The impact of Culture on Food Security in India

The Impact of Culture on Food Security in India

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With the development of India, there are an increasing number of people no longer in hunger, but at the same time, food insecurity causes a lot of people lack of nutrition, from the point of view of culture, inequality is an important factor.

Inequality is a history problem. When India is independent, it has clearly social hierarchies such as caste, gender, region and religion. The feudal zamindari system divided the whole society into three parts: zaminders, farmers and landless labors. Besides, women and tribe people do not have rights to vote at both region and national area. The new government of India sets goals to reduce inequality and poverty.  Among them, the Hindu caste plays an important role on inequality. It causes the society to divide into several social groups, such as high and low groups. Some of them are hostile to each other.

The caste system affects the physical growth and intellectual development of people. The caste system regulates that high caste can’t eat meat, fish and eggs and so on. India is not a developed country; many people do not have enough milk, butter, fruit, vegetables and some other nutritious food. If they still can’t have these food, it will definitely affect people's physical and mental development. Many Indians are sick because of the food structure cause by the caste system.

Poverty and inequality also has a profound influence to the accessibility of food. Food security can be easily changed by uneven distribution of wealth. Most people migrate from rural to urban areas can’t find a proper job. Thus, these residents continue to live in the state of food insecurity. Although most food production keeps up with the increasing population, there are not enough grains or beans for people to get enough nutrition.

The India government views food security as a basic right. They struggle to improve access to food and nutrition. However, a project in northeast India shows that the distribution of food is often not equal especially women because of the culture and local traditions. In addition to work in the farm, women is responsible for taking care of family nutrition needs. Although women take care of food security in their family, an unspoken rule usually happens in rural is that men normally eat first, then sons, women and girls are the last to eat. At that time, there might be no food or very little left. This happens even when they are pregnant.

 ‘Inner Spaces Outer Faces Initiative’, a project to discuss gender and sexuality on women run by Care International and the International Centre for goals such as eating three meals a day for women. For example, they encourage men to eat with their wives to have equal share. The health adviser from the projects can help to make sure the distribution of food is equal in a family. It also improves the health state of a family. The project encourages people to change their beliefs about gender roles and responsibilities. People who are willing to change their culture values are viewed as advocates in the communities when they work.

It is useful to discuss issues around food availability and gender inequalities with their own families and communities. Communities including women and girls discuss the importance of cooking and eating, feeding children together, and men and women having responsibilities in the kitchen. The project points out it is really important to have men helping in the kitchen in discussions of gender roles.

Food safety is not just a question of poverty: it is a problem involves the whole food system to affect everyone. When all the people can get cheap, safe and healthy food at any time, food security is truly achieved.

Work Cited

Uttar, Pradesh. "Eldis." Challenging cultural values that affect food security in India. N.p.. Web. 11 Oct 2013. <http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/insights/2012/innovative-approaches-to-gender-and-food-security/challenging-cultural-values-that-affect-food-security-in-india

Logan, Cochrane. "Food Security or Food Sovereignty:The case of Land Grabs." Journal of Humanitarian Assistance. n. page. Print. <http://sites.tufts.edu/jha/archives/1241>.

P.S., Brahmanand. "Challenges to food security in India." . N.p.. Web. 30 Sep 2013. <http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/104/07/0841.pdf