**India is emerging as the world centre of hunger and malnutrition, a report by Indian campaign group, the Navdanya Trust, says.**The trust says that there are more than 200 million people - or one-in-four Indians - going without enough to eat.
The prominent environmentalist Vandana Shiva, who runs the trust, said there were now more hungry people in India than in sub-Saharan Africa.
The government has not responded to the report which was released on Thursday.
But it has repeatedly pointed out that huge progress has been made in recent years to improve the country’s food security as its population grows by an estimated 18 million people a year.
The government also argues that individual states must take more responsibility to ensure that there is enough food to go around, especially in rural areas afflicted by bad harvests.
Underweight
Ms Shiva said that 57 million children in India are underweight due to malnutrition.
“Studies worldwide show that the hungriest of people are its producers - the farmers”
Vandana Shiva
The Navdanya Trust says that per capita food consumption in India has decreased from 186 kg per person annually in 1991 to 152 kg in 2001, despite government food subsidies costing billions of dollars.
“Food prices continue to rise and the situation is not going to get any better,” Ms Shiva said. “So why is every fourth Indian hungry”
She argued that food provided in ration shops across the country does not provide for a balanced diet and is too rich in starch, leading diseases to such as diabetes.
She was also critical of genetically modified crops and chemical fertilisers, arguing they only served to increase the costs of food production, forcing farmers into debt and in some cases causing them to commit suicide.
“Studies worldwide show that the hungriest of people are its producers - the farmers,” she said. “The proposed Food Security Act is based on a failed policy and is only adding insult to injury.”
The trusts’ report follows a UN study released in June which said that hunger in South Asia has reached its highest level in 40 years because of food and fuel price rises and the global economic downturn.
The report by the UN children’s fund, Unicef, says that 100 million more people in the region are going hungry compared with two years ago.
It names the worst affected areas as Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.