Household Food Security with BPL ration card holders - Issues and Challenges in Karnataka

Abstract

India holds a historical tradition where its economy was highly influenced by agriculture and animal husbandry for sustenance and livelihood, but the current scenario paints a different picture. Today, India is limiting its agricultural resources from land, plant varieties, and other biological resources focusing more on improvising the non-agricultural establishments in and around the rural and forest areas. This causes a grave need to focus on the food security issue where the Right to Food is a guaranteed Human Right and Fundamental Right as interpreted under Article 21 of The Constitution of India and International Conventions. While the availability of food to all people is one concern, the food produced going to waste is another concern in combating food insecurity. A major section of India’s population still lives below the poverty line (BPL). Undernourishment and hunger deaths hold attention and priority in the Indian political system. The Right to Food is a Union’s concern. If one looks at the India State Hunger index specifically in the state of Karnataka, it is an alarming concern as it stands at 23.73. This research paper aims to spotlight the key issues and challenges of combating malnutrition and household food security among BPL ration card holders in Karnataka, where 61.33 percent reside in rural areas and 38.67 percent in urban areas. The research paper also proposes to focus on analyzing the lacunae and the need for the administration to foster household food security in concernment to human rights and public health. As ‘poverty breeds poverty,’ Household Food Security is an effort to combat poverty.