Unit two is an exploration of the persistence of hunger in South Asia. It examines what we mean by hunger, some of the key issues that are associated with hunger, and the efforts that governments and people are making to end it.

As you engage with this unit of the briefing program, you may experience a feeling of sympathy or resignation. When we read about the conditions of hunger that so many of our brothers and sisters experience in South Asia, it raises the question, "How could I, personally, make a difference in the face of these obstacles?" In The Hunger Project, we believe that our partnership and solidarity with hungry people - not our pity - is what hungry people need in their struggle to build lives of self-reliance.

South Asia is home to 400 million hungry people - approximately one-half of the remaining hunger in the world. Hunger is linked to a nexus of issues - like poverty, population, education, and landlessness - which are critical to the future of humanity. A number of strategies and interventions have been designed - by governments and the international community - to try to "solve" the problem of hunger.  The participation of hungry people in the creation of their own strategies is proving to be critical.

This unit of the briefing program is designed to present the facts about the persistence of hunger in South Asia. In coming units, we will look at what grassroots people themselves are doing to end their own hunger, relying on their own strength, creativity, dignity, and self-reliance.

1. Hunger in South Asia
1. What is Hunger?
2. How do we measure Hunger?
2. Key Issues Surrounding the Persistence of Hunger in South Asia
3. Strategies and Interventions

Chronic hunger is a profound, debilitating human experience, that affects the ability of individuals to work productively, think clearly, and resist disease. It also has devastating consequences for society: it drains economies, destabilizes governments, and reaches across international boundaries.

• When many people think of hunger, they think of famine - sudden shortages of food due to war, drought, flood or other natural disasters.

• Although famine is the most dramatic and publicized type of hunger, it accounts for no more than 10% of hunger-related deaths.

• The vast majority of hunger-related deaths - the other 90% - are caused by chronic hunger.

• Chronic hunger occurs because people lack opportunity - to earn enough money, to be educated and gain skills, to meet basic health needs and to have a voice in the decisions that affect their communities.

• Hungry people lack the resources to buy or grow the food that they need to lead healthy and productive lives.

• Chronic hunger is persistent - it continues day after day, week after week. If it goes on long enough, chronic hunger leads to death.

• Its ramifications for societies and the world as a whole are serious and widespread.

• Hunger destroys family structure, drains the economy, creates antagonism among people, and destabilizes governments. In our global world, the effects of hunger reach across boundaries.

• A greater percentage of hungry people live in South Asia, than in any other region in the world.

• Over 400 million people go hungry in South Asia every day.

• Almost two-thirds of all deaths under age 5 in South Asia are associated specifically with malnutrition.

It is important that we understand the different forms that hunger takes in South Asia. Chronic hunger has several critical distinctions, including: food insecurity and livelihood insecurity, urban and rural hunger, and seasonal hunger.

• Food insecurity means that people do not have access to enough nutritious food to lead a healthy life.

• Livelihood insecurity means that people do not have the opportunity to earn money and access resources to meet their basic needs.

• Livelihood security includes access to food, water, health and educational opportunities.

• For hungry people in South Asia, economic empowerment is critical to gaining food and livelihood security.

• This is especially true for women. Women have primary responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate food, safe water, health and education for their households.

• Seasonal hunger is hunger that occurs in a community or society at only certain times of the year.

• It occurs in communities where people are already food or livelihood insecure.

• The pattern of seasonal hunger persists, year after year after year.

• Seasonal hunger is often closely related to agricultural cycles or natural occurrences such as drought.

• Before food is harvested, food from the previous year’s harvest may run out. People are left hungry for weeks or even months at a time.

• Hunger in South Asia is concentrated in its rural areas. 79% of South Asia's poor live in its rural villages.

• Most rural people earn their livelihood through farming. They often lack access to land and the necessary tools to produce what they need.

• Rural villages are isolated from social and economic progress. They lack roads and infrastructure, communications, access to markets, and resources for health and education.

