Food is one of the most basic human needs and it is necessary that as any nation state draws out its policies, it must ensure that individuals and communities in its society are not impacted in ways where they cannot access food necessary for their health and sustenance.

Unfortunately, in South Asia, large sections of our society cannot have access to food necessary for sustenance for a number of reasons outside their control. In some cases, it is because of economic policies defined by their governments that create market dynamics such that their livelihoods are deemed economically worthless or they cannot afford food even though they produce it. At other times, even though policies may exist to support sections of our societies thus affected, corrupt and exploitative practices prevent communities from being able to access food.

Thus, it is unfortunate that in India, for example, starvation deaths continue to coexist with excess food that even the government infrastructure is unable to handle. Many of these issues are being dealt with by a network of groups and individuals in South Asia. The Right to Food Campaign is one site that compiles a list of campaigns, laws and analysis relevant to India. India Together has also presented a series of articles on this issue.

This site attempts to provide a voice to numerous communities affected by lack of access to food and starvation deaths, to groups and people working on these issues in South Asia, analysis of their work, of policies presented by various institutions as well as the role of governments.

Farming communities, ironically, are most affected by the lack of access to food as are rural artisan communities. In Varanasi, for example, millions of weavers are affected by economic policies and starvation deaths, not just among children, has risen significantly to the extent that the courts have asked government agencies to act.

A number of groups including People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, Lok Samiti, among others have been working to address these through demanding government action as well as policy analysis. On the other hand, the Public Distribution System in numerous states has broken down. On one hand corruption in the bureaucracy has affected distribution. In a related note, the PDS has also become a tool for caste-based social dynamics and exploitation with tacit involvement of government officials.

The Food Commission set up for UP and led by Arundhati Dhuru, for example, has been organizing numerous public hearings to bring transparency to these processes as well as empower communities so they can access food.

Meanwhile, all these efforts become mere stopgap measures in the presence of inequitable land distribution and increasing land grab by the land mafia.

This site presents a variety of initiatives that address these aspects of access to food as well as analysis of actions, campaigns and policies.