ThinkQuest : HUNGER : A BRUTE'S BITE

- PROJECT INTRODUCTIO​N & ASSESSMENT
- PROJECT LAUNCH & INTRODUCTIO​N
- DAILY DISCUSSION PAGE
- RESOURCES TO BE EXPLORED
- PEOPLE SAY IT THIS WAY-SURVEY
- INTERACTION
- IMAGES SPEAK
- Activity_Qu​iz-Whiz
- SPECIAL ACTIVITY_IN​TERVIEW
- Artifacts_C​reative Painting & Slogans
- THE EYE OPENER_MULT​IMEDIA
- HUNGER : THE MONSTER KILLER
- SUGGESTIVE WAYS TO ERADICATE HUNGER
- SCAFFOLDS
- REFLECTION
- CELEBRTAION​_SEMINAR
- CITATION & CREDITS
- TEACHER-PEE​R FEEDBACK
- PROJECT LAUNCH

# HUNGER : THE MONSTER KILLER

26 Apr, 2013

## What is hunger?

Hunger is a feeling experienced when one has a desire to eat. The often unpleasant feeling

originates in the hypothalamus and is released through receptors in the liver. Although an average nourished individual can survive weeks without food intake, the sensation of hunger typically begins after a couple of hours without eating and is generally considered quite uncomfortable.

The sensation of hunger can often be alleviated and even mitigated entirely with the consumption of food. Hunger is also the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience, or live with the threat of experiencing, the physical sensation of hunger.

Source:Wikipedia

26 Apr, 2013

## Literal meaning of hunger

Famine (Latin fames,”hunger”), severe shortage of food, generally affecting a widespread area and large numbers of people. Natural causes include droughts, floods, earthquakes, insect plagues, and plant disease. Human causes include wars, civil disturbances, sieges, and deliberate crop destruction. Widespread, chronic hunger and malnutrition may result from severe poverty, inefficient food distribution, or population increases disproportionate to the food-producing or procuring capacity of people in a region.

Source:Microsoft Encarta 2008

26 Apr, 2013

## Why is hunger so brute? Because it leads to..

### Malnutrition

### A condition resulting from inadequate consumption (undernutrition) or excessive consumption of one or more nutrients that can impair mental and physical health, and cause or be the onsequence of infectious disease.

### Undernutrition

### A condition resulting from inadequate consumption of calories, protein and/or nutrients to meet the basic physical requirements for an active and healthy life.

### Food Insecurity

### The limited or uncertain availability or ability to acquire safe, nutritious food in a socially acceptable way. People living in households that are food insecure do not always know how to provide for their next meal and are often forced to cut back on meals or food portions to stretch resources.

###

26 Apr, 2013

## Causes of hunger....

These are some of the main causes of hunger (also often related to the causes of poverty in various ways) :

• Land rights and ownership

• Diversion of land use to non-productive use

• Increasing emphasis on export-oriented agriculture

• Inefficient agricultural practices

• War

• Famine

• Drought

• Over-fishing

• Poor crop yield

• Poverty and powerlessness.

• Lack of Democratic Rights

• Gender discrimination

• Violence and militarism

• Racism and ethnocentrism

26 Apr, 2013

## Main reason for hunger's bruteness....

It Knows no Discrimination among Old or Young

Hunger is a kind of sensation that does not bother about the age of a person wheather he is an infant or an old one.

It's mother is Poverty.

Poverty ultimately leads to starvation.Poverty is a condition where a person is unable to fulfill his basic needs like clothing,shelter or even food

26 Apr, 2013

## Some shaking facts on hunger.....

- Over 25,000 children die every day around the world.
- 1 child dying every 3.5 seconds
- 17-18 children dying every minute
- A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring almost every 1.5 weeks
- An Iraq-scale death toll every 16–38 days
- Over 9 million children dying every year
- Some 70 million children dying between 2000 and 2007. The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. In spite of the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.

26 Apr, 2013

## Hunger facts

Malnourishment :

More than 840 million people in the world are malnourished — 799 million of them live in the developing world.

Malnourished Children:

More than 153 million of the world's malnourished people are children under the age of 5.

Mortality Due to Hunger:

Six million children under the age of 5 die every year as a result of hunger.

Effects of Malnutrition:

Malnutrition can severely affect a child's intellectual development. Malnourished children

often have stunted growth and score significantly lower on math and language achievement

tests than do well-nourished children.

