Hasanthi Jayamaha
With the
drought destroying the crops and sky-rocketing the food prices adisturbing number of poor and
poorest of the households have been helplesslypushed into food insecurity.
In Melghat
54% of the households are food insecure and the families havebegun to compromise their diet and
cheating their hungry stomachs with a rotiand chilli chutney per meal.
“We no
longer buy vegetables for our meals,” says a mother from Ramtek Village,“some
days we stay without meals saving the roti and the chutney for our childrenfor the next
meal.”
“When we
run short of flour or rice, we used to buy from our neighbourswho are farmers but this year even
they don’t have enough for their familiesleave alone for selling,” says the community in Somarkheda
village, “We are allin the same situation.”
The
majority of these communities are landless-farmers who depend on thegovernment rations of 30 kg
wheat, 1 kg dhal and 15 kg rice. But for thefamilies it is not sufficient to support them more than
two weeks and sometimesthe ration would not be available for 2 months.
“Almost
everyday I go to sleep worrying what I would give my children toeat the next day,” says Kavita (20)
a mother of two children aged 3 years and 8months, “If I don’t get work, they don’t have anything to
eat. With droughtdestroying the harvest there’s no work available for many of
us.”
In the
food insecure villages, the government initiated feeding programmein the anganwadi centres for
children between age 2 – 6, has become a relief tothe parents. Plates in hand, the children flock to
the centres for mid daymeal.
“I love
coming to school because I get to eat,” says little Kashmira (4),“I like the food here, it’s
tasty.”
“Anganwadi
centre gives them good food,” says Guddibhai, mother of four,“Sometimes my children beg me to make
the same food at home, but I cant affordit.”
However, though the little tummys
get a little filled the quality of thefood in the Anganwadi centres is not up to standard and in
some areas, the foodis not adequate. World Vision is in the process of coordinating with
theGovernment to share the responsibility of monitoring and the preparation of thesupplementary
food.