• This isolation helps preserve traditional practices and ways of life, including those that marginalize women and girls.

• The issues of urban and rural hunger are closely linked in South Asia.

• Many rural people migrate to the cities because of lack of opportunity in rural areas.

• In cities, people are often met with dismal living standards: overcrowding, diseases, poor sanitation, unsafe drinking water, a life lacking in dignity.

• High levels of inflation mean that people must spend a large percent of their income on housing and food.

• South Asian cities such as Calcutta in India and Dhaka in Bangladesh are well-known for their overcrowding and difficult living conditions.

• Dhaka itself is growing by more than 1,300 people a day or almost 500,000 a year.

Malnutrition is a dangerous form of hunger, which is responsible for more than two-thirds of under five deaths in South Asia.  As we will see here - and in coming units - malnutrition in South Asia is a vicious cycle, which is closely linked to the condition of women throughout their lives.

• Malnutrition occurs when people do not eat enough of certain nutrients which are necessary for good health.

• It is distinct from undernutrition, which occurs when people do not eat enough calories and proteins, as well as nutrients.

• Malnutrition itself is particularly dangerous because it is linked to other diseases.

• It can bring on infectious diseases, as well as worsen common illnesses, such as diarrhea.

• Even mild malnutrition - when linked to other diseases - can bring on death.

• Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide, and more than two-thirds in South Asia.

• Half of South Asia’s children are malnourished.

• Its proportion of malnourished children under 5 is almost three times higher than the rest of the developing world.

• Bangladesh, India and Pakistan together are home to one-half of the world's malnourished children.

• Overall, 60% of South Asian women of childbearing age are underweight, and malnourished.

• Malnutrition among mothers has dire consequences for their children. Experts agree that when mothers are sick and malnourished, their children's physical, mental and social development is at stake.

• Malnutrition takes a great toll on society. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies cost India together with Bangladesh $18 billion in 1995 alone. This represents the cost of lost lives, disability and productivity from people who would otherwise have been healthy.

• Micronutrient malnutrition occurs when people lack certain vitamins and minerals that they need to live a healthy life.

• The three micronutrients that have the greatest effect on health and well-being are vitamin A, iron, and iodine.

• Vitamin A: Vitamin A deficiency can cause blindness, impair the immune system, and reduce child resistance to diarrhea and measles.

• Mothers who lack vitamin A have a greater risk of dying in child birth.

• Iron: Iron deficiency - often called iron deficiency anemia - impairs immunity, and can cause considerable brain damage.

• In mothers, iron deficiency leads directly to poor health and low birthweights of children. 88% of pregnant women in India and 53% in Bangladesh are anemic.

• Iodine: Iodine deficiency can cause brain damage and mental retardation.

• In an expectant mother, iodine deficiency can produce mental retardation in her child.

• Malabsorbtive hunger occurs when there are parasites in a person's body, which deplete the person's food of its nutritional value.

• Studies show that up to 20% or more of a person's food may be absorbed by parasites.

• Parasites live in places where there is contaminated water, bad sanitation, lack of environmental hygiene, and almost a complete absence of medical care.

The measurement of hunger in both individuals and societies is critical for establishing its severity, and identifying the actions we can take to end it. Growth charts for individuals, and Infant Mortality Rate and Low Birthweight for countries, are some of these key measurements.

• Measurement of hunger in individuals lets us see how severe the malnutrition is, and to decide how to treat it properly.

• Most measures compare the height and weight of a hungry child to the size of a healthy child of the same age.

• Growth charts are used in thousands of villages in South Asia to detect malnutrition in children.

• Measurement of hunger in a society lets us see where hunger persists, how severe it is, and where it is ending.

• The most widely accepted indicator of hunger is the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).

• The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is the number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births.

• When a country has an IMR level of 50 or below, it means that hunger as a chronic, persistent, society-wide problem has been ended.

• Over the past 50 years, South Asia has made significant progress in reducing its infant mortality rate.

• At the time of Independence in 1947, India's IMR was close to 200.