Lack of Dietary Diversity

Lack of dietary diversity and essential minerals and vitamins also contributes to increased

child and adult mortality. Vitamin A deficiency impairs the immune system, increasing the

annual death toll from measles and other diseases by an estimated 1.3 million-2.5 million

children.

Poor Countries

While every country in the world has the potential of growing enough food to feed itself, 54

nations currently do not produce enough food to feed their populations, nor can they afford

to import the necessary commodities to make up the gap. Most of these countries are in sub- Saharan Africa.

Causes of Hunger

Most of the widespread hunger in a world of plenty results from grinding, deeply rooted

poverty. In any given year, however, between 5 and 10 percent of the total can be traced to

specific events: droughts or floods, armed conflict, political, social and economic disruptions.

26 Apr, 2013

## Wastage of Food is a Major Cause of Hunger

- In the United Kingdom, “a shocking 30-40% of all food is never eaten;”
- In the last decade the amount of food British people threw into the bin went up by 15%;
- Overall, £20 billion (approximately $38 billion US dollars) worth of food is thrown away, every year.
- In the US 40- 50% of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten;
- The impacts of this waste is not just financial. Environmentally this leads to:
  - Wasteful use of chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides;
  - More fuel used for transportation;
  - More rotting food, creating more methane — one of the most harmful greenhouse gases that contributes to climate change.

26 Apr, 2013

## India tops world hunger chart

The Times Of India

27 Feb 2009, 0229 hrs IST, Kounteya Sinha, TNN Text: NEW DELHI: India is failing its rural poor with 230 million people being undernourished — the highest for any country in the world. Malnutrition accounts for nearly 50% of child deaths in India as every third adult (aged 15-49 years) is reported to be thin (BMI less than 18.5). According to the latest report on the state of food insecurity in rural India, more than 1.5 million children...

DETAILS ON HUNGER STRIKE:

The VOP organized a hunger strike on 12 February 2009 in 60 Blocks of 22 districts

including Varanasi district in UP. It has been asking for more attention on the issues faced

by the marginalized and socially weak groups such as the Dalit community. Despite many

written statements to the concerned authorities, the administration failed to respond. The

VOP therefore decided to organize a hunger strike with the intention of sending a distress

signal to the State government as well as the local administration concerning the food

insecurity and absence of basic infrastructure suffered by many villagers. Mr. Vijay Raj

Yadav, the District Secretary of VOP had already intimated the Chief Minister of UP and

District Magistrate (DM) of Varanasi by post on 23 January 2009.

Their demands

When the hunger strike was on in the Pindra Block of Varanasi, the DM of Varanasi came

and assured the participants that he would fulfill their demands by 17 February. The

participants' demands were as follows: 1. Employment under National Rural Employment

Guarantee Act (NREGA). 2. Pension for the old, the widows, and the handicapped. 3.

Installation of hand-pumps and construction of roads in the villages inhabited by

marginalized communities. 4. Implementation of family welfare schemes. 5. Construction of

houses for the villagers living below poverty line.

What happened?

All these demands are nothing new. They are all government schemes to ensure the right to

food and to prevent hunger deaths in India, which is enshrined in Supreme Court Order

2005 on the right to food. What the people were demanding was that the government

implements these promises which had so far remained on paper. Instead, the Assistant

Development Officer (ADO), Pindra Panchayat pressurized the protesters to call off the

hunger strike. The protesters did not succumb to the pressure and continued their hunger

strike expecting the District Magistrate to honour his promise.

Still the same

Moreover, although the strike was peaceful, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Phoolpur

police station Mr. R N Pandey attached to Pindra Block also threatened the protesters with

dire consequences and insisted that the human rights activists call off the strike. The SHO of

Phoolpur police station has slapped false charges against the human rights activists of the

PVCHR. The Phoolpur police often threaten them and withdraw their support to the poor,

thereby violating the right to freedom of speech and expression. For the previous appeals

regarding the Phoolpur police' violent action against human rights activities, please see

AHRC-UAU-007-2008, AHRC-UAU-004-2008, and UA-305-2007.

No change in condition.

The intimidation of the local police and the negligence of local administration illustrate their

unwillingness to prevent hunger deaths and ensure the food security in India. Rather, they

attempt to conceal the true picture of hunger and poverty, and force the human rights

activists to be silent. Till date, on 18 February 2009, thirteen protesters of Pindra Block of

Varanasi district continue to struggle for these demands while the local administration

consistently ignores its duty.

26 Apr, 2013

## Hunger in Indian states 'alarming'

Twelve Indian states have "alarming" levels of hunger while the situation is "extremely alarming" in the state of Madhya Pradesh, says a new report.