The ‘Sick-man of South Asia’ INDIA is ranked 94th out of 118 countries surveyed, below even Burma, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Malawi, Zimbabwe and ninety other developing countries
Balkanization of INDIA into a dozen independent states can solve the hunger problem!
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - While the Bombay Stock market SENSEX zooms to a record 19,000 points making a few rich manipulating Brahmin/Bania investors richer in INDIA, the latest Global Hunger Index-2007 has ranked the intensity if Indian hunger (afflicting the vast majority of Indians - over 79.9% of the population or 800 million unwashed - according to the UN Human Development Report 2006 > http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/indicators/24.html < who go to sleep hungry every night) very high at 94th out of 118 developing countries surveyed.The latest Global Hunger Index-2007 report of the International Food Policy Research Institute, (IFPRI) released in Washington DC last weekend, while ranking the hunger in 118 developing countries (> http://www.ifpri.org/media/20071012ghi/ghi07.pdf <) has reconfirmed the above UN Human Development Report-2006 findings by listing Indian hunger-misery, nay shame, by ranking INDIA at 94th below even disturbed South Asian countries like Burma (Myanmar) at 66th, Sri Lanka at 69th, Pakistan at 88th, Nepal at 90th, and ninety other developing famished countries around the globe. While Libya, which has nearly eradicated hunger, is ranked first, China has improved its ranking to 47th. INDIA in contrast is ranked at a lowly 94th in the Global Hunger Index-2007, below even famished African states like Malawi at 91st, Burkina Faso at 92nd and Zimbabwe at 93rd and just above ‘basket case’ countries like Sudan at 95th, Tanzania at 96th, Rwanda at 97th and Haiti at 98th. INDIA it seems has been placed in proper company!
Other improvements, some outstanding some ordinary, on the ‘hunger front’, highlighted by the Global Hunger Index-2007 have been shown by Argentina at 2nd, Chile at 5th, Cuba at 9th, Tunisia at 12th, Fiji at 14th, Lebanon at 17th, Mauritius at 18th, Syria at 19th, Turkey at 20th, Egypt at 21st, Brazil at 24th, Mexico at 25th, Jordan at 26th, Iran at 27th, Jamaica 29th, South Africa at 30th, Trinidad & Tobago 33rd, Algeria at 35th, Malaysia at 36th, Morocco at 38th, Guyana at 51st, Indonesia at 54th, Thailand at 56th, Ghana 64th, Philippines at 67th, Vietnam 73rd, Nigeria 80th, Kenya at 86th, Nepal 90th, and the nearly failed state of President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe at 93rd with ‘shining’ INDIA ranked below the above named states at 94th.
For a ‘birds-eye-view’ of hungry India’s shameful performance, after sixty years of independent existence dominated by the ‘Nehru dynasty’, please see Comparative Chart ‘A’ appended below for rankings of randomly selected 32 populous (out of 118 ranked) developing countries (first world developed countries have been excluded) culled from the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) Global Hunger Index 2007:-
Comparative chart ‘A’
shows rankings of 32 developing countries out of 118 surveyed.
Numbers culled from the Global Hunger Index-2007
released by the
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
which seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty.
> http://www.ifpri.org/media/20071012ghi/ghi07.pdf <
Global Hunger Index 2007 RANK out of 118
Country
Population
in
millions Year
2006
*
Population Estimate
in
millions
for year
2025
*
Population
Estimate
in
millions for year
2050
*
Global Hunger index
1990
Global Hunger Index
2007
Global Hunger Index
+ -
From 1990 to
2007
First
Libya
5 million
8 million
10 million
2.70
0.87
+
11th
Russia
142 mil
128 mil
109 mil
---
2.33
----
20th
Turkey
70 mil
82 mil
86 mil
6.90
4.20
+
21st
Egypt
79 mil
103 mil
127 mil
8.27
4.27
+
24th
Brazil
188 mil
218 mil
228 mil
8.33
4.60
+
25th
Mexico
107 mil
130 mil
148 mil
7.93
4.67
+
27th
Iran
65 mil
77 mil
81 mil
9.37
4.73
+
30th
S. Africa
44 mil
40 mil.
33 mil
7.17
5.25
+
47th
China
1,313 mil
1,453 mil
1,424 mil
12.77
8.37
+
54th
Indonesia
232 mil
279 mil
313 mil
18.53
11.57
+
56th
Thailand
65 mil
71 mil
69 mil
18.77
12.03
+
66th
Burma
47 mil
53 mil
54 mil
19.77
15.80
+
67th
Philippines
89 mil
119 mil
148 mil
21.90
16.23
+
69th
Sri Lanka
21 mil
24 mil
25 mil
24.40
16.60
+
73rd
Vietnam
84 mil
100 mil
108 mil
27.10
17.70
+
80th
Nigeria
132 mil
206 mil
357 mil
23.77
19.13
+
86th
Kenya
36 mil
51 mil
65 mil
22.03
20.97
+
88th
Pakistan
166 mil
229 mil
295 mil
25.73
22.70
+
89th
Laos
6 mil
9 mil
13 mil
26.43
23.23
+
90th
Nepal
28 mil
40 mil
53 mil
28.33
24.30
+
91st
Malawi
13 mil
20 mil
30 mil
33.90
24.50
+
92nd
BurkinaFaso
14 mil
24 mil
44 mil
23.03
24.63
-
93rd
Zimbabwe
12 mil
13 mil
12 mil
21.33
24.83
-
94th
INDIA
1,112 mil
1,449 mil
1,808 mil
33.73
25.03
+
95th
Sudan
41 mil
61 mil
84 mil
25.57
25.60
-
96th
Tanzania
37 mil
53 mil
72 mil
27.33
26.13
+
97th
Rwanda
9 mil
16 mil
35 mil
29.90
26.27
+
98th
Haiti
8 mil
13 mil
20 mil
35.20
26.97
+
103rd
Bangladesh
147 mil
205 mil
280 mil
36.97
28.40
+
114th
Ethiopia
75 mil
108 mil
145 mil
45.98
33.67
+
117th
Congo-Zaire
63 mil
108 mil
183 mil
28.23
41.17
-
118th
Last
Burundi
8 mil
14 mil
23 mil
32.03
42.37
-
* Population figures culled from New York Times World Almanac 2007 – pages 846-848
Comparative Chart B, appended below, shows twenty of the worlds most populous countries, seventeen of them from the developing world. They are included in Comparative Chart ‘A’ above which also shows the projections of their population in the years 2025 and 2050 when feeding the increasing hungry populations will become a much bigger problem then it is today.
