The right to be free from hunger and malnutrition is a fundamental human right of every woman, man, youth and child. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family including food". The 1974 Universal Declaration on Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition has enunciated that "every man, women and child has an inalienable right to be free from hunger. Nearly 20 years later, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) developed these concepts more fully and it has also stressed that everyone has the right to adequate food. Right to be free from hunger is a fundamental right. In 2002 a set of guidelines have been adopted at UN i.e. Voluntary Guidelines on RTF to facilitate progressive realisation of RTF in the world. 

The most basic human right of all, the right to food as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is not guaranteed to the majority of the world's peoples. Despite abundance in food production more than 850 million people remain hungry in the world of which 294 million hungry and malnourished people live in South Asian countries alone. The reality lies in the fact that 433 million in India survive on less than 1.00$ per day and that India has the largest number in the world's poor.

The victims
Hunger results from such economic, agricultural and trade policies which are shaped by the powerful developed countries and their allies at global, regional and national levels and imposed on poor countries in order to maintain and increase the political, economic, cultural and military hegemony of the powerful actors within the current process of global economic restructuring. The situation has been further worsened due to invasion of food imperialism, which threatens the diversity of the peoples' food cultures and their national, cultural and ethnic identities. The victims are those coming from poor economic background and in most cases belong to marginalised social/ethnic groups. Hunger has also a strong gender dimension as women are more prone to starvation due to socio-cultural environment.

OUR MANDATE
FIAN WB refers to national and international human rights instruments/provisions and puts major emphasis on the role of the state in realising the right to food and feed oneself of the people. India is a state party to ICESCR and ICCPR which means that the state is duty bound to ensure full realisation of right to adequate food in the country for everybody. Moreover right to food is also enshrined in the Indian constitution as a derived right in Article 21 under the fundamental right to life. Therefore any incidence of hunger, chronic malnutrition or starvation death in India is a violation of a fundamental human right that is right to food and feed oneself.

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