Vijay Garg
Today, when technology, prosperity and modernity are expanding all over the world, hunger and malnutrition remain a problem in the human society with divided economy.
Recently, the Director General of the International Labor Organization (United Nations), Gilbert Hungbo, has exposed the fact that millions of children around the world are being sent to work instead of going to school, in order to eradicate hunger. Not only this, they are also accused of wrongdoings. This torture of innocent people has intensified since the Covid pandemic amidst unbearable inflation. It is not that this is happening only in the poor countries of the world, this decline continues even in countries with proportionally higher economies.
Most of the children and teenagers are being put into fields like farming, mining, construction etc. The reason for this tragedy is poverty and hunger. About sixteen crore children of the world are facing such situations. For the first time in the last two decades, such a situation is out of control. The number of child laborers is increasing rapidly. Inflation due to Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Palestine wars has also made people’s lives complicated. To satisfy hunger, children are also being forced to do physical labour. It is a fact that in India alone sixty-seven lakh children go to sleep hungry. This number is more than countries like Sudan and Mali. Surveyors term this a situation of ‘zero food’, raising deep concerns of severe food insecurity.
According to the Global Hunger Index – 2023, this not only children and teenagers going to work are affected by the tragedy, but also 30 percent of them are children aged between 6 to 11 months, 13 percent of children aged 12 to 17 months and 8 percent of infants aged 18 to 23 months. Meanwhile, the prevalence of under nutrition in our country has increased from 14.6 percent to 16.3 percent. In such a situation, it has become very challenging for the governments to monitor malnourished children and make a comprehensive policy to rescue them from this complex situation.
According to statistics, about sixty percent of children in our country are deprived of nutritious food like milk etc. Child trafficking is also a major reason for the horrific exploitation of children. Poverty, humanitarian crisis and lack of education are fueling its high rates. The problem is that it is not easy to get accurate figures. Regarding child labor which has become a global challenge, according to an estimate, more than twenty thousand children are being trafficked every year. Despite calls for comprehensive protection of children, prevention of trafficking, law enforcement, and necessary assistance to victims, this number continues to increase every year. At least three lakh children are kidnapped every year. A large number of them fall into the hands of traffickers. According to a report by anti-human trafficking organization ‘THORN’, every thirteenth of these children is subjected to sexual exploitation.
In India, a large proportion of children are engaged in labor despite the Child and Adolescent Labor Prohibition Act. Although the CLPR Act makes it illegal to employ any child as a labourer, but according to the last national census (2011), out of the total 25.964 crore children in the country, 1.012 crore were found in various types of labour., The number of such children in the world is said to be more than 21.7 crore. A report by UNICEF and International Labor Organization states that the number of child laborers has increased by 89 lakh as compared to earlier.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the highest number of cases of child labor are being registered in Telangana. Assam has been at second position. Most of the children were found employed in the brick manufacturing industry. A large number of child laborers are doing hard labor in UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. starvation and malnutrition. The biggest reasons are economic inequality, poverty and inflation. The affected population is becoming deprived of food items as well as drinking water and sanitation. The second major reason for increasing hunger is the lack of proper implementation of government schemes and policies. Wars in the world and natural disasters like drought, flood, earthquake have also made this situation difficult. Agricultural activities have been disrupted. There is unequal distribution of food production.
The condition of poverty and child labor in India is now becoming frightening, the danger of which are emerging in the form of massive exploitation of children. Most of the 80-81 crore families dependent on five kg ration are facing economic insecurity, unemployment, poverty and hunger. Most of the child laborers come from such families. Meanwhile, the latest report of the United Nations highlighting the global inequality shows that about eighty crore people in the world go to sleep hungry every day, on the other hand, about one billion plates of food are being wasted.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s ‘Food Waste’ ‘Index-2024’ report, in the last one year alone, 1.05 billion tonnes of food was wasted, out of which about 20 percent was thrown in the garbage. Today, while millions of people are sleeping hungry, almost one-fifth of the food products available in the market are being wasted. Now this destruction is becoming a global tragedy. This waste is also causing climate change and loss of biodiversity.
According to a UN report, annually a maximum of 631 million tonnes (about 60 percent) of food is wasted at home. Among the world’s affluent people, every person wastes at least two quintals of food annually. The United Nations has been closely monitoring this situation for the last three years. This wastage of food is found in both rich and poor countries alike. Per capita annual food waste rates varied by only seven kilograms between high-, upper-middle- and lower-middle-income countries, but there was a difference in such waste between urban and rural areas. in middle income countries Rural populations waste relatively little food. The United Nations is trying to reduce food wastage by fifty percent by 2030.
(The author is retired principal, educational columnist and can be reached at [email protected])
