Mahatma Gandhi had said that there are people in the world who are so hungry that God can only appear to them in the form of bread. Hunger is one of mankind’s greatest enemies and has driven millions to despair; it also provided the subject of powerful literature, a notable example being French writer Victor Hugo’s classic Les Misérables.

In her article “Let Them Eat Bread: Theft That Helped Inspire Les Misérables” which appeared on “npr” (National Public Radio) in March 2017, Nina Martyris wrote:

“On a bitterly cold day in February 1846, the French writer Victor Hugo was on his way to work when he saw something that deeply affected him. A thin young man with a loaf of bread under his arm was led by the police. Passersby said he was arrested for stealing the bread. He was dressed in mud-spattered clothes, his bare feet stuck in clogs, his ankles wrapped in bloody rags instead of stockings.

“It got me thinking,” Hugo wrote. “The man was no longer a man in my eyes, but the specter of misery, of poverty.” In his novel, Hugo describes the family’s circumstances in these few short lines: “A very hard winter came. Jean had no work. The family had no bread. Literally no bread. Seven children!”

Jean Valjean is sentenced to five years of hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread! He tried to escape four times and each time his sentence was extended by three years; he also received an additional two years for resisting recapture once during the second escape. After nineteen years in prison, he was released, but by law he had to carry a yellow passport announcing that he was an ex-convict, an outcast. Hugo uses that bread to attack society’s criminal indifference to poverty and hunger and to highlight the injustice of the penal system.

“Les Misérables” was supposed to awaken the conscience of mankind, but we have to wonder if it managed to do that. As former US President Dwight Eisenhower said, “Every weapon that is made, every warship launched, every missile fired is, in the ultimate sense, a theft from those who are hungry and not fed, those who are cold and not they are dressed”.

As the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps says, “Hunger and malnutrition are the biggest health risks worldwide – bigger than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Globally, undernourishment still claims the life of a child every three seconds, and almost half of all deaths in children under five are attributable to undernutrition.” Eveyone.org, another charity, says: “Every hour of every day, 300 children die from malnutrition. It is a root cause of more than a third of child deaths – 2.6 million each year.”

There is an urgent need to take war footing action against such a situation.

Unfortunately, the global hunger situation is only getting worse. According to a United Nations report published on October 31, 2024, acute food insecurity will increase in both scale and severity in 22 countries and territories. The report – “Hunger Hotspots: FAO-WFP Early Warnings on Acute Food Insecurity” – issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program of the United Nations (WFP) calls for urgent humanitarian action to save lives. and livelihoods and prevent starvation and death in hotspots where acute hunger is at high risk of worsening between November 2024 and May 2025.

According to the report, Palestine, Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali remain at the highest alert level and require the most urgent attention. Conflict is the main driver of hunger in all these areas. All hotspots of greatest concern have communities already experiencing or at risk of starvation or experiencing catastrophic conditions of acute food insecurity. Chad, Lebanon, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen are hotspots of very high concern, with large numbers of people facing critical acute food insecurity, with worsening drivers expected to further intensify much life-threatening conditions. in the following months. It warns that the La Niña weather pattern could impact the climate by March 2025, threatening fragile food systems in already vulnerable regions.

The report also warns that spreading conflict, particularly in the Middle East, along with climate and economic stressors, are pushing millions to the brink of starvation. The report highlights the regional consequences of the Gaza crisis, which has seen Lebanon engulfed in conflict.

The need to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza cannot be overstated. The official death toll in Gaza now stands at 43,259, with 101,827 injured, but the actual death toll is believed to be much higher. Moreover, if people don’t die from Israeli bombing, they will starve. The UN report states that approximately 495,000 people (20% of Gaza’s population) are already facing starvation, and 96% of Gaza’s population is experiencing high levels of food insecurity. In addition, 41% of the population, or 876,000 people, will face “emergency” levels of hunger from November to the end of April.

Hopes for a ceasefire appear to have vanished as Israel’s assault on Gaza and Lebanon continues with deadly strikes, killing hundreds more almost every day and displacing countless others. Hamas reportedly received a proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar for a short-term truce in Gaza, but rejected it because it does not include a permanent cessation of aggression, nor does it involve the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip.

According to the Israeli military’s own figures, just over 26,399 tonnes of food aid entered all of Gaza in October, compared with nearly 76,000 in September and an average of 95,513 tonnes allowed each month this year, and not all of these shipments they arrived people inside. More than 500 trucks remain stuck on the Gaza side of the border, where the UN says it has difficulty retrieving cargo because of Israeli military operations, lawlessness and other obstacles.

The Israeli Parliament’s decision on October 28 to ban the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) has further impeded the delivery of critical aid to Gaza as Israel continues its assault there. Set to take effect in the next three months, the ban is part of an effort by Israeli officials to dismantle it after the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas. Israel accused 19 UNRWA workers of involvement in the attacks; a UN investigation concluded that 10 were involved and fired those people, but found no evidence to support the other cases. Gaza humanitarian crisis worsens due to UNRWA ban.

Cindly McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Program, said: “It is time for world leaders to come together and work with us to reach the millions at risk of hunger, offering diplomatic solutions to conflicts, using their influence to allow humanitarian aid. work safely and mobilize the resources and partnerships needed to stop global hunger in its tracks.” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu echoed these sentiments: “If we are to save lives and prevent acute hunger and malnutrition, we urgently need a humanitarian ceasefire and to restore access and availability of highly nutritious food, including the reactivation of local food production. .”

World leaders must prioritize conflict resolution to protect the most vulnerable populations on the brink of starvation. We need long-term stability and food security. Peace is a prerequisite for food security. Access to nutritious food is not only a basic need, it is a fundamental human right.

In conclusion, we as individuals also have the responsibility. We should not ignore the sight of hunger whenever we see it. In such trying times, the words of Mother Teresa should guide us: “If you cannot feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

The writer is a retired Indian diplomat and was formerly Consul General in New York. The opinions expressed in the piece above are personal and solely the author’s. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Firstpost.