The Consciousness of The Human Precise to Plenty Food among Women and Children from low income group (Slum Region)

Citation :Egypt. Acad. J. Biolog. Sci. ( C. physiology and Molecular biology ) Vol.7(2)pp81-87(2015) Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences is the official English language journal of the Egyptian Society for Biological Sciences, Department of Entomology, Faculty of Sciences Ain Shams University. Physiology & molecular biology journal is one of the series issued twice by the Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences, and is devoted to publication of original papers that elucidateimportant biological, chemical, or physical mechanisms of broad physiological significance. www.eajbs.eg.net Provided for non-commercial research and education use.


INTRODUCTION
The precise to appropriate nutrition is understood when carry human being similar or together in the society with everyone having economic as well as physical retrieval every time to appropriate nutrition.Indian is a landlocked country with an area of 241.550.7 Square kilometers (Sq.km) of which 41.743.2Sq. km are open water and swamps and 199.807.4Sq.km is l and (IBOS, 2011).Available population statistics from Indian Bureau of Statistics (IBOS) indicate that Indian's population has continued to grow over a period of time.It increased from about 9.5 million in 1969 to little over 24 million in 2002 at an evident mean yearly growth of 3.2 per cent (%) between 1991 and 2002.The projected 2011 midyear population stands at about 33 million (IBOS, 2011; see also Figure 1).
First-rate nutrition is vital not only for human health but also for national economic and social development.The objective of this review is to assess the realization of the right to adequate food focusing on women and children living in the slums of India.The review categorizes the realization of the right into two classes: the right holders (mothers or caretakers and their children) and duty bearers (peoples/Individuals responsible for providing the necessary facilities as per the rights of the right holders).Conclusions were drawn regarding the following aspects: nutritional status of selected right holders, availability and accessibility of foods, existence of nutritional related health and sanitation facilities and whether appropriate legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks necessary to realize right to food are in place.
Indian is largely an agricultural land with agriculture as the backbone of the economy (Semwal et al., 2004), 88% Indian population live in rural areas and also estimated that a little over 70% are engaging in agriculture as the main source of livelihood and income (Omara, 2007).India grows diverse types of crops and vegetation for consumption for example millet, maize, rice, sorghum, potatoes, cassava, bananas, pineapples, avocadoes, mangoes, pulses like beans, peas, groundnuts, sesame, and sunflower (Omara, 2007, Semwal et al., 2004).Animal products from cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry are also available, so are fresh water fish from its major lakes, rivers and streams.One can therefore say that Indian's problem may not be scarcity of food but the challenge could be an approach and utilization of the existing food (Speedy et al., 2003).However, in-spite of having such considerable potential of food availability, data shows high levels of childhood under nutrition.According to the 2006 Indian Analytical and Fitness Survey statistics published, almost 40% of children were stunted, about 15% were severely stunted, 6% wasted and 16% were underweight with under nutrition being responsible for about 40% of deaths among children bellow five years and about 12% of the women were also undernourished (IBOS, 2007).
An estimation of the nutrition situation of Indian's population as a whole and at household level by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2004 had earlier been able to show that many households and some specific sections of Indian's population experienced food insecurity and high levels of under nutrition this notwithstanding the fact that Indian as a country always has had enough food (Omara , 2007) .This could mean that the right to adequate food (RtF) is not being realized by all Indians and this failure could be critical particularly among women and young children as young children often are more vulnerable and susceptible to infectious diseases (Bhutta et al., 2008).Indian's population has been increasing as already stated.The metropolitan population in Indian has also increased sharply from less than 1 million persons in 1980 to almost 5 million in 2011 increasing the share of the people living in metropolitan areas from about 7% to almost 15% (IBOS, 2011).Available statistics from IBOS also shows that the population of Slumps area increased by more than 4 times (from 330.700 in 1969 to 1.6 million in 2008) and its projected to reach more than 2 million in 2017.
The rapidly increasing population has had its effect on accommodation in slumps area leading to a shortage of houses.As cited in Indian's leading daily the New Vision, Womakuyu (2008) reports that according to IBOS Slumps area at that time had a housing deficit of 100.000 units.It has been reported that Slumps area has been experiencing rapid unplanned housing construction since 1990 (Nyakana, Sengendo, & Lwasa, 2007).With an increasing urban population in 4 Slumps area, as with most other cities in developing countries (Ruel et al., 1998) also observes, there seems to be a rapid formulation of slums.The increasing population in Slumps area has also had an impact on food security and nutrition situation in urban areas.Statistics from IBOS show that the prevalence of food insecurity was higher in urban areas (IBOS, 2010).Available statistics also show that slum dwellers in Slumps area city fall in the lowest wealth quintiles (IBOS, 2007).The populations of slum areas may therefore lack enough money to bear an appropriate diet leading to failure of enjoying the RtF.

