Hunger

In an era of interconnected global challenges, initiatives like this remind us that food security is a shared responsibility. As Sanjeev Chopra aptly put it, India is committed to ensuring “no one goes hungry,” a pledge that resonates far beyond its borders.

Humanitarian assistance has declined sharply amid global funding shortfalls, leaving millions more exposed.

Appreciating initiatives like Gift Milk and Shishu Sanjeevani by NDDB, Krishan Pal Gurjar said these programmes focus on aspirational districts, tribal areas, Anganwadi centres and government schools, ensuring alignment with local needs and last-mile delivery.

Many households will meet minimum food needs only by depleting essential livelihood assets – a sharp deterioration compared with the previous year.

With humanitarian funding dwindling, critical supplementary feeding programmes risk being scaled back or halted altogether.

Consumer confusion exacerbates the issue. In the US, 6 per cent of waste – 3 billion pounds worth $7 billion – stems from misreading labels like “Sell by” (for retailers) or “Best if used by” (peak quality), prompting premature discards of safe food.

The report calls for the government and industry joining hands to strengthen social protection, enforce labour laws, and support climate adaptation.

The Aswesuma scheme, introduced in 2023, aims to replace a decades-old programme with a new model that ostensibly uses multidimensional deprivation scores rather than just income thresholds.