By Moin Qazi* India produces enough food to meet the needs of its entire population, and has at its disposal arable land that has the potential to produce food surplus for export. Yet, it is unable to feed millions of its people, especially women and children. India ranks 100th among 119 countries in the Global … More Wasting food in a hungry world: Why India ranks 100th among 119 countries in Hunger Index

Three minor girls Mansi (8), Shikha (4) and Parul (2) died on July 24, 2018 in Mandawali, East Delhi, and the post mortem reports listed starvation as the cause of the deaths. Members of the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA), Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri along with Harsh Mander (former special commissioner to the … More Starvation deaths in Delhi: Lack of ID proof, aadhaar, excluding most needy, marginalised

Report of a civil society fact finding on the death of Rajendra Birhor: On 26 July 2018, a fact finding team comprising of Basant Hetamsaria and Leo Singh (National Alliance of People’s Movements), Ankita Aggarwal and Siraj Dutta (Right to Food Campaign) and Sonal Tiwary (Human Rights Law Network) investigated the death of Rajendra Birhor … More Starvation death in Jharkhand: Belonging to PVTG, the family didn’t have ration card, aadhaar

By Moin Qazi*   “In general, the rural moneylender as a species has proved surprisingly resilient, even in countries such as India and Indonesia where it has been a declared objective of state intervention in financial markets to suppress him.” — Hulme and Mosley, Finance Against Poverty A sense of deep despair runs through the lives … More Moneylender still is all-season creature, who has resisted all types of socio-economic antibiotics

Right to Food Campaign’s fact-finding report on Lukhi Murmu’s recent death in Hiranpur block of Pakur (Jharkhand): 30-year old Lukhi Murmu of Dhawadangal village in Ghagharjani Gram Panchayat (Pakur, Jharkhand) died on 23 January 2018. A fact-finding team of the Right to Food Campaign comprising of Anand Prakash Tudu, Ankita Aggarwal, Siraj Dutta and Suraj … More Lukhi Murmu of Jharkhand village died due to prolonged weakness, inadequate nutrition

Findings on India in Oxfam Inequality report “Reward Work, Not Wealth”:  India added 17 new billionaires last year, raising the number to 101 billionaires. Indian billionaires’ wealth increased by INR 4891 billion — from INR 15,778 billion to over INR 20,676 billion. INR 4891 billion is sufficient to finance 85 per cent of the all states’ … More Need to ensure that income of bottom 40% of India’s population grows faster than of top 10%

A civil society note signed* by several prominent organizations and individuals: It was highly shocking to learn that State Bank of India (SBI) had levied Rs 1,771 crores between April and November 2017 as charges from customers who did not maintain their minimum monthly average balance (MAB) in their accounts. To put the numbers in … More Penalizing for poverty: Govt banks should stop extorting money in the name of minimum balance