RIGHT TO FOOD IN INDIA
“There are people in the world so hungry, that God can not appear to them except in the form of bread.” – Mahatma Gandhi
If any country wants to achieve the goal of development, the three basic things must be achieved i.e. bread (food), clothes and home (shelter). The important thing is that the right to development approach confers unequivocal obligation on duty-holders: individuals in the community, states at the national level, and states at the international level. Although all rights are important, the right to food is one of the most important rights in development of nation. Right to food can be analyse in terms of sustainability, adequacy, availability and accessibility. For the examination of these in terms
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Some of those definitions are given below:-
According to the UDHR, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family including food, clothing, and housing.”
The Normative Content explained that “The right to food means that every woman, man, and child alone and also in community with others must have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or by using a resource base appropriate for its procurement in ways consistent with human dignity.”
Basically the right to food depends on different type of factors like land owned by a person or income earned by that particular person. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) has entrusted national governments with the primary responsibility of ensuring the right to food. The right to food has three different levels of obligation – to respect, to protect and to fulfil.
The obligation “to respect” basically means that State parties should not any step relating to hinder the access to adequate food. In different words, States must not interfere with individual’s
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In the list there is also a position for India among these countries. However, there is no particular way for achieving right to food. Mechanisms which are using for this purpose is also weak. It is not possible to bring a complaint before a court of law. However, there is now progress being made on the justifiability of the right to food. There are already a number of cases of national jurisprudence that show clearly that the right to food or other economic, social and cultural rights can be considered
In Janet Poppendieck's “Want Amid Plenty: From Hunger To Inequality” she argues that America puts excessive focus upon hunger issues among the poor when there are many other important issues that go unnoticed. Poppendieck believes that it is time to find a way to shift the discourse from undernutrition to unfairness, from hunger to inequality. In today's society, there are many food banks, food drives, soup kitchens, etc. Food is extremely abundant in America, therefore Poppendieck's statement is proven true when she states that there is too much focus on hunger. Throughout this text, she strongly supports her claims about hunger, equality, and poverty in general.
It is difficult to understand how a country with so much wealth has fifty million people who do not know where their next meal is coming from. These people are not just the homeless; many are working class people who just do not earn enough to feed their families every day from one payday to the next. The directors present validation and ethical implications for the argument that food insecurity is not caused by a scarcity of food; it is caused by poverty and the government’s policies which are
There are many policy issues that affect families in today’s society. Hunger is a hidden epidemic and one major issue that American’s still face. It is hard to believe that in this vast, ever growing country, families are still starving. As stated in the book Growing Up Empty, hunger is running wild through urban, rural, and even suburban communities. This paper will explore the differing perspectives of the concerned camp, sanguine camp, and impatient camp. In addition, each camps view, policy agenda, and values that underlie their argument on hunger will be discussed.
Michael Pollan makes arguments concerning the eating habits of the average American. Pollan suggests, in spite of our cultural norms, we should simply “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”
The book The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food, by Wayne Roberts introduces us to the concept of “food system”, which has been neglected by many people in today’s fast-changing and fast-developing global food scene. Roberts points out that rather than food system, more people tend to recognize food as a problem or an opportunity. And he believes that instead of considering food as a “problem”, we should think first and foremost about food as an “opportunity”.
Any given person does not need a college degree to enjoy delicious, healthy, and sustainably produced food, and shouldn’t need one to be able to access such basic human pleasures. Since each culture has a different idea of what qualifies as “good food”, it makes more sense to equip all people with the economic prosperity to be able to access the tools needed to make these
When considering the topic of poverty and hunger, many Americans look outside the borders of the United States. However, food insecurity is an issue that plagues millions of American households each year. The United States Department of Agriculture found that 14.5% of American households faced food insecurity during 2012. These households were defined as having “difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources” (Nord, Singh, Coleman-Jensen).