The human right to adequate food in Indian:
The human right to adequate food is recognized in a number of international human rights instruments and is indispensable to the realization of other human rights.Article 25.1 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights1 (UDHR) states: Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control (UN, 1948).Article 11.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which Indian has ratified states that: State parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food (emphasis added), clothing and housing and to the continuous up gradation of livelihood.Indian has also ratified the convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) which all have important implications for the RtF.Indian also participated in the development of the voluntary guidelines of the Right to adequate food.According to Indian constitution, the state shall endeavor to fulfill the fundamental rights of all Indians to social and economic development and shall, in particular, ensure that all Indians enjoy rights and opportunities and access to education, health services, clean and safe water, work, decent shelter, food security.(Omara2007), Indian being a party to a number of international human rights instruments has an obligation to embrace the rights under these instruments as constituting the fundamental rights of its citizens.

The Indian Food and Nutrition Policy:
The Indian Food and Nutrition Policy (IFNP) draw its strength from the constitution which as earlier noted requires the state to guarantee the RtF.The new IFNP (2003) unlike the earlier policy adopted in 1964, recognizes food and nutrition as a human right and that its implementation should follow rights based approach to include the creation of a legal framework to enforce the implementation of the policy and by implication the realization of the RtF (Omara 2007).The UFNP calls for promotion of the nutrition status of all Indian's, targeting food security, improved nutrition and improvement of incomes.It also calls for human rights based approach in dealing with issues surrounding adequate food and nutrition.The policy identifies improvement in the food supply and food access by households, food processing and preservation to ensure continued availability and access to food at all times, food storage, marketing and distribution to move stocks easily were they are required.It also addresses food standards and quality control, nutrition adequacy and quality, health as a key in human output.Information, education and communication are also seen as vital in ensuring proper and adequate food and nutrition.The policy also addresses gender issues in relation to food and nutrition.

