(Online Course) Contemporary Issues for IAS Mains 2012: The Hindu – Zero Hunger

Zero Hunger

Q. Can India adopt Brazil’s Zero Hunger Strategy to reduce
Poverty?

Answer: Brazil’s “Zero Hunger” strategy, for instance,
has been successful in reducing poverty, inequality and hunger by developing
profitable small farms and delivering cash to poor families through innovative
payment systems. As the debate rages in India about how best to reduce poverty,
curb growing inequality and boost agricultural production, Brazil’s experience
can help.

Brazil’s social schemes are among the world’s best targeted
and are transparent. They have demonstrated how to streamline the delivery of
services across all levels of government. By collaborating with Brazil, India
can improve the reach and efficiency of its own, notoriously leaky schemes,
including the Public Distribution System, whose losses are estimated to be
around 44 per cent a year. There are of course vast differences between the two
countries. India’s poor are twice Brazil’s entire population, for example. But
that shouldn’t stop India from borrowing some good ideas. It’s not necessary for
India to indiscriminately adopt cash transfers or other Brazilian schemes to
benefit from knowledge sharing. India can leverage its private sector skills to
scale up programmes. In turn, Brazil can benefit from India’s innovators, who
are finding novel ways to provide the country’s low-income population greater
access to products, services and employment that enhance living standards. India
has produced the world’s cheapest car, electronic tablets that cost $50, large,
successful retailers who link thousands of rural workers to modern urbanmarkets,
and family-sized apartments in cities that sell for $4,200. In the affordable
housing sector the long-term opportunities for partnerships with Indian
entrepreneurs are particularly significant. Brazilian officials predict a
deficit of 23 million homes for low-income families in the next 20 years.

Go Back To Main Page