Chennai: An ambitious roadmap has been drawn up by the Chennai-based M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) for achieving the goal of a hunger-free India by August 15, 2007, which marks the 60th anniversary of India's independence.

The road map, prepared in association with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), deals with methods of overcoming poverty-induced endemic hunger (mostly under-nutrition), micro-nutrient deficiencies and transient hunger resulting from drought, floods and cyclones.

The MSSRF-WFP strategy involves bringing about convergence and synergy among all ongoing food security programmes and involving grass-root democratic institutions in implementation, says Dr M S Swaminathan, renowned agro-scientist and founder director of MSSRF.

"The whole idea is to convert the concept of food as a basic human right into reality," Swaminathan said, adding that MSSRF would be releasing an atlas describing the status of sustainability of food security in different states of the country later this year.

The hunger-free India road map also envisages enlarging the concept of "Food for Work" with a view to making it a powerful instrument for social capital development through the inclusion of a wide range of skilled work in such programmes.

The most important agenda in the road map is setting up of a National Security Trust with an initial grain allocation of 10 million tonnes for the purpose of providing food grains to local bodies and civil society organisations for carrying out location-specific and felt-need based developmental work.

"The major aim of such a trust would be to provide small allocations of food grains for addressing important tasks in the major hunger and hydrologic hot spots of our country," says Swaminathan.

It would initiate the setting up of community food banks in remote areas often inaccessible during monsoon seasons, he said.

The hunger free India strategy also involves the setting up of consultative groups for food and nutrition security at various levels ranging from local to national, he said, adding that such groups could help to optimise the benefits from the available financial and human resources and fill critical gaps in ongoing efforts.

PTI