Poor countries and hunger

D. Chandramouli's Food for thought (Nov. 21) was touching. He writes that "one-quarter of the world's population lives in extreme poverty, deprived of the means of fulfilling their material needs of food, clothes and housing".

Who is to be blamed for this? It need not necessarily be the developed countries. In my opinion, the poor countries themselves are responsible for this. People are hungry because their leaders are suffering from intellectual poverty. Even with the existing farm technology and without the use of genetic engineering, widespread hunger can be eradicated, as the problem of starvation does not lie in achieving a breakthrough in farm technology.

The technology of the green revolution did not penetrate sub- Saharan Africa. Usage of fertilizer in Africa is one-fifteenth of Chinese levels. Even in Asia, average crop yields are a mere 40 percent of the yields achieved by scientists using existing technology. In other words, with optimization in the usage of water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, India alone can increase its present productivity by 150 percent to {each the yields offered by existing technology. That means India alone has the potential to feed roughly 1.5 billion people outside the country after eradicating hunger within the country.

Why then in India alone do more than 12 million bonded child workers toil in silk manufacturing and other industries? In neighboring Pakistan, the agriculture-dependent economy hinges on slavery. The practice of slavery was outlawed there only in 1992. Yet nothing could be done, because 60 percent of exports from that country are related to labor-intensive cotton production.

Again in India, when one takes a closer look, one would find that the many people suffering from hunger are from the lowest strata of the caste-ridden Hindu society. One out of every four Hindus is either untouchable or a tribal person. The vast majority of these people are illiterate, landless and unskilled. For caste Hindus, it is only natural if they are hungry and not otherwise.

The marginally better farmers (worse than the businesspeople and salaried class in industry and government in urban areas) always wish and see to it that the lowest strata of the society suffers from hunger so that they must work in the farms for a meager wage. Government-fixed farm prices are generally meant for the urban population.

After the substantial markups for the middlemen controlling the distribution and after very high costs of borrowing from the organized and unorganized sectors, the farmers are left with hardly anything to share with the labor, resulting in a very low purchasing power for the farm labor. This results in the toiling masses working in the farms never having the money to buy the farm produce. Consequently, they starve most of the time. Is this gloomy picture without a solution? No. Committed religious and political groups can do a lot in the eradication of starvation by addressing the correct policies.

Finally, unlike Chandramouli, who got high regard for MK Gandhi, I squarely place the blame on Gandhi and the politicians he led. The entire nation was behind the leaders after the transfer of political power from the British, virtually without opposition. If the leaders were visionaries, at least South Asia would not have been what it is today.

D. PRABHAKAR

Jakarta