ENSURING RIGHT TO FOOD AS A HUMAN RIGHT IN TIMES OF GLOBAL PANDEMIC: A STUDY IN RELATION TO COVID-19 IN INDIAN CONTEXT

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the problem of food Security and livelihood when four weeks of national lockdown was announced, distressing stories of hunger and despair have been emerging across the country. Right to Food concerns the development of the notion of access to food as a right. As a right it sets obligations on the state and community of states. These obligations have been established as ‘enforceable’ through centuries of social struggle for a democratic state in the service of the people. But the Covid-19 pandemic affected people’s right to access to food and small-scale producers, farm producers, farm workers and informal and migrant workers livelihood. This means that Covid-19 will likely to move from health crisis to a food crisis if we don’t act urgently. The idea of the human right to food is to establish procedural and legal means for seeking remedies against authorities when they fail to guarantee access to food. Even after much hue and cry globally about hunger related deaths, the number seems to be rising. In spite of international instruments and domestic safeguards being provided with respect to the right, global violations continue. Many people are already experiencing restricted access to food due to loss of incomes or closure of markets. The pandemic could bring a lot of disruption to the food system over the months or maybe years to come back. Bearing in mind that pre-COVID-19, 821 million people were already living with hunger, we must work to advance solutions that additionally address the underlying injustices and vulnerabilities within the food system