Experts for comprehensive law on right to food in South Asia

South Asian experts and policymakers on food security yesterday stressed immediate enacting of a specialised and comprehensive law on right to food in the South Asian countries to address the region's prevailing chronic hunger.
Although each country has more than two dozens to hundreds of legal provisions relevant to food security, none of them directly addresses people's right to food, they said at a two-day regional consultation on food-related legislations in South Asia held in Kathmandu, Nepal, said a message received in Dhaka yesterday.
“The South Asian governments are investing a lot in terms of direct and indirect investment in food and agriculture. Many laws, rules, regulations, policies, and administrative measures have been introduced, but these are not coherent and comprehensive,” said Information Minister and Chairperson of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Food, Agriculture and Rural Development Hasanul Haq Inu.
It is hard to find poor people having three meals everyday with the existing legal loopholes and many related issues missing, Inu said adding that the right to food bill in India could be an inspiration for other countries.
Lilian Mercado, deputy regional director of Oxfam Asia, said though South Asia has experienced the second fastest rate of economic growth in the world, poverty has gotten worse as inequality has risen and become more severe.
“Studies showed it could grow at the steady rate of around 5.5 percent in the next 25 years. But, factors such as climate change, inequality, food price hike, population growth, rapid urbanisation as well as competition for natural resources could hamper or reverse the progress. It reflects a need for the South Asian governments to transform their political pledges on food security into immediate action,” she said.
During the meeting, about 50 representatives from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka discussed the findings mentioned in the Regional Synthesis Report on food-related legislations in each of the country.