India

DFID India manages UK’s development programme worth £280 million per year, delivered in partnership with government, international organisations, private sector and civil society. Programmes with governments of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, and the central government work on health, nutrition, education, governance, rural livelihoods, and urban sectors.

DFID India is also developing a programme that aims to enhance collaboration with India on key global and policy issues such as climate change, trade and food security and on poverty reduction in low income countries.

Ford Foundation is on the frontlines of social change around the world, working with visionary leaders and organizations to change social structures and institutions—so that everyone has the opportunity to achieve their full potential and have a voice in decisions that affect them.

JustFilms will deepen the Ford Foundation’s support for hallmark documentary films. Building on 75 years of support for the visual arts, JustFilms will follow three distinct avenues for finding and supporting film projects that explore important social justice issues around the world.

The sanctuary wildlife awards were instituted to recognise the best in the field of wildlife conservation and to celebrate the unsung heroes of India who are defending her wildernesses and consequently safeguarding her food and water security.

The award categories includes:

• Lifetime service award - An individual whose life has been devoted to the protection of wildlife species or their habitats on the Indian subcontinent

National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) has been created to harness and harmonise tremendous potentials of the rainfed agriculture by converting weaknesses into strengths and threats into opportunities by appropriate policies, programmes, professionalism, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation.

The paper argues that the country needs urgent action to protect the universal right to food, prioritize land reforms, and sustainably revive agrarian productivity.

India is home to a quarter of the world’s hungry people. Since the green revolution, the country has produced enough to feed itself, but it has not yet been able to wipe out mass hunger, which haunts the landscape of the countryside and lurks in the narrow alleys of urban slums.

Currently, 40 per cent of the population is malnourished – a decrease of only 10 per cent over the past three decades. Poor families, who spend more than 60 per cent of their incomes on food, are increasingly struggling to stretch their meagre household budgets. Unfortunately, small farmers have not benefited from high retail prices either, as they usually receive far less for their produce. In fact in the past 15 years, in an unprecedented wave, a quarter of a million farmers crippled by debt have chosen to commit suicide.

Some policy measures implied by various options have also been indicated. The main sectors examined in the report are power, transport, industry, buildings and forestry.

Increased concentrations of Green House Gases (GHGs) and the overall warming of the atmosphere has resulted in changing rainfall patterns, disruption in hydrological cycles, melting of ice caps and glaciers, rise in sea levels, and increase in frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heavy precipitation and cyclonic activities.

These have in turn had serious impact on sustainability of water resources, agriculture, forests and ecosystems, affecting the well being of billions of people on earth. Widespread melting of glaciers and snow cover will reduce melt water from major mountain ranges (e.g. Hindu Kush, Himalaya, Andes) where more than one billion people currently live.

It is intended primarily for programme implementers to help them understand the critical need for Community Sanitary Complexes and inform them of the guiding principles to be adopted while planning for these.

India remains one of the countries wherein concerted efforts are still required to eliminate the practice of open defecation. The lack of priority given to safe confinement and disposal of human excreta poses significant health risks manifest in the sanitation challenge facing the nation today. 

The provision of sanitation facilities through public toilet complexes is the most suitable option for those who cannot afford individual toilets for monetary reasons or due to lack of space, and opt for open defecation. Such complexes are a useful and valuable option at public places, markets, taxi stands, etc., where a large congregation of people takes place. The Community Sanitary Complex (CSC) fosters the cognitive development of healthy sanitation practices in the community.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) recognises the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all human beings. There are certain basic needs that are essential for a dignified life. Water and sanitation are two of these essential human needs and a clean environment is also increasingly recognised as a fundamental human right.

The paper also discusses  their future potential and possible impact on national food security of diversification into non-PDS, fruits, vegetables and other commercial crops. This kind of analysis is likely to help planners and policy makers in choosing appropriate policy framework in evolving the strategies for enacting and operationalization of Food Security Act.

With increase in population, income and urbanization, the demand for food grains has also increased and diversified. Although there has been more than four-fold increase in food grain production from 1950-51 (50.82 mt) to 2008-09 (233.88 mt), a large section of our population continues to suffer from malnutrition and inadequacy of food grains. On the other hand degradation of land, water and other natural resources have started impacting production through increased biotic and abiotic stresses.