• Today, it stands at 71.

• In Bangladesh in 1970, just before its Independence, the Infant Mortality Rate was 148. Since then, it has dropped to the current figure of 81.

• Infant mortality has declined in large part due to improvements in many key areas—such as vaccinations, immunizations, and safe drinking water.

• Yet there is still some way to go. In particular, issues involving women's empowerment - in areas of nutrition, education and health care - are critical to continued reduction in IMR.

South Asia has some of the world's highest rates of low birthweight children, malnourished infants, and mothers who die in childbirth.

One of the things that has become evident - and perhaps one of the few new developments in this area scientifically in recent years - is the recognition that once you get beyond the infectious disease issues like clean drinking water, the single key issue that correlates most with infant mortality is birth weight.
- Dr. Peter Bourne, former UN Assistant Secretary General responsible for the Water Decade and chair of American Association of World Health

• South Asia has the highest rates of underweight babies and malnourished children in the world.

• 1/2 of the babies born in Bangladesh and 1/3 of the babies born in India are underweight at birth.

• More than 1/2 of all children in the region under 5 are malnourished.

• Low birthweight and malnutrition indicate that a child was most likely malnourished in the womb.

• The mothers of malnourished children were often themselves malnourished in their own infancy, childhood, adolescence, and pregnancy.

• The ill-health and malnutrition of women is a critical factor in the persistence of hunger in South Asia. See unit 4 of the online briefing program in July for more details.

• The Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is the number of women who die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth per 100,000 women in the age group 15-49.

• Worldwide, the Maternal Mortality Rate is 437. In the industrialized countries, it is 13.

• The Maternal Mortality Rate in South Asia is 551. There are between 437-570 deaths per 100,000 live births in India, and 850 in Bangladesh.

• It is estimated that India accounts for over 20 percent of the world’s maternal deaths.

• Maternal mortality is another indication that a mother herself was malnourished in the womb.

South Asia is home to 1/2 of the world's remaining hunger. While there are regional differences in the manifestations of hunger, it is most prevalent in the rural areas.

• South Asia contains nearly 40% of the world’s people living in poverty.

• India alone has a greater proportion of the world’s total hunger than any other single country.

• On an individual basis, women and children suffer disproportionately from hunger.

• As many as 60% of women are malnourished in South Asia. The proportion rises for women who are pregnant - more than 70% in Bangladesh.

• Experts attribute this to the severe subjugation of women, and the unequal access to food, education, and health care that they suffer throughout their lives.

There are significant regional differences in who is hungry in India. The great majority of hungry people live in rural areas. In India's northern states, hunger and malnutrition are more severe than in the South. Five states - Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam and Maharashtra - account for 56% of rural poverty while containing only one-third of the total population. State disparities are linked to the opportunities available to its people, particularly its women. In the state of Kerala, educational and health opportunities are equally available to men and women. As a result, the IMR is 12, meaning that hunger as a statewide issue has ended there.

The numbers on the right of the map refer to the 8 states of 1) Arunachal Pradesh, 2) Assam, 3) Manipur, 4) Meghalaya, 5) Mizoram, 6) Nagaland, 7) Sikkim, and 8) Tripura.

In Bangladesh, as in India, hunger persists most in the rural areas. In 1991, the Divisions of Rajshahi, Barisa, and Dhaka had the highest incidence of rural poverty—at around 60%. Urban poverty in Chittagong and Dhaka was less than 15%.

The greatest shift in the past decade has been the emergence of a new global consensus about issues critical to humanity's common future. Challenges of hunger and poverty, education, and population are literally a matter of life and death for millions. As people around the world, these issues are a primary threat to security and peace for all of us, now and in the future.  

We will look at seven key issues, which are intricately linked to the persistence of hunger. These issues are not the cause of hunger. Some are more critical than others. But each of these issues must be addressed for hunger to end. 

• Poverty: Hunger in South Asia is closely related to widespread poverty.

• Population: South Asia's population is large and growing, and creates pressures on its resources.

