Hunger is without doubt the most primeval of bodily feelings. At an individual level, it has been felt by everybody. It is a feature of relative affluence that individual hunger can be assuaged very easily by the ready availability of food. Poverty produces individual and mass hunger that persists. Hunger is the great dividing line between peoples. There is a difference, however thin, between someone who regularly gets only one square meal a day and someone who consistently and constantly feels the pangs of hunger. Statistics show very clearly that India has a substantial number of people who are perpetually hungry. On the global hunger index, India is ranked 66 among 88 developing countries. Indians may be delighted that this places them above Bangladesh. But that delight will be wiped off with the information that India ranks lower than all other South Asian countries and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. India aspires to be a global power with a seat among the developed nations. Between the two suffixes ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’ that follow the word ‘develop’, falls the shadow of hunger. India’s aspirations will remain suspect till hunger is eradicated.

The existence of hunger means that infant mortality among sections of the population is high; that a large proportion of the population is surviving on food below a specified calorie level; and there are children below five years who are underweight because they are undernourished. Parts of India display all these features. But if these parts are looked at in detail, the results are revealing. For example, the figures show that in states like Maharashtra and Gujarat where, in recent years, the incidence of economic growth has been high, hunger-levels have also been high. In contrast, states like Punjab that show a lower level of economic growth also have lower levels of hunger. The immediate conclusion that suggests itself is that people at the lowest rung of the economic ladder are not experiencing the benefits of economic growth. This has led to the forecast — by no less a person than Amartya Sen — that India might actually become two countries in economic terms. One akin to the Silicon Valley and the other like sub-Saharan Africa. This is a danger that cannot be ruled out. Economists and policy-makers are yet to find a middle ground between growth and equity. Till that is found, hunger will continue to haunt India’s economic growth.