Shabana campaigns to free world of hunger

Shabana campaigns to free world of hunger

She has always been skilfully balancing her talent as an actress as
well as raising her voice for social causes. Now, Shabana Azmi will
lend her voice to attract the attention of the United Nation's (UN)
member states towards the undernourished people in India and other
countries during a 'hunger free' campaign on Tuesday in New York.

"Food is the most basic need of human beings. I want this to become
an emotive issue for all. I want them (UN officials) to stop thinking
about it in cold statistics and understand how they would feel if it
was their child, their spouse, their parent who had to go hungry. This
is not a new cause, neither an issue that you can look at in a vacuum,"
Shabana, who will be representing India as part of the campaign, told
IANS.

The UN has failed to fulfil the commitment it made 11 years ago, at
the World Food Summit - to halve 'hunger' by 2015, Shabana said.

At that time, there were 800 million hungry people across the globe.
Today, it has risen to 854 million, which is 17 percent of the world's
population.

"It really came as a shock to me that globally 25,000 people die
from hunger every day - meaning one person every three seconds. It is
equally shocking that this is not a burning issue for the world
leaders. They haven't even come near to meeting their goal to halve
world hunger by 2015. At the halfway point, hunger is getting worse,
not better. This is totally unacceptable," said Shabana.

The actress, who will also push the case of 'Mushar', one of India's
most disadvantaged groups in the caste hierarchy - the Dalits - will
join campaigners from around the world, including Hollywood Actor Tim
Meadows and Nigerian actress Hilda Dokubo.

When asked if she was aware of the Mushar community, she said, "I
have been involved with the anti-poverty agency 'ActionAid' for some
time now, and have campaigned for years on human rights issues, so the
issues aren't new to me. I'm aware of the discrimination, poverty and
starvation that marginalized communities in India are facing."

"Like many Indians, I am extremely concerned at how our outstanding
economic growth is by-passing millions of children, women and men of
our country. We are seeing urban poor and farming communities displaced
across India. Please click to read original article

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