The sentence “No one dies of hunger” is often echoed in our daily interactions and discussion but it is unjustifiable. It can be observed that many people are dying of hunger across the country and the globe on a daily basis. The misunderstanding and fantasy lies only in the real meaning of the “die-of-hunger” between the layman and the experts. The layman envisages the concept in a very simplistic way and views that the one who dies of hunger will rub his feet on earth and will give his last breaths, like in the case of a road accident or of an electric shock and so on, when someone is passing through.
But the United Nation Organization UNO and other concerned institutions and the experts define the concept in a different way. According to them the prominent causes of hunger-death are malnutrition, undernutrition and the deficiency of the basic food ingredients in a body. Thus, in this context the poor people and the war-hit countries are mostly vulnerable to food deficiency. In the same way the poor are more at the verge of dying earlier than the affluent ones.
The UN statistics on hunger report that around 25000 people fell victim to hunger-death every day across the world. Consequently, the life expectancy of the poor and underdeveloped countries is far less than the advanced countries, like in Germany the life expectancy is 81 years, in Hong Kong 85 years, and in Japan 84 years, respectively. Meanwhile, in Nigeria the life expectancy is 54 years, in South Sudan 57 years, and in Afghanistan 62 years, respectively. The difference of life expectancy and vulnerability is significantly existing due to either easy availability or unavailability of basic food subsistence and items. Similarly, the nutritionists believe that the intake of the seasonal foods, fruits, vegetables, dry fruits and suchlike, are very much needed for the human body, otherwise it must create food deficiency in the body, that may leave lasting effects on the human physiology and longevity. In this context it can be argued that a large portion of our community in particular and in the world generally is unable to purchase the seasonal food items and consume, resultantly causing the prior-death. Deficiency of vitamins, proteins, minerals, calcium, and other food ingredients may leave adverse impacts in the human body, which are transpired in the late age in the shape of joint-ache, back-ache, contracting mussels, bone ache and so on.
The hunger-death can finely be argued by recalling the Malthusian theory of population that foresees the significant gap between the growth of population and the growth of resources, which ultimately are leading to unemployment problems, psychological and mental issues. The practice is very much common in Third World countries. The situation in return increases crimes and juvenile delinquency in the community.
Pakistan is one of those countries where there is a wide gap between the population growth and the resources generation. For Malthus the population is increasing in the developing countries by geometric means like, 1,2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64. While the resources are increasing through arithmetic means like 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 causing a big gap between the population growth and the resources.
The misconception about the concept of hunger-death needs to be taken seriously. It has latently instigated the people to expedite the reproduction process and to produce many children, which is indeed a big challenge and threat to national stability.
The unplanned population explosion besides other issues is decreasing the life expectancy and reinforces the prospects of joblessness. Subsequently, this situation and the economic instability will lead a society towards serious psychological and mental health issues, which can best be observed in the hospitals in terms of the larger crowds consulting psychiatrists and neurophysicians than the other physicians.
Furthermore, it is observed every other day through the social media, newspapers and in the news channels that the people are committing suicide in different ways. Many times, collective suicide cases are witnessed in our surroundings. Recently a mother terminated her life along with her four children in Marriabad area of Quetta city while taking poison and the reason behind that was the economy and unavailability of required food. Around 20,000 people commit suicide each year in Pakistan and the major reason behind is the joblessness and poverty. It would have been tripled if there was no restriction from religion and thus social stigma. The frequent attack of diseases on the deprived class and their fragile immunity leads them to die quicker than the affluent and proves the death as being due to hunger.
It is unfortunate that many literate people ridiculously and irrationally repeat the sentence that “no one dies of hunger”, which definitely leaves a bad impact on the laymen and in other ways is encouraging ignorance and unchecked population growth. Pakistan is one of those countries severely affected by the excessive and unplanned population growth, having a 2.5 percent population growth, the highest in the region.
The misconception about the concept of hunger-death needs to be taken seriously. It has latently instigated the people to expedite the reproduction process and to produce many children, which is indeed a big challenge and threat to national stability. It is high time to preach and propagate through all available means and use all forums to educate people about the drawbacks of these mistaken concepts. The government, media, NGOs, faculty, doctors, social activists and religious scholars sincerely need to spread this message and make the people aware about the byproduct of these mis-concepts.