Comparative CHART ‘B’
showing 2006 population of the world’s twenty most populous countries
Population
Rank.
The world’s most populous countries with 2006 population in millions. Figures culled from New York Times World Almanac – 2007 Page 848
1
China…… 1, 313 million
2
India …... 1, 112 million
3
U.S…… 298 million **
4
Indonesia……232 million
5
Brazil……… 188 million
6
Pakistan…… 166 million
7
Bangladesh… 147 million
8
Russia…… 142 million
9
Nigeria…… 132 million.
10
Japan……… 127 million **
11
Mexico…… 107 million
12
Philippines……..89 million
13
Vietnam……… 84 million
14
Germany……… 82 million **
15
Egypt………… 79 million
16
Ethiopia……… 75 million
17
Turkey………… 70 million
18
Iran…………… 65 million
19
Thailand……… 65 million
20
Congo (Zaire)… 63 million
** Developed countries not included in IFPRI survey
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI is one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, an alliance of 64 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations. Only two regions of the world—Latin America & the Caribbean and East Asia & Pacific—are on track to reach all Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets related to hunger and child mortality. As part of the Millennium Development Goal, the international community set targets to cut hunger in half and under-five mortality rates by two-thirds by 2015. According to the Global Hunger Index-2007, most countries will not reach all these targets if progress continues at current rates. "Because hunger has many faces, the Global Hunger Index uses a multidimensional approach that simultaneously captures various aspects of hunger and under-nutrition," explained Doris Wiesmann, the IFPRI researcher who developed the Hunger Index. "By combining three indicators into one index and ranking countries accordingly, the Index gives us a very comprehensive picture of hunger in developing and transitional countries." Doris Wiesmann also pointed out that this year, the Global Hunger Index assesses whether developing countries are on track to reach MDG targets that relate to the three Index indicators—the proportion of people who are calorie deficient, child malnutrition, and child mortality.
In September 2000, leaders of 189 countries signed the Millennium Development Declaration, a global plan to meet the needs of the world’s most poor and hungry by 2015. According to Doris Wiesmann, “We are now midway between the declaration and the deadline. By calling attention to countries and regions that are not on track to meet the goals for reducing hunger and child mortality, we hope the Global Hunger Index motivates world and national leaders to take increased action to ensure that the goals are achieved." Only two regions of the world—Latin America & the Caribbean and East Asia & Pacific—are on track to reach all Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets related to hunger and child mortality. As part of the MDGs, the international community set targets to cut hunger in half and under-five mortality rates by two-thirds by 2015. According to the Global Hunger Index, most countries will not reach all these targets if progress continues at current rates.
There is no chance of INDIA reducing the hunger of its ‘unwashed’, like China, Egypt and Thailand are currently doing or Libya has done. INDIA is doing a standing march and is trying to half heartedly improve the miserable lives of its 800 million hungry at what the London Economist calls the ‘Hindu rate of progress’. Out of India’s 2006 population of 1, 112 million, 79.9% (or 887 million) are hungry as compared to China’s 615 million (47% of the population) out of a population of 1,313 million Chinese. By 2050 even if India reduced the numbers of its hungry, which is highly unlikely, to 47% of the population (grown to 1, 808 billion by that point in time) there would still be 850 million hungry Indians living in misery, while China if it stood still at the current 47% hungry rate - and made no further progress at all - it would have 670 million hungry Chinese out of a population of 1, 424 million in 2050.
For the over 800 million unwashed Indians, and captive nations like the Sikhs, Nagas, Kashmiris, Tamils and Untouchables, and others, there is no light at the end of the tunnel no matter how many slogans of ‘India Shining’ and ‘India mahan’, 9% annual growth are repeated by rote like a mantra by the rulers, (an evil nexus of the Brahmin and the Bania) who strut around in palaces in New Delhi built by the Colonial British on stolen Sikh Gurdwara lands. INDIA, in its present size and geographical form, boxed in by Pakistan, Bangladesh and China in the West, East and North respectively, is ungovernable and will continue in squalor and misery for its fast growing ‘unwashed’ hungry majority, angry segments of which are in open armed revolt in rural areas of over 200 districts, spread over eleven Indian states (provinces) under the flag of the egalitarian Naxalite movement..
This misery will continue till the 800 million hungry people, who are in a majority, realize, to Quote Mr. Winston Churchill’s famous words, that, ‘INDIA is as much a country as the Equator’. “Hunger is the teacher of the arts and the bestower of invention,” is an old truism. Areas in the present Indian map can only prosper if the area is Balkanized (like Europe was after World War I in the early 20th century) into economically viable progressive, democratic, ‘Caste-free’, nations like Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagaland, Tamilland, Dalitistan and others, instead of continuing in misery as the world’s largest monstrous, caste-ridden, dynastic, ungovernable, oppressive Indian demoNcracy as it is today.