One piece of bread a day / Was all I had,
Sometimes I would break it in half,
Sometimes, I could make it toast,
My children's bellies full / My stomach churning,
I drank water / To calm the burning,
I had more than most / Reminding myself of those,
Who have a handful of rice / Once a week,
They know fear / They know pain,
They know hunger / Far better than I ever could.
Alisha Rose's poem, Hunger, brings out the essence of a grave problem that plagues not only India, but the entire world.
According to the Global Hunger Index, India ranks 65th out of 88 countries, with a hunger rate of 23.9.
India, which was largely unaffected by the recent global economic slowdown, however, appears to have made little progress in tackling hunger and malnutrition. The situation remains 'alarming' in the country on this front.
Countries like Uganda (38th); Mauritania (40th); Zimbabwe (58th) and many others have a better record than India on this front. Even war-torn nations have managed to combat the scourge of hunger quite well, while India -- even though it boasts of being the second fastest growing economy in the world -- languishes far behind and millions in the country go hungry.
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