Human Rights to Adequate Food

Access to adequate food is fundamental for the right to adequate food. Accessed food must be adequate in terms of quality and quantity. Access to adequate food has been defined in terms of intake of nutrients, calories and proteins. Hunger and malnutrition are the consequences of lacking access to adequate food. The consequences of food deprivation can be diagnosed with considerable medical precision. Malnutrition need not be under nutrition (lacking quantity of food intake), but could also be due to lack of quality food. Both are often the results of powerty and discrimination, in particular gender-based discrimination. Precise indicators for food intake and malnutrition are less important for the description of the right to food than might be expected. A breach of a state's obligations can normally be detected without counting calorie intake or having the victimized person go through a medical examination. Adequate food may also refer to socioeconomic and cultural circumstances. Similar to an adequate standard of living, adequate food means different things under different cultural circumstances. Nevertheless, there is minimum standard universal under all (cultural and other) circumstances. This minimum has even been spelled out in article 11(2) of ICESCR as the fundamental right to freedom from hunger. The Right to Food is a guaranteed Fundamental Right, enforceable by the virtue of the Constitutional remedy provided under Article 32 of the Constitution. The requirements of the Indian Constitution mentioned above are consonant with the obligations of the State under the 1966 International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights to which India is a party. The Covenant, in Article 11, expressly recognizes the right of each individual to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food. There are definitions for hunger and malnutrition in terms of intake of nutrients. It is possible to establish minimum dietary requirements as well as a minimum income necessary to prevent hunger and malnutrition and deprivations of other basic needs for deprived groups. This has often been called the "absolute poverty line" or "basic needs line," whereas the income necessary for an adequate standard of living according to article 11(1) is called the "relative poverty line." Absence of absolute poverty can be seen as the minimum standard under the right to an adequate standard of living. In terms of income the relative poverty line is normally defined as a percentage of average per capita income in the country. Most social scientists would agree that anything below 40 percent of per capita income is generally seen as relative deprivation. Therefore the 40 percent mark would be called the "relative poverty line" or "adequacy line."