Famine

What is Famine?

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, inflation, crop failure, population imbalance, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. In the 19th and 20th century, generally characterized Southeast and South Asia, as well as Eastern and Central Europe, in terms of having suffered most number of deaths from famine. The numbers dying from famine began to fall sharply from the 2000s. Since 2010, Africa has been the most affected continent in the world

How does it occur ?

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, inflation, crop failure, population imbalance, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality.

Effects of Famine

Starvation is nothing but the biological consequences of a continuous scarcity of food. During the famine, starvation occurs on a mass scale.

Various diseases occur in the human body during famine-like cholera. It is caused by bacteria, Vibrio cholerae, which leads to an increased amount of water to be released from cells that line the intestines. Symptoms include watery diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, dry, mucous membranes, mouth, and skin, excessive thirst and lethargy.

Dropsy, which is now referred to as oedema is caused due to excessive fluid under the skin, the body swells. The affected area often retains a dimple after being pressed for a few seconds.

Dysentery is another bacterial disease which spreads through water, stool, and food. Poor sanitation, contaminated food and water and crowded living conditions lead to dysentery. Symptoms include blood in the stool, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and fever.

Another notable condition is anaemia. There can be a lot more diseases that are caused due to famines. Apart from diseases, famines also cause lower fertility rates, poor living conditions, fewer income options, various socio-political issues, etc.

Famine prone areas in India

About 42% of India’s land area is facing drought, with 6% exceptionally dry--four times the spatial extent of drought last year, according to data for the week ending March 26, 2019, from the Drought Early Warning System (DEWS), a real-time drought monitoring platform.

Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, parts of the North-East, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana are the worst hit. These states are home to 500 million people, almost 40% of the country’s population.

While the central government has not declared drought anywhere so far, the state governments of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan have declared many of their districts as drought-hit.

“Before monsoon, which is still far away, the next two or three months are going to be difficult in many of these regions,” Vimal Mishra, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar, and the developer of DEWS, told IndiaSpend.

Failed monsoon rains are the primary reason for the current situation. The North-East monsoon, also known as ‘post-monsoon rainfall’ (October-December) that provides 10-20% of India’s rainfall, was deficient by 44% in 2018 from the long-term normal of 127.2 mm, as per data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). This compounded the rainfall deficit in the South-West (SW) monsoon (June-September) that provides 80% of India’s rainfall, which fell short by 9.4% in 2018--close to the 10% deficit range when the IMD declares a drought.

India has experienced widespread drought every year since 2015, Mishra said, with the exception of 2017. As the El Nino--the unusual warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that makes Indian summers warmer and reduces rainfall--looms over the 2019 SW monsoon, pre-monsoon showers (March-May) this year have also been deficient. India has received 36% less rainfall than the long-term average between March 1 and March 28, 2019, as per IMD data. The southern peninsular region recorded the lowest, a deficit greater than 60%.

Lower rainfall has reduced water levels in reservoirs across the country. The amount of water available in the country’s 91 major reservoirs has gone down 32 percentage points over five months to March 22, 2019. In 31 reservoirs of southern states, water level has gone down by 36 percentage points over five months.

The drought could further worsen farm distress, exacerbate groundwater extraction, increase migration from rural to urban areas, and further inflame water conflicts between states and between farms, cities and industries.

Yet, the latest drought manual issued in 2016 by the central government makes the process of declaring drought long and difficult, experts say, with the result that drought may go officially unannounced. This means relief measures such as drinking water supply, subsidised diesel and electricity for irrigation, increased number of days of insured work under

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) are not taken. And elections may further delay government acknowledgement and action.

This is the first of a six-part series on drought and its impact in five affected regions--Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Statistics regarding Famine

Prevention for famine in India

Since famine is majorly caused due to natural reasons, it is difficult to prevent it. However, there are certain ways of controlling the effects of famine.There should be surplus agricultural production beyond the requirements of the rural population.The transportation system should be well-developed between rural and urban areas.There should be proper health care, clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to prevent any diseases.

