‘1.043 billion Indians were unable to afford healthy diet in 2021’, TMC quotes UN report

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Centre for its failure to ensure a healthy diet to a huge number of people across the country. Quoting a UN report, the ruling party in Bengal said that malnourished people continue to suffer from food security.

“PM @narendramodi, how long will you take to act on the plight of poor people bearing the brunt of your failure? As marginalized people continue to suffer from food insecurity, whose ‘Vikas’ is @BJP4India truly ensuring?” Trinamool Congress in a post on X said.

It has quoted 2023 report on food security and nutrition released by the UN saying that 74.1 per cent of Indians, or 1.043 billion people, were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021. The report estimated India’s proportion of undernourished population at 16.6 per cent during 2020-2022, Trinamool Congress said on its social media post.

The report highlights several critical findings regarding global hunger, nutritional access, child malnutrition, and the impact of urbanisation on diet.

These findings throw light on the current state of food security and nutrition worldwide. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress recently attacked the BJP-led Centre over the PM-KISAN Scheme as the number of beneficiaries is gradually going down.

The ruling party in Bengal also termed the central scheme as a “lip service”.

“According to data provided by MoS @KailashBaytu, the number of PM-Kisan beneficiaries dropped 22% from 10.45 Cr families last year to 8.12 crore families this year budgetary allocation for the scheme for this year is the lowest in 5 years – 20% lower than the budgetary estimates for 2019-20,” Trinamool Congress had said.

In Bengal, the BJP leaders ahead of elections have always claimed that the idea of having a BJP government in the state and at the Centre paves the way for better opportunities for development which it called “Double Engine Sarkar”.

It is this very idea that the Trinamool Congress chose to attack claiming that the condition of BJP-ruled states is evidence enough of retardation of growth.