• Landlessness: Many rural people in South Asia never own the land they depend on for their food and livelihoods.

• Education: Investment in education - especially for women - has great effects on human development.

• Natural Disasters: Droughts, floods and other disasters add to the harshness of life for the poor and hungry.

• The Status of Women: Lifelong discrimination against women has perhaps the greatest consequences for the persistence of hunger.

• Democracy: Local democracy provides a way for rural people to access resources and improve living conditions.

Throughout South Asia, the persistence of hunger is directly associated with widespread and unrelenting poverty.

• In both cities and rural areas, people go hungry in spite of the availability of food.

• The land of both India and Bangladesh is inherently fertile, and is able to grow more than enough food to sustain the population.

• By some estimates, India - with proper management of land and water resources - could feed three to four times its population.

• Chronic hunger persists because people lack money and opportunity to buy or grow the food they need.

• The poverty line is an official measure of poverty defined by national governments.

• Roughly 35% of the population of India and Bangladesh live below this national poverty line.

• The international poverty line looks at incomes on a worldwide scale.

• In India, 44% of the population live below the international standard of $1 per day, and as many as 86% live below $2 per day.

• In Bangladesh, 29% of the population live below $1 per day, and as many as 79% live below $2 per day.

• Chronic hunger is overwhelmingly rural. 79 per cent of the poor live in rural areas, while only 21 per cent live in urban areas.

• Although the rural poor lack sufficient income and purchasing power, they are among the world’s hardest workers.

• Rural people are deeply involved in agricultural production. They most often work 16 hour days, without appropriate technology and adequate compensation.

• This is especially true for women, who frequently work longer and harder than the men in their family. Their work in the fields and in the home is often undervalued and underpaid.

Population is closely linked to hunger. Where hunger has ended, birth rates decline, and where hunger persists, birth rates rise.

Parents are more likely to restrict their families if they have a reasonable assurance of the health and survival of their [first] two children.
–Indira Gandhi, late Prime Minister of India

• South Asia is among the most densely populated regions in the world.

• India, with one-third the land mass of the United States, contains roughly four times as many people.

• Bangladesh, a nation the size of England or the US state of Wisconsin, contains half as many people as the entire United States.

• South Asia's rate of population growth is rapid.

• India’s current population of 1 billion is expected to double in the next 37 years.

• Bangladesh, with 127 million people today, will have twice that number in 38 years.

For rural people, land is the key to livelihood. When people do not have access to land, they must take on uncertain and unrewarding work as farm laborers for income.

We had tongues but could not speak. We had feet but could not walk.
Now that we have the land
we have the strength to speak and walk!
–Peasant women in Bihar, India

• Landless farm laborers in South Asia have little economic leverage as they compete for low-paying work.

• Despite minimum wage levels set by governments for agricultural workers, wages remain low—less than $1 per day.

• In India, between 31% and 35% of the total agricultural labor force is landless.

• In Bangladesh, at the time of liberation, 37% of the population was landless. In the 1990s, this figure rose to between 62% and 75%.

• In much of South Asia, landholdings are concentrated among a privileged few. There has been a steady shrinkage in the land available to individual families.

• Women in particular are almost always denied a share of their father's or husband's land, which goes to the sons. This practice persists, despite national and religious laws which enable them to inherit land.

• In South Asia, where women usually contribute more of their income to family well-being than men, this has harsh consequences for the persistence of hunger.

The issue of education is central to the persistence of hunger. Education for women and girls is critical for improving human development.

Investment in the education of girls may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world.

Lawrence Summers, then Vice-President of the World Bank, speaking before Pakistan Society of Development Economists

• Education is critical for improving human development in South Asia.

• In Bangladesh, the adult literacy rate has increased one-and-a-half times between 1970 and 1995. Yet there are still 45 million illiterate adults in the country - over 62% of the adult population.

• In India, the literacy rate has increased more than three times since independence in 1947. However, it is still the first in the world in terms of the number of total illiterate people (30% of the global total), with about 91 million more adult illiterate females than males.

