The Right to Food and Social Inequality: Indian Perspectives

Abstract

This paper argues that the main argument of this paper is that, social stratification blocks the equal and free distribution of economic and social resources and the means to the access to food. This social stratification is caused by inequality and discrimination, e.g. gender, caste, and inequality of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Such social cause is not fully addressed by the current formulation of the right to food that merely facilitates the access to resources, piecemeal identification of vulnerable groups, and merely focuses on the economic side of the problem - hunger is a social problem. The right to food should serve to break the wall of inequality through: mainstreaming equality in its formulation, drawing international human rights obligations that promote gender and race equality, and reconceptualizing equality using the notions of participation and empowerment of the disadvantaged. This serves to balance the power between advantaged and disadvantaged groups and to remove the social inequality. Only through this comprehensive formulation of right to food can food security be progressively realized.