MUNI THE BOSS

Vandana Shiva says India is the world capital of hunger.

KOCHI: Blaming India’s food crisis on a series of economic policies adopted by the Centre in the early 1990s, environment activist Vandana Shiva on Friday said that the revival of the universal public distribution system (PDS) held the key to food security.

“The economic policies imposed by the World Bank targeted agriculture and brought in multinational monopolies. It also turned the universal PDS into targeted PDS. The World Bank said this would reduce the budget expenditure as the government was spending too much on food subsidies. The food subsidy bill in 1991 was Rs.2,500 crore. Last year, it was Rs.50,000 crore and this year, it would be Rs.60,000 crore. You are starving people and spending more money by not having a universal PDS,” Ms. Shiva said in her inaugural address at a seminar on ‘food security and women’ organised by the Kerala Mahila Sangham and the State Women’s Commission.

Ms. Shiva said universal PDS was the only instrument for giving food to people and lowering budget expenditure. “By creating a targeted system the government has allowed the price of food to go up. When the price of food is high, the subsidy will always be high, resulting in high budget expenditure.”

Food diversity wanes

Drawing a historical perspective on the food scenario, Ms. Shiva said a ‘violent agriculture’ brought in by the Green Revolution that promoted use of chemical fertilizers rendered women who played the cardinal role in food production jobless.

“Women began to be seen as parasites. This resulted in massive female foeticide. Thirty million girls have not been allowed to be born in this country,” she said, adding food insecurity was the result of food production being taken out of women’s hands.

“It has been put into the hands of corporations who do not care for feeding people. They only want to maximise their profits by exploiting nature. Diversity of food is being reduced and with it nutrition is disappearing,” she said.

“We have had food crises before. In 1942, there was the great famine and 20 lakh lives were lost. Post-Independence, the old ‘zamindari’ system, that put land in the hands of a few people, was abolished. Now the special economic zones (SEZ) are bringing back ‘zamindari’ by putting land in the hands of big corporations. Massive land grab through violent means resulted. What is being grabbed is the most fertile land,” she said.

Cause of cancer

Calling India the world capital of hunger, Ms. Shiva said about 70 of the rural populace and about 40 per cent urban Indians were underfed.

While States like Punjab did not have this problem, they faced high rate of cancer caused by pesticides.

She lambasted GM seeds as instruments used by monopolies to further their interests. “While Bt Cotton promised to resist pest attack, it created many new pests, thereby increasing use of pesticides 13 times more.”

On free trade

Hitting out at multinational monopolies for controlling food production, storage and supply, she said agriculture should not be part of free trade. “We have prevented the government from promulgating the Seed Act as it criminalises farmers for saving seed,” she said.Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran, who was the special guest, said rice production and land used for cultivation witnessed a growth in the State in 2008.

“The aim is to produce 10 lakh tonne rice by 2010,” he said. Annie Raja, the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) national secretary, presented the subject. Kerala Mahila Sangham President R. Latha Devi presided.

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