The human privileges based loom to food security:
A Human privileges Based Approach (HRBAP), leads to a better understanding of the relationship between individuals and groups with valid claims (right holders) and State or non-state actors with correlative obligations of duty bearers (Jonsson .2009).HRBAP starts from the ethical imperative that everyone is entitled to a certain standard of living.With its focus on non-discrimination, respect, equity, accountability, transparency and participation (Damman, 2005) also describes, it might be of special value to particular vulnerable groups in this case women and children.The concepts of claim holder and duty bearers (Damman, 2005) set the stage for increased accountability (Knight, 2011), "starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat.It is not the characteristic of there not being enough food to eat." (Sen,1999).Inequalities are built into the fabric of society, such as in the production, distribution, and pricing of food everywhere.This leads to a food system that fails to deliver a safe, secure, sustainable, sufficient and nutritious diet for all within non-discrimination.A person may be forced into starvation even when there is plenty of food around if he/she loses his/her ability to buy food in the market through loss of income for example due to unemployment, or the collapse of the market for goods he/she produces and sells to earn a living (Sen, 1999).Human rights are also about upholding human dignity as mentioned in the preamble of the UDHR.The RtF is not just focusing on meeting physiological needs, but deals also with providing food for people that cannot feed themselves due to reasons beyond their control.RtF is not about charity, as dignity comes from providing for.The HRBAP is therefore a commitment to respond directly to this concern (Damman, 2005), States (the main duty bearer) have the potential either to undermine or to secure the enjoyment of the RtF of people, but according to international human rights standards, States have both a moral and legal obligation to ensure these rights within its borders (Damman, 2005) further observes that the State can create and sustain/perpetuate poverty, but it can also do a lot to eliminate it.Through ratifying the relevant human rights 8 treaties, States have taken on direct obligations for doing so.Jonsson (1996) also suggests that rights based strategy goes beyond the fulfillment of needs because the State has obligations to respect protect and fulfill these rights (Eide, 2008).These obligations of State parties are also elaborated in General Comment (GC 1214) to article 11 of the Covenant on the RtF.According to CESCR (1999), the obligation to respect existing access to adequate food requires State parties not to take any measures that result in preventing such access.The obligation to protect requires the State party to ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of their access to adequate food.Furthermore, it specifies that the State should also fulfill (facility) the RtF by proactively engaging in activities that strengthen people's access to and utilization of resources and whenever individuals or groups are unable, for reasons beyond their control, to enjoy the RtF by the means at their disposal, States have the obligation to provide that right directly.Thus the RtF is a right to a set of conditions that make one able to feed oneself (and one's dependents) in dignity (Barth Eide and Engh , 2008) .The underlying premise for the study is that for women and children in slums around Slumps area City Indian, to realize their RtF requires the state to commit to its obligations spelled out in GC.This is because people living in slums may not fully access the food which may be available as they may lack money to buy the food or other entitlements to acquire the food.The speculation allied to the precise to Food: Adequate nutrition is a major need of people and is closely linked to food intake (diet) and its nutritional quality.However, it is not obvious that peoples" needs for a disease preventive and health promoting diet are taken into consideration.The RtF is focusing on adequate food as a human right, showing clearly that peoples" needs should be met first and foremost.There are however many various factors that may have an impact on people.The livelihood, such as various contextual factors, education, gender, etc. plays a major role.The livelihood of each individual plays out in local communities where people are living.However, local communities are part of lager communities, with its laws, rules and regulations.These will differ somewhat depending on the context that people are living in.Nonetheless, something general and significant for all people, that is human rights as part of international law.As said above, communities over time have put in place mechanisms or regulations for peaceful intra and interpersonal existence and peaceful existence between communities.
These regulations in societies or communities have been generally accepted as "rights" for individuals that ensure access to and sharing of amenities and services in the community (Jonsson, 2009) says that a human right is "a relationship between one individual (or group of individuals) who has a right and therefore has a valid claim and another individual (or group of individuals) who has collective duties or obligations".The first individual or group of individuals mentioned by Jonsson enters into the role of a claim holder and the second individual enters into the role of a duty bearer.As stated in the preamble of the UDHR (1948) "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.".Thus human rights can therefore be understood as normative and legal standards that claim universal validity (Andreassen, 2007).Andreassen (2007) further explains that while they may not be universal in an operational sense as being realized everywhere at any time by everyone, they have been granted normative legal universality by the UDHR and by subsequent adoption and ratification of key international human rights treaties.

CONCLUSION
The FAO estimated in 2010 that the number of hungry people in the world was at 925 million slightly lower that the 1 billion estimates made after the food and financial crisis of 2008 (UN/SCN, 2010).The need for Right to Food discourse today Although the world produces enough food to feed everyone, it is estimated that in 2011 almost 1 billion children, men and women went to bed hungry every night rendering mainly children to suffer the dire effects of under nutrition (Knight, 2011) observes.Nabarro, the IN Secretary-General's Special Representative for food security and nutrition says that: Current levels of under nutrition reflect a massive and avoidable disaster for millions of the world's citizens.It is inexcusable and morally unacceptable that this situation persist to this day.The wide spread hunger and under nutrition in many countries is therefore not a question of the availability of food alone but it is related to inequalities in the distribution of resources and people's physical or economic access to food.In a world overflowing with riches, it is an outrageous scandal that more than 1 billion people suffer from hunger and malnutrition and that every year over 6 million children die of starvation and related causes.We must take urgent action now.From the above discussions, it is clear that current levels of under nutrition cannot be attributed to lack of food rather that some people cannot access it.The right to food calls on State parties to fulfill this obligation by facilitating access to food or directly providing food to such individuals.