with you bro...but practically the things you mentioned is like requiring a big effort from a lot more people...plus contacts and govt help also in all that...i dont know or to be honest i dont think just you and me or few others can do all that... and in the end it wil be like we fail to put a big bandage on the patient,and also miss a chance to put atleast a band aid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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