America is well known as the richest country, where you can enjoy your life with your family or your friend. However, the inequality in this country is getting bigger day by day. The result we are able to get through this issue is the nutritional disparity between rich and poor people. What is the lesson for us? What can we learn from this problem in America? The answer is the human rights in America do not exist in America anymore. In addition, we can learn that there are two types of Americas. One is America with money to receive healthful diets, a good food system. Most of people, who come from the high-income groups or middle-income groups, are able to access the food they want anytime. On the other hand, one is America with no money and human rights in their hand to receive a good food system, the only thing they are able to have is unhealthful diets, such as, processed food and junk food. Moreover, the results poor people get is a disease in specific is NCDs. According to the research in America, if we do not change the way the poor children eat, this generation will be the first generation has a shorter life than their parents because of nutritional disparity. Every day, America wake up and realize they have to face with food
The philosophy of rights has been a perennial subject of discussion not only because it is embedded in the intellectual tradition and political practices of many countries but also because it exhibits deep divisions of opinion on fundamental matters. Even a cursory survey of the literature on rights since, say, the time of the Second World War would turn up a number of perplexing questions to which widely divergent answers have been given: What are rights? Are rights morally fundamental? Are there any natural rights? Do human rights exist? Are all the things listed in the UN's Universal Declaration (of 1948) truly rights? What are moral rights? Legal rights? Are basic moral rights compatible with utilitarianism? How are rights to be justified? What is the value of rights? Can infants have rights, can fetuses have them, or future generations, or animals? And so on.
Nutritionism and Today’s Diet Nutritionism is the ideology that the nutritional value of a food is the sum of all its individual nutrients, vitamins, and other components. In the book, “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan, he critiques scientists and government recommendations about their nutritional advice. Pollan presents a strong case pointing out the many flaws and problems that have risen over the years of following scientific studies and government related warnings on the proper amount of nutrients needed for a healthy diet. Pollan’s main point is introducing science into our food system has had more of a negative impact than a positive one, we should go back to eating more of a traditional diet. I believe food science has given us
to adequate and affordable food, and that both hunger and malnutrition are forms of injustice
The inequality of basic human rights has been an issue around the world for countless decades. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was developed as a framework for the world. This document provides “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations” (MacNaughton et al 24). Also, it states “everyone
Do you know what it feels like to be truly hungry? Have you experienced the deep-seeded fear that arises from not knowing where your next meal is coming from? Luckily, I am not forced to answer “yes” to either of those distressing questions and neither does roughly 79% of the world’s population. However, according to certain statistics, “11.3% of the world’s population” is personally familiar with chronic hunger. To put that figure into perspective, 11.3% of the world’s population boils down to “roughly 805 million people who go undernourished on a daily basis.” (dosomething.org) Eight hundred five million people suffer needlessly says the author of the article because “the world produces enough food to feed all 7 billion people…” (dosomething.org) How is it possible then, that we as people, can possess the resources to feed those millions of hungry people but choose to stand idly by and refuse to help? Sadly, by doing nothing, mankind makes a conscious decision to allow millions of human beings to suffer from malnourishment.
To survive in life we need to consume food whether it is for nutritional value or for the pure enjoyment of its savory taste. Individuals, not the government, have the right to choose what and when to eat; but good nutrition is important to maintain health and live a long and happy life. People need to make choices everyday about what they put into their bodies. Without proper nutrition, our bodies may not be able to function correctly. Most adults know what is good and bad for the body. We all know that diets rich in fruits and vegetables fuel the body in a healthy way and that protein gives us energy. Although we know what food is best for our bodies, each individual has a personal choice of what they put into their bodies and that should not be dictated by the government, even though
The social standing of food became very significant in the early modern Europe. In this period, food was not just a mere substance but was considered an indicator of social position and situation . Food consumed by people was determined by personal preference and most importantly, by one’s prestige, activities and pressure of society in general. Lack of food had social consequences. For instance, famine changed the social framework and relation and even the individual fortunes. Lack of enough food was a common challenge in early modern Europe. Famines occurred very frequently and were numerous especially during the beginning of the fourteen century . Due to this, the fear of famine was witnessed and was influential in the lives of early modern Europeans. With regard to the apparent effects on health and