Steps taken by government and NGOs-

A NGO named oxyflam did these all things to prevent famine

Providing clean water

Clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing hands is essential in any humanitarian emergency to avoid deadly water-borne diseases such as cholera or coronavirus. But any stomach ailment from dirty water will rob people of the nutrition they can derive from whatever food they can find. Children under 5 are particularly vulnerable. Oxfam helps improve and repair wells, and trucks in water to areas where there is none.

Encouraging proper sanitation

Proper sanitation and hygiene are essential for preventing diseases like cholera, Ebola, and COVID-19. Oxfam helps construct latrines and distributes hygiene items like soap so people can wash their hands.

Distributing food

When food is available in markets, but might be scarce or very expensive for some, Oxfam distributes cash. Oxfam also distributes emergency food when necessary.

Planting crops

In areas where farmers can plant crops, Oxfam is helping supply seeds, tools, and other assistance so people can grow their own food. We also help farmers raising livestock with veterinary services, animal feed, and in some cases we distribute animals to farmers to help restock their herds.

Government accountability

We (governments, the UN, aid organizations) know what to do because the world has been successfully fighting famine for more than a century. In 2011, more than 250,000 people in Somalia lost their lives when the world ignored repeated warnings after the failure of rains in the region.

Case study - Maharashtra 1972

After several years of good monsoons and a good crop in the early 1970s, India considered exporting food and being self-sufficient. Earlier in 1963, the government of the state of Maharashtra asserted that the agricultural situation in the state was constantly being watched and relief measures were taken as soon as any scarcity was detected. On the basis of this, and asserting that the word famine had now become obsolete in this context, the government passed "The Maharashtra Deletion of the Term 'Famine' Act, 1963". They were unable to foresee the drought in 1972 when 25 million people needed help. The relief measures undertaken by the Government of Maharashtra included employment, programs aimed at creating productive assets such as tree plantation, conservation of soil, excavation of canals, and building artificial lentic water bodies. The public distribution system distributed food through fair-price shops. No deaths from starvation were reported.

Large-scale employment to the deprived sections of the Maharashtrian society attracted considerable amounts of food to Maharashtra. The implementation of the Scarcity Manuals in the Bihar and Maharashtra famines prevented the mortality arising from severe food shortages. While the relief program in Bihar was poor, Drèze calls the one in Maharashtra a model program. The relief works initiated by the government helped employ over 5 million people at the height of the drought in Maharashtra leading to effective famine prevention. The effectiveness of Maharashtra was also attributable to the direct pressure on the government of Maharashtra by the public who perceived that employment via the relief works program was their right. The public protested by marching, picketing, and even rioting. Drèze reports a laborer saying "they would let us die if they thought we would not make a noise about it."

The Maharashtra drought in which there were zero deaths and one which is known for the successful employment of famine prevention policies, unlike during British rule.

Bihar drought 1873-1874

The Bihar famine of 1873–1874 (also the Bengal famine of 1873–1874) was a famine in British India that followed a drought in the province of Bihar, the neighboring provinces of Bengal, the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. It affected an area of 140,000 square kilometres (54,000 sq mi) and a population of 21.5 million. The relief effort—organized by Sir Richard Temple, the newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal—was one of the success stories of the famine relief in British India; there was little or no mortality during the famine.As the impending famine came to light, a decision was made at the highest level to save lives at any cost Rs. 40 million were spent on importing 450,000 tons of rice from Burma. Another Rs. 22.5 million were spent in organizing relief for 300 million units (1 unit = one person for one day).

In addition, for the first time, inspection of villages by the government officials was carried out to identify those in need of aid or employment. In Sir Richard Temple's own description (in a contemporary correspondence), the generous aid allowed the laborers to stay in good physical condition and to return to their fields when the rains finally arrived; their actions put to rest any fears among relief officials that the government handouts were making the laborers "dependent.

By:- Anup Kulkarni