Zero Hunger is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Organization but all the efforts of the U.N. Agencies to make the world healthy and provide nutrition to all in their various nutrition programs seem to go in vain as the number of undernourished people around the world has kept rising since the last 15 years.
The after effects of the pandemic can now be observed as the number of people affected by hunger in the world has drastically increased since 2019.
According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report 2022, issued by U.N. Agencies Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World Health Organization (WHO), World Food Program (WFP) and the UNICEF – 150 million more people did not have the access to nutritious and sufficient food since the outbreak of Covid-19 making the total number of such people 828 million globally.
Hunger and malnutrition are two of the most challenging issues faced by people. Someone who is hungry or malnourished is more likely to get health problems and acts less productive for the society.
Poverty and lack of resources are some of the main reasons behind food scarcity. Unemployed and underpaid workers cannot afford sufficient food for themselves and their families. Hunger is the cause of most of the problems for them. Children are affected the most by this issue as they tend to be more prone to diseases and need to be taken care of. More than 35 million children under the age of five are under nourished and underweight as per the data in the report.
Overpopulation has caused over exploitation of resources which has also led to food scarcity around the world. Moreover, factors like wars, natural calamities, steady economic growth, etc. are also responsible for this.
However, the number of undernourished and hunger affected people have reduced in India to 224.3 million in 2019-2021 from 247.8 million in 2004-2006 but it is still a great number.
The distribution of food grains under the Public Distribution System, providing subsidies to poor consumers, ensuring affordable food prices and putting restrictions on Food and Agricultural exports has helped in this reduction, according to the report.