National Statistics Day: Status of ‘End Hunger’ in J&K

Altaf Hussain Haji

Hunger is a burning issue for every UN member country. This is the reason that commemorations of this year’s National Statistics Day in our country has been aligned to create awareness about hunger as per the UN target of Sustainable Development Goals. In India, Statics Day is celebrated every year on June 29 in remembrance of Prof  PC Mahalanobis for his contribution in the field of economic, planning and statistics. The theme of this year Statistics Day, June 29, 2021, is ‘End Hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition’. Hunger and malnutrition badly affect the development and wellbeing of the States/UTs of the nation and the progress of the reduction of percentages of hunger at the national level is still off track. Jammu and Kashmir is also among one of the UTs where hunger exists as per the current report of SDG released by the government of India. There is also a long road ahead to reduce hunger and malnutrition by or before 2030 in Jammu and Kashmir.

Undernourishment, malnutrition and wasting are different ways of hunger found in every country in the world. Undernourishment occurs when people do not intake enough calories to meet minimum physiological needs. Malnutrition is caused when the peoples have an inadequate intake of protein, energy and micronutrients. The third way of hunger is wasting which usually the result of starvation or disease of acute malnutrition with substantial weight loss.

As we know that second goal of Sustainable Development with agenda Zero Hunger is one of the important goals out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It is to mention here that the United Nations (UN) General Assembly held on September 25,  2015, adopted the document titled “Transforming our World with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.  The SDGs are a comprehensive list of global goals integrating social, economic and environmental dimensions of development. Zero Hunger is the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) with the aim to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. The SDG2 has 7 targets such as beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, children under five years who are underweight, children under five years who are stunted, pregnant women and adolescents aged 10- 19 years who are anaemic, the rice and wheat produced annually per unit area (Kg/Ha) and Gross Value Added (constant prices) in agriculture per worker (in lakhs/workers)  to measure the availability of food, improvement in nutrition and promotion of sustainable agriculture respectively.

The composite index score of the UT Jammu and Kashmir in SDG-2 goal has improved by 8 points from 62 in 2019-20 to 70 in 2020-21 as per SDG report 2020-21 released by NITI Aayog.  The UT Jammu and Kashmir among the Seven States and four UTs bagged a position in the category of Front Runners and said as the increase in overall score, the Jammu and Kashmir in Sustainable Development Goals will achieving Zero hunger in time.

Here are some indicators of Jammu and Kashmir in comparison at national level figure regarding the progress of End hunger by or before 2030 of the agenda of SDGs.

At the national level the percentage of beneficiaries covered during 2019-20 under the National Food Security Act, 2013 ((NFSA) is 99.51 percent and for UT Jammu and Kashmir, it is 97.02 percent achievement as the target fixed to achieve it 100 percent by 2030.

At the national level, the percentage of children under five years who are underweight is 33.4 percent and for UT Jammu and Kashmir, it is 13 percent as the target to reduce it 1.9 percent.

At the national level, the percentage of children under five years who are stunted is 34.7 percent and for UT Jammu and Kashmir, it is 15.5 as the target to reduce it 6 percent.

At the national level, the percentage of pregnant women aged 15-49 years who are anaemic is 50.4 percent and for UT Jammu and Kashmir, it is 38.1 as the target is to reduce it  25.2 percent.

At the national level, the percentage of adolescents aged 10-19 years who are anaemic is 28.4 percent and for UT Jammu and Kashmir, it is 15.8 as the target is to reduce it to 14.2 percent.

The rice and wheat produced annually per unit area (Kg/Ha) was found 2995.21 Kg/Ha at the national level and for UT Jammu and Kashmir it is 2339.65 Kg/Ha as the target is to achieve it 5322.08 Kg/Ha

The Gross Value Added (constant prices) in agriculture per worker (in Lakhs/worker) was calculated as 0.71 at the national level and for UT Jammu and Kashmir, it is 0.88   as the target is to achieve it 1.22.

The above indicators pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir showed that there is still a long road ahead to reduce hunger and malnutrition by or before 2030 in Jammu and Kashmir and it is too difficult to achieve or reduce targets due to disturbance and law and order situation, unique features and a strategic location. Further, the index score at the national level for end hunger is 47 while UT Jammu and Kashmir have 71 which seems that the situation is somehow better.

As UT Jammu and Kashmir have unique features and a strategic location, the speedy sustainable development of Jammu and Kashmir needs an integrated approach. The top priority of the government should be to create a secure environment by improving the law and order situation. State finance should also receive proper attention in order to ensure better fiscal management. A sound policy should be devised to exploit the potential in the sectors of strength. In a nutshell, sound policy and good governance can lead the UT of Jammu and Kashmir to a faster development path and is able to achieve the SDGs well in time. Further, there should be a sizable increase in the utilisation of funds for rural development schemes in the UT and the pace of implementation of programmes needs to be accelerated.

Also, efforts are needed for the development of infrastructure, generation of employment and alleviation of poverty in rural areas to bring about the desired socio-economic development of Jammu and Kashmir.  There is also an urgent need to undertake an impact assessment study of the schemes implemented by the government on the socio-economic conditions of the people. Such a study would help in assessing the ground realities of the impact of various schemes on the social and economic conditions of people inhabiting these areas.

At the last, I want to mention here that by working on SDG2 last few years, the measures are taken such as promoting sustainable agriculture, supporting small-scale farmers and creating equal access to land, technology and markets in order as a fundamental rule to the eradication of hunger in Jammu and Kashmir, a number of initiatives have been taken by the Government of India and UT government to ensure food for all and has launched food security programmes owing to the National Food Security Act, 2013. The stress on sustainable agriculture may be observed from the fact that one of the missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) is the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA). In the end, as per the current report, UT Jammu and Kashmir have made significant progress in the area of food security despite having several challenges.

Altaf Hussain Haji, ISS, is Deputy Director General National Statistical Office, Shimla. He can be contacted at altafhh@rediffmail.com