CHENNAI, India — India is still hungry 62 years after it was freed from the British colonial yoke. The Global Hunger Index for 2009 places India at a low 65th, with the far more populous China doing much better. While China has reduced the number of "hungry" people by 58 million during the past decade, India's number has risen by 30 million since the mid-1990s.
Although India's hunger is no longer related to the famines and food shortages that plagued the country before independence (the last major famine was in 1943), out of a population of at least 1 billion, 240 million (21 percent) go to bed hungry night after night.
Ironically, India produces enough food for its millions, but does not generate enough employment opportunities to enable them to afford it. Even basic food, such as rice, wheat and lentils, remains beyond the means of many. Instances of severe hunger and even starvation are not rare.