India’s Health and Food systems, Review Reflection and Reality Check

On the 75th anniversary of the transfer of power from British rule, a reality check is of utmost necessity in the area of healthcare because the current government has charted a ” Health Care 2022 and Beyond” program to mark the 75th year celebration.

It’s an ambitious project, to say the least, because not only are we far away from any desirable health indices (even compared to the other neighbouring countries) but also because we are still turning a blind eye to the social political and ethnic factors which are responsible for the denial of healthcare to millions in the country.

India as a country was among the worst prepared in the world to deal with the corona pandemic and the pandemic of malnutrition the epidemic of bad sanitation and unhygienic water supply has never really left India in the last 75 years.

For the past, 2-3 years addressing the broken healthcare system has been an utmost priority. The platform of National India News has been massively utilized to address the concerns of millions. Several healthcare experts and activists were invited to discuss it. The same issue was argued through the writings of Dr Bangar. Even her scholarship aims to discuss the same problem.

Last week, at the John F Kennedy School of Government Dr Bangar, deliberates on this matter. She purposely chose the topic of Improving India’s Food systems for a policy memo as well as a policy briefing. The experts from five countries (Germany, Israel, Singapore Qatar and India) formed a team and held deliberations with the COP28 strategy director Ms Latif who also happens to be the advisor to the White House on climate change.

The policy memo was addressed to India’s Niti Aayog. Essentially from the perspective of a Bahujan; focused on how the alienation of India’s Food systems from animal protein to more veganism and vegetarianism has resulted in India’s young and children being malnourished and prone to chronic diseases. Proposing that the food practice that focuses on protein be implemented along with making the public distribution system robust as well as including animal protein in the midday meal scheme all across India.

After all, how many OBCs, SCs and STs in India can afford to guzzle litres of milk or cottage cheese just because they are coerced to be vegetarians? That’s a luxury which is available only for the few and India still needs animal protein which comes in cheap such as beef eggs and chicken and fish which is locally available. The politicization of diet with a thrust on cereals and vegetarianism along with a cracking PDS has been a major factor in adding to starvation rates in India. In addition to policy, a people’s movement is what is needed to implement these changes. And only then can India be truly healthy.