Hunger knows no rules and that is an absolute truth since time immemorial. Lack of food not only leads to malfunctioning of health but, it impacts the health of a state and nation. A challenge that stares at even developed nations.

Of the 7 billion people in the world, about 795 million do not have enough to eat! One of the most shocking reality that often goes unnoticed or unaddressed amid the din of the screams over advancement.

Back home in India, the scene is no less frightening. Where more than 70 percent of people belong to farming. Leaving politics aside, today there is a mammoth crowd from the farming sector protesting over the new agriculture policy. Whether they are right or wrong is being debated. It`s all about food and that is a paramount priority.

Nagada The Eye-Opener

Sometimes the accumulated stress of hunger explodes as it happened in Odisha, a few years back, in a nondescript village called Nagada. The issue caught national attention following a harrowing incident of deaths of an untold number of kids due to malnourishment and hunger.  It became a scream of panic which woke up the administration to quickly tighten its belt.

Nagada, a village where tribals constitute the majority population, is one of such examples in the country. It is not tribes alone but the pangs of such a reality has not spared the other people categorized as backward, poor and neglected.

What the issue requires is food security. Odisha government has done its bit but it is not that, we can leave everything and every time to the government. That is where the volunteering efforts of the capable ones come into play.

How People`s Role Matters

Corporate houses, NGOs, Industrial Honchos, and even wealthy persons in society have a role to play. Call it yeoman service or charity, that can be left to the ones who do it but, the joy of giving is what should dawn upon all of us.

Regardless of the convictions sometimes coming from the sidelines, one cannot lose sight of the thing that, someone has volunteered to ensure not only food for over 60,000 children from the tribal community and other backward communities but provide education free of cost.

Not only that but what is significant is, the continuity of the efforts by the Kalinga Institute of Technology & Social Science. The hard work spans over several areas of the state from where, by now, 20 thousand boys have graduated in different subjects besides being successful in other fields as well.

The sustainable development agenda of removing poverty and hunger might seem like a dream to India despite being the world`s fastest developing economy. The recent Global Hunger Index 2018 (GHI) reveals that tackling hunger and undernutrition is a difficult task for the Modi Government. India stood 103rd on the Global Hunger Index along with Nigeria and has been categorised as a country with `serious` levels of hunger.

Likewise, Odisha, unfortunately, ranks third-worst in food security after Assam and Bihar. However, in last few years the state government had undertaken several initiatives towards food security and importantly job creation.

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