It is going to be two years since the announcement of the national lockdown on March 24, 2020. I remember that the first thing on my mind was if that sack of rice in the kitchen will be enough for the whole period of the lockdown?
For many of us, we start worrying about our basic need for ‘food’ only during lockdowns and when such restrictions are announced. But for a large portion of our population, hunger is an everyday reality.
It has been exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The State of Food Insecurity Report 2021 estimates that between 720 and 811 million people in the world faced hunger in 2020 – as many as 161 million more than in 2019.
Nearly 2.37 billion people did not have access to adequate food in 2020 – an increase of 320 million people in just one year. No region of the world has been spared.
The Global Hunger Index 2020 ranks India at 101 out of 116 countries on the basis of three leading indicators — prevalence of wasting and stunting in children under 5 years, under 5 child mortality rate, and the proportion of undernourished in the population.
Hunger cannot be looked at as a standalone concept but it is related to food insecurity at the household level.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a person is food insecure when they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.
This may be due to unavailability of food and/or lack of resources to obtain food. Food insecurity can be experienced at different levels of severity i.e. Mild food insecurity is experienced when the household is uncertain about the ability to obtain food, Moderate food insecurity is experienced when the household has compromised on the quality and variety of food and has reduced the quantity and started to skip meals and Severe food insecurity is experienced when there is no food for a day or more.
We have witnessed that during the Covid pandemic, people stood in long queues to purchase food or waited on benefactors to provide for them. In such a context, we wanted to understand what was the level of food insecurity that people experienced and also, how they coped during the peak of the pandemic.
We conducted a survey of 339 persons from across 5 districts in Meghalaya using the FAO standardized questionnaire to assess food insecurity. We found that 21% of households were food secure. From the rest, 77% experienced mild food insecurity, 12% of the households experienced moderate food insecurity and 11% experienced severe food insecurity.
It is important to note that 51% of those who faced severe food insecurity stated that they went to bed hungry only once, 31% had to go to bed hungry two to three times during the period and 5% experienced it for more than three times. Also, the households who experienced severe food insecurity had their breadwinners working as daily wage earners.
This confirms the vulnerability and low resilience of daily wage earners as an unprecedented crisis like the pandemic leaves them vulnerable to food insecurity, hunger and malnourishment.
On the other hand, the households which were food secure had livelihood activities which are varied such as government employees, being self-employed, farmers and daily wage labourers.
The farmers and labourers had mentioned that since they had their own cultivated crops including paddy, they did not worry about food although they could not go out to work and this reduced the cash flow.
This was mostly observed among people in Mawthadraishan Block in West Khasi Hills district. It was also seen that even the government employees had their own kitchen gardens which provided the vegetables and wild edibles for them to consume.
However, there were about 20% of the food secure households depended totally on the market for their food supplies; this section of the population was more vulnerable as they had to have the money to purchase food. With no work and cash inflow, these households faced immense problems.
The cultivation of food crops is and will always be a sustainable option for households. It is a means to enhance the resilience of households and enhance the food security of households.
There are several examples that kitchen gardens have become a tool through which households were becoming food and nutrition secure. For instance, in 2013, in East Batha region, in Chad, located at the heart of the Sahel and badly affected by food insecurity, the development agency USAID had promoted kitchen gardens as a means to combat the severe food insecurity in the region.
This is not a new concept, as, during the time of World I and II when food was scarce, citizens started to grow some of their own food in their own gardens and these were called victory gardens.
In our context in Meghalaya, agrobiodiversity is high. According to a study by Nongrum, Mawroh and Pawera (2021), they found that the mean number of food plants (including crop varieties) found in each village is 203 with the least diverse village having 124 food crops in Umdum, West Khasi Hills and the most diverse village was Khweng in Ri Bhoi district.
In the same survey, we found that a larger proportion of 73% of people consumed more traditional food during the lockdown period than usual. A woman of 65 years from Umling, Ri Bhoi said, “Yes we ate more traditional food during the lockdown as the market is a little far from our village. We usually consumed bamboo shoot, taro leaf, taro and wild edibles like jatera and jajew”.
Another woman, a mother of 5 children from Mawkyrwat, South West Khasi Hills said, “We ate a lot of wild edibles because as a family we used to go to the nearby forest to forage wild edibles, this was a means for survival for us”.
Although more than two thirds (73%) of the people received food aid (mainly rice, sugar, pulses, salt, oil) from their political representatives, individual supporters, church and Dorbar Shnong, but this food aid lasted for an average of two weeks. Therefore, it can be said that people by and large depended on their own means i.e. own cultivated crops and forests for their sustenance, although the market was an option to those who had the means to buy food.
A deeper look into the scenario of food insecurity and hunger, it is essential to note that hunger is measured against indicators of malnourishment. In Meghalaya, malnutrition rates are quite high.
According to the National Family Health Survey 2019, the percentage of children who are stunted is 47%, the percentage of children who are underweight is 27% and wasting is 12% which makes undernutrition a major problem in Meghalaya.
By these indicators, it can be inferred that almost one-third of the households in our communities are experiencing food insecurity and hunger on a regular basis. This has been exacerbated during the pandemic.
From this analysis, it can be concluded that the cultivation of food at the household level is essential to supplement the needs and to enhance the food security of households yet at the same time, there is a need for enhanced savings for households in order to meet the needs during any crisis.
We have seen that the daily wage earners are a vulnerable section of the population. The question lies, is it possible for daily wage earners who earn already a very meagre amount to save? The example of self-help groups saving a small amount every week or month is an example of good practice of savings.
The need to prepare communities for such shocks and crisis is essential. The need to promote communities continue producing food through kitchen gardening in both urban and rural areas and savings would enable households to be more resilient.
Furthermore, this would not only be a ‘preparedness’ for shocks and crisis but rather, it would a sustainable practice to reduce malnourishment, hunger and food insecurity at all times.
- Melari Shisha Nongrum is an Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Public Health, Shillong
- Nandaris Marwein is an Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Martin Luther Christian University
- This research was supported by the Thakur Family Foundation. The Foundation has not exercised any editorial control over the contents of this research
Also read: Meghalaya reports 25 new COVID-19 cases, 1 fresh fatality
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