Expert Interview Series: Mr Haldhar Mahto on Food Insecurity in India

Описание: In this episode of our expert interview series, our postdoctoral fellow Dr. Ankita Rathi speaks with Mr. Haldar Mahto, an Indian public policy expert. Mr. Mahto is currently working with the Grievance Redressal System in Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. Prior to this, he worked as the member of the State Food Commission, Government of Jharkhand, and was actively associated with important campaigns such as the Right to Food Campaign and Jan Swastha Abhiyan (People’s Health Movement) in India. Mr. Mahto has actively engaged on issues specific to food insecurity, public health, and governance in India, particularly in Jharkhand (an east Indian state).

Mr. Mahto offers an on-the-ground understanding of key food insecurity and nutritional challenges amongst tribal communities in India. Landlessness, denial of rights and lack of entitlement, a shift to market-based agriculture, climate change induced disasters, and lack of decentralized governance are some of the primary factors he identifies as linked to food insecurity. He also explains the importance of existing social policies such as the Public Distribution System (PDS, a key government programme that provides food grains to people at affordable prices) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA, a program that aims to provide livelihood to people in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of work in a year). As Mr. Mahto notes, these programs actively combat hunger among marginalized tribal and agrarian communities. Major challenges of the existing social policies in India he highlights include: Difficulties of service delivery to remote areas; excessive reliance on local private intermediaries in the PDS; inability of the local private intermediaries and Angadwadi workers (community health care workers who provide supplementary nutritional and educational care services as part of government health care programs) to provide services to the poor equitably; and eligibility problems associated with inclusion vs. exclusion of some families. The key to addressing regional food insecurity in India, Mr. Mahto explains, includes decentralized local governance and a shift to multi-crop farming.

Chapters:

00:00 About Expert Interview Series
00:23 Introductions
05:04 Food insecurity in India
13:17 Effect of agriculture on food insecurity
18:22 Primary factors of malnutrition in children and women
25:03 Role of Panchayats (rural governing bodies in India)
28:34 Long-term and short-term food security challenges for India
33:13 Impact of Covid
35:14 Role of social policy
38:44 Gaps for research
45:27 Challenges for rural primary health workers
47:33 Global factors effecting food insecurity in India