UNFOLDING HUMAN CRISIS

Allah Nawaz Samoo

“Rights are entitlements that require correlated duties.” Amartya Sen

It is duty of state to secure a citizen’s right to food. There are strong evidences that
current food and financial crisis has severely distorted the capacity of many developing
countries to perform this duty effectively. "While people in the developed world are
focused on the financial crisis, many forget that a human crisis is rapidly unfolding in
developing countries. It is pushing poor people to the brink of survival," says World Bank
president Robert Zoellick.

The Bank estimates that the total number of malnourished people around the world will
rise to 967 million this year, as families struggle with the rising price of basic foodstuffs.
According to Asian Development Bank report, ‘the impact of rising food prices will be
greater in Pakistan. A 10% increase in food prices will result in an additional 7.05 million
poor people. In case of a 20% and 30% increase, the increment in the number of poor
people would be 14.67 million and 21.96 million, respectively.’
This increase in poverty, undernourishment and endemic hunger in Pakistan, particularly
at a time when economic crisis has become entrenched, would exacerbate intensity of
deprivation, and, if not tackled properly, can take heavy toll of human lives.

The people susceptible to endemic hunger mostly comprise agricultural workers, landless
peasants, small-farm holders, daily wagers and net buyers of food. In irrigated
agricultural lands of Sindh and Southern Punjab, they work for big landholders, own
heavy burden of loans, possess no tenancy rights and depend on seasonal labor for
livelihood. They grow food, but can not establish ownership over it. Their ability to buy
food from market is also limited, and depends on insecure seasonal opportunities of
employment and nature of relationship with landholder. Such groups, due to these
inherent vulnerabilities, may suffer from hunger despite of enough food available in
market.

The at-risk population also comprises war-torn communities in northern tribal region and
agro-pastoral communities sparsely populated in non-irrigated, rain-fed, vast dry lands of
Balochistan and Sindh. They depend for their livelihood on few heads of livestock,
seasonal labor and small piece of land cultivable in rains. Majority of them buy food from
market. They are, according to some studies, already suffering from food deficit due to
lack of purchasing power. The poor fishermen at coastal belt selling fishes on daily basis
and slum-dwellers in urban areas doing wage labor to buy grain are also losing their
capacity and resilience to withstand inflation shocks. This deteriorating condition of
disadvantaged and marginalized communities, in the absence of safety mechanism, may
lead to a sudden collapse of economic entitlements and can push them to the verge of
extreme hunger.
Since the risk of such a crisis varies, it would be useful to assess and specify its
magnitude and implications for different regions, income groups and gender-
differentiation of population. There is critical need of developing policy responses based
on findings of such an assessment. The know-how of actual victims can also help in an
adequate mapping of food insecurity and vulnerability, identifying with the necessary
precision how interventions should be targeted.

The problem of hunger is not linked to reduced food supplies; rather it is related to loss of
purchasing power. We have not succeeded yet to find a little fiscal space to compensate
poor for this drastic loss. The policy and public action focuses more on food production
and agricultural expansion, but worries less about the ordeal of millions of those who go
to bed without meals.

Uwe Kracht in Food and Human Rights in Development refers to some key questions
that need attention of those entrusted with responsibility of protection of right to food.
‘Who are the people whose right to food is violated or not realized, where are they
concentrated, why are they deprived of their right and what are the dynamics of that
deprivation?’ The answers would expose range of inequality and policy biases within our
country that cause hunger despite of plenty of food.

Now, when interest in agriculture is renewed, poor is facing new threats. Agribusiness
and global retailers are expanding their activities in developing countries on very rapid
pace. Some 10 leading food retailers command 24 per cent share of the $3.5 billion
global market. As a result, gap between what is received by the farmers and the prices
paid by the consumer is widening. While recent price increases hit net-buyers severely,
and accrues high profits to agribusiness companies, they mostly do not benefit small-
holders.

Setting aside all land and tenancy rights, some quarters are also suggesting for
transnational investment in agricultural land, by which rich people, companies and
countries can buy land abroad in poor countries. Some gulf countries have shown interest
in some agricultural lands of Pakistan to outsource their food production. This approach
may earn handsome foreign investment, but would not solve problem of hunger for
indigenous people. ‘If we seek to protect food security only in terms of supply and
demand’ says Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food,
‘without focusing on those whose right to food is denied, we will fail to address human
suffering caused by growing food prices. Solution to the food crisis will only be
sustainable if our strategies are grounded on human rights.’ He concludes

The state has to make a policy choice in such scenario; whether it opts for its obligation
‘to respect, protect and fulfill citizen’s right to food’ or becomes a partner in profit
making business of food.
nsamoo@gmail.com