Is access to food a human right?
India’s economy is on the rise, but with an estimated 421 million people living in poverty, its levels of malnutrition are still staggeringly high. The governing Indian National Congress Party is pushing to enshrine the right to food in the country’s constitution and expand the existing entitlement so that every Indian family would qualify for a monthly 77-pound bag of grain, sugar and kerosene.
We want to hear from you: Should government guarantee the basics of human survival? What would you make a basic human right?
Chris Jochnick, a lawyer and a director at Oxfam America, explains that the right to food is an economic right, even if it’s hard to enforce. Raj Patel is a fellow at the Institute for Food and Development Policy and author of “Food Rebellions: Crisis and Hunger for Justice.” He explains the difference between social and economic rights, like the right to food, and and civil and political rights.
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