• Education for women often means reduced child mortality, reduced fertility rates, reduced death in childbirth. It also helps prevent the spread of AIDS and has environmental benefits.

• School enrollment for girls remains low in South Asia.

• In India, The educational enrollment of girls in all levels of education is 47%, compared to 62% for males.

• In Bangladesh, the educational enrollment of girls in all levels of education is 30%, compared to 40% for males.

• Education, especially for women and girls, has a substantial impact on human progress.

• Educated girls are more likely to have smaller families and healthier children, as well as increased income.

• Girls are often kept home from school to help their mothers with chores. Parents are hesitant to send girl children to schools that are far from home or where there are only male teachers.

The South Indian state of Kerala displays the success of a strategy to end hunger that includes education for women. When women are educated, they transfer the benefits to their children.

Despite low economic indicators, the Indian state of Kerala has made remarkable human progress. With a population of 30 million people, Kerala has India's second highest population density. Its per capita income is below the national average. Yet, the state of Kerala has a life expectancy of 66 years—13 years above the all-India average— and the lowest death rate for every age group among all Indian states. Kerala has experienced a substantial decline in infant mortality rates. From 1921 to 1930, its IMR was estimated at 210. Today it stands at an impressive 12. The Maternal Mortality Rate is only 195.

• One of the key factors in this substantial human progress is Kerala’s education system, especially for women.

• Kerala has the best primary education system in India, and a literacy rate of 90% - almost twice the rate for all of India at 52%.

• The literacy rate for females in Kerala is 82%—one of the highest in all of Asia. Even in the rural areas, more than half the women are literate, compared with 43 per cent for all of India.

• The government of Kerala is committed to meeting basic human needs, including education, land reform, and health services—especially for young mothers.

• This commitment has made a huge difference in progress in ending hunger in the state.

The prevalence of natural disasters in India and Bangladesh contribute to the difficulty of life, but are not the primary reason that chronic hunger persists.

• India and Bangladesh, like many other parts of the world, have always been subject to drought, floods, storms, and other harmful natural phenomena.

• Yet, droughts and floods themselves do not necessarily lead to either famine or chronic hunger.

• Rather, the persistence of chronic hunger – a life lived on the edge of survival – turns natural phenomena into natural catastrophes.

• People who are chronically undernourished lack the reserves in health or energy to withstand temporary deprivation.

• Nations without rural infrastructure lack the means to respond to disasters when they occur.

• Both India and Bangladesh have had major success in building mechanisms to prepare for, forestall, and cope with the effects of natural disaster.

• Both countries have faced extraordinary challenges in the past decade. These brought losses and hardship to many people.

• Yet, thanks to disaster response in each country, famine has not been the consequence.

• Some experts posit that when disasters do occur, governments and relief organizations should allocate money to local people.

• According to India's local government expert, Dr. George Mathew, "If panchayats (local government councils) are brought to the center stage and entrusted with the responsibilities they deserve, relief and rescue operations could be much more effective."

See unit 3 of the briefing program next month for more information on development activities that draw on the leadership of local women and men.  Click here to skip to unit 3.

The persistence of social conditions that enforce the status quo is the biggest obstacle to achieving the end of hunger in South Asia. One of the most deeply entrenched conditions in the world is the subjugation, marginalization and disempowerment of women — which is worst in South Asia

The extent to which women are free to make decisions affecting their lives may be the key to the future, not only of the poor countries but of the richer ones too. As mothers; producers or suppliers of food, fuel and water; traders and manufacturers; political and community leaders, women are at the center of the process of change.
–Dr. Nafis Sadik, 1989, head of United Nations Fund for Population Activities

• The status of women in South Asia is linked to the nexus of issues related to the persistence of hunger.

• As mothers, women's well-being is critical to the development of children into healthy, productive adults.

• As producers and leaders, women contribute to ending hunger in South Asia, but are often not acknowledged for these contributions.

