ISLAMABAD: The food rights campaigners on Wednesday warned the provincial governments of the country against food price inflation risking increase in empty plates amid fears of adding 30 million more to the tally of those living below poverty line. “Act now to protect hungry and the poor from food insecurity, food vulnerability, land grabbing, denial of women’s right to land as it has a deep structural nexus with food security. The provinces should legislate to protect right of the people to food and acknowledge women working in fields as farmers,” said the participants of the conference. They called upon the governments that these laws must ensure that food reaches to every one who cannot afford to buy it from the market and do not let the market forces increase the prices of food for corporate greed. State is to check market excesses.
The stakeholders including farmers’ organizations, women farmers, academia and civil society put their demands at the first National Conference on Right to Food jointly organized by the different NGOs here on Wednesday. They called upon the governments to control price hike with immediate effect. Speaking on the occasion, Tariq Mehmood from Pakistan Kistan Ittehad called for averting food crisis by stabilizing food production with greater investments in agricultural infrastructure to increase crop production and expand storage facilities, to better ensure grain produced is not wasted and to strengthen social safety nets.
Shafqat Munir, Convener FIAN Group Pakistan said in a country where almost half the population (48.6%) does not have access to sufficient food for active and healthy life, right to food has fast emerged as the most major challenge. Along with the issues of production, it is also a challenge of accountability of food governance and necessitates a mandatory legal framework where people can actually claim this right.
Aftab Alam from Actionaid said for poor families in Pakistan, who already spend more than 60% of their income on food, higher food prices further reduce their ability to pay for medical care and their children’s education and if this trend goes on, the food crisis will badly undermine recent gains in poverty reduction.
Majid Bashir, legal expert, said sub clause (d) of the Article 38 of the Constitution of Pakistan says: “The state shall provide basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing, housing, education and medical relief, for all such citizens, irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, as are permanently or temporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account of infirmity, sickness or unemployment.” The floods have literally turned almost 30 millions into infirmity increasing their vulnerability and inability to earn their livelihood. So, in this situation, it becomes the responsibility of the state (federal and provincial governments) to provide them food by invoking Article 38 and making a law that enables such people to claim their right to food, he added.
“The Millennium Development Goal-1 itself is almost an obligation in regard to reducing by halve the number of hungry people. Similarly, Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition recognizes that Every man, woman and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition to develop fully and maintain their physical and mental faculties and it is a fundamental responsibility of governments to work together for higher food production and a more equitable and efficient distribution of food between countries and within countries,” said Amjad Nazeer, Oxfam Novib.
Samina Nazir, from PODA said food prices and food insecurity at the household levels have been on the rise over the past few years. Equal distribution, ownership, control and access to land are some important matters to be looked at while analyzing the state of social justice and human rights. Women are denied right to access, control and own land as only one percent women in Pakistan own land and in most of the case the control over their lands is in the hands of male member of her household due to patriarchal limitations. Sindh government has taken certain measures in this case but much is out there to realize the vision women’s access and ownership to land, she added.