• Income earned by women benefits the family, since women tend to spend their income on food and child nutrition.

• A full understanding of women’s key role in society is critical to making progress towards the end of hunger.

When individuals are able to participate in the governance of their communities, and societies, they are able to address the issues that are critical to their lives. In South Asia, people's participation is key to ending hunger.

No substantial famine has ever occurred in a country with a democratic form of government and a relatively free press.
–Prof. Amartya Sen

• Democracy is more than a set of rules and institutions that define how a nation elects its leaders.

• Some experts assert that democratic governments have the greatest respect for human rights and individual freedoms.

• There is often a connection between democracy and social progress.

• This is because democracies are often coupled with liberal traditions - like separation of powers and free speech.

• South Asia is committed to the democratic process.

• India today is the world's largest democracy.

• Bangladesh has been struggling for peaceful self-governance since its independence.

• Both nations have a free press and a commitment to basic freedoms, such as the right to assemble and to information.

• Yet, throughout the region, the emergence of democratic leadership has been beset by setbacks—including corruption, military rule, and people's insurgencies.

Since the independence of India and Bangladesh, governments and the international community have taken actions to address the issues of hunger and poverty.

• At the national level, governments have engaged in central planning, designing and implementing strategies from the "top-down."

• International donors have contributed great sums of money to the region, investing it in projects such as infrastructure development.

• Scientists have developed agricultural breakthroughs - the Green Revolution - to make their nations food self-sufficient.

• All of these initiatives have had successes as well as shortcomings.

• There is a growing consensus that the participation and leadership of local people in strategies to end their own hunger is critical.

In the past 50 years, South Asian governments have worked to develop the region economically and improve the well-being of their people. The strategy of central planning has had both success and drawbacks.

The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far, creates problems we cannot solve at the same level of thinking at which we created them.

-Albert Einstein

• The system of central planning in India had several successful programs.

• ICDS: The Integrated Child Development Services is one of the most successful programs in India's health delivery system.

• It is based out of anganwadi (nursery) centers, where mothers can bring their children for supplementary feeding, immunization, simple health care, and referral for serious illness. The anganwadi centers are staffed by locally recruited workers.

• TNIP: Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project monitors growth of children aged 6 to 36 months, and includes food supplementation and nutritional education for mothers.

• IRDP: The Integrated Rural Development Program develops self-employment in rural areas through activities like small business, weaving, and animal raising. IRFP provides credit and subsidies to rural families.

• EGS: The Employment Guarantee Scheme in the state of Maharashtra has developed successful work opportunities for rural people.

• PDS: The Public Distribution System has provided food security to the poor by supplying food grains - 18.4 million tons in 1990-2 alone.

• Water and Literacy: Through Water and Literacy missions, India has dramatically increased access to safe water, and improved literacy rates by more than 3 times since independence.

• The Indian government's focus on industrial production helped India to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of many industrial products.

• It resulted in the creation of a large urban middle class - currently estimated at 300 million.

• At the time of its independence, Bangladesh did not have the industrial and resource-base of India.

• It focused on rural development as its main development strategy.

• In health, the Matlab project increased the use of contraception among village women in rural areas. Within eight years, the percentage of women using family planning rose from 7 per cent in 1977 to 45 per cent in 1985.

• Part of the project's success was due to the personal interest the women workers took in the women of their communities.

• In education, government programs for basic education helped increase primary enrollment from 10 million in 1990 to 14 million in 1996. The ratio of girls to boys in primary school is nearly equal.

• To address poverty, the government is focusing more recently on people's development. In 1998-9, it allocated 18% of its government expenditures to the social sector.

• Despite successes, central planning has major shortcomings.

• There is a tendency for large bureaucracies to consume many resources at the center. India's former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi once said that only 15% of government spending actually benefits the poor. Some observers called this figure optimistic.

• In a region with more than 1 billion people, it is hard for top-down approaches to be sensitive to local realities. Plans are often unable to take into account changing conditions. When problems arise, it is difficult for a central strategy to adapt.

• In some cases, the poorest of the poor do not even have access to the programs that are supposed to provide services for them. Few of the very poor have benefited from India's industrial growth.

• Top-down programs also create an opening for corruption, which now reaches throughout all levels of South Asian society.

• More important than even these factors is the fact that top-down, service-delivery programs create a mindset of dependency among people, rather than focus on people's own creativity.  Many local people feel alienated by central planning, which gives them little say in initiatives as they are developed.

The advances of the Green Revolution made India food self-sufficient. Yet some say it has excluded the poor who could benefit most.

• The "Green Revolution" is used to refer to a period of great agricultural development which transformed India's rural areas.

• Self-sufficiency in food production became a major priority for the Indian government after independence.

• Although India had historically suffered from famines and food shortages, India’s leading scientists sought to change history.

• Through the Green Revolution, scientists such as Dr. M.S. Swaminathan (right) created seed varieties and agricultural practices producing many times the yields of traditional seeds.

• The impact of this innovation was also felt, though to a lesser extent, in Bangladesh.

• The Green Revolution made India self-sufficient in food, an extraordinary accomplishment in a country of 1 billion people.

• It brought greatly increased food production, and improved productivity of land.

• In areas such as the Punjab and Haryana, it reduced poverty substantially.

• The Green Revolution depended in part on pre-existing rural infrastructure. Regions that were well-equipped took advantage of the programs, while many others could not.

• It targeted areas with great irrigation potential - like the Punjab - but neglected the dry areas of most of the country.

• Because the Green Revolution depended on chemical fertilizers and herbicides, it was not environmentally sustainable.

• Some have claimed that the Green Revolution benefited rich farmers, while excluding the rural poor.

The financial commitments of governments and international donors shaped South Asia's development in many ways. Although money is critical, the priorities of central government and international interventions have not always stressed the role of people.

• External aid from international donors played a large part in South Asia's development, particularly for Bangladesh.

• Foreign donors have sent Bangladesh more than $22 billion in grant aid and loans since Independence in 1971. This compares to more than $55 billion sent to India between 1951 and 1992.

• In the 1980s, Bangladesh’s economy became substantially dependent on aid from outside.

• Aid brought genuine progress in some areas, such as infrastructure development.

• However, critics posit that foreign aid has brought little real progress to the lives of most rural people.

• South Asian governments in general invest comparatively little in health and education.

• In South Asia as a whole, military spending is almost 3/4 of spending on education and health combined.

• South Asia is one of the most militarized regions in the world. Per capita spending on defense compared to social spending is very high.

• India spends $18 per person on health, $12 per person on education, and $11 per person on defense.

• Bangladesh spends $6 per person on health, $6 per person on education, and $4 per person on defense.

• Many South Asian governments focus their educational spending on higher education. This means that critical areas such as basic education and girls' education are desperately lacking resources.

In both India and Bangladesh, alternative development models which focus on local leadership have begun to emerge.

Congratulations on finishing unit 2 of the online briefing program. This unit has given you a basic understanding of what hunger is in South Asia, the key issues it involves, and some of the strategies created to end it.

• Chronic, persistent hunger—a day-by-day, debilitating human experience

• 400 million hungry people—South Asia has one-half of the world's remaining hunger

• Rural issue—79% of the poor live in rural areas

• Different forms of hunger—food insecurity and livelihood insecurity, urban and rural hunger, and seasonal hunger

• Malnutrition takes toll—more than ½ of South Asian children are malnourished

• Women's well-being is crucial—malnourished women give birth to low birthweight babies

• Nexus of issues—hunger is linked to critical issues for humanity’s common future

• Poverty means lack of opportunity—poor lack access to health, education, and income

• Hunger increases population growth—where hunger has ended, birth rates fall

• Natural disasters and landlessness—contribute to the problems of hungry people

• Central planning and international aid—top-down successes are tempered by creation of dependency in people

• Women and local democracy are key—empowering local people - especially women - is critical to ending hunger in South Asia