I Never Approved My Tax Dollars to do That: Steal Food

I have a problem when my tax dollars end up supporting the military expenditures of corrupt governments. I have an even bigger problem when those funds appropriated toward supplying the impoverished with sufficient food are instead used to fatten up already stocky politicians. And of course used to pad their pockets.

India is experiencing the “biggest food heist” in its history. One in five adults are malnourished, as are half of children under the age of five. According to Bloomberg News, over $14.5 billion dollars in food has disappeared within the past 10 years – money intended to feed some of the approximately 900 million Indians who consume less than the daily “government-recommended” minimum. 

This map compares overall population hunger levels across the globe in 2011. Although the brackets are fairly wide (India sits in the 20-34% range), it does illustrate that even economically sound countries (CHINA) have high percentages of higher among their population. As expected, Africa has the highest levels of hunger of any continent. 

photo credit: http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/word-hunger-map.png?w=600&h=420

Despite a food and storage budget upwards of $13 billion, the vast stockpiles of grain are not distributed to the needy. CBI leading officer Javeed Ahmad described the lucrative scam to Bloomberg Business Week:  

“…Often using dummy firms, local officials paid the national government the subsidized prices for the food—as little as one-tenth of the market rate—then sold it to private companies at market prices and pocketed the difference. Poor Indians seeking rations at their local Fair Price Shop would find a locked door, Ahmad says, or be told to “buzz off” and return the following month. By 2007, this was standard practice in at least 30 of Uttar Pradesh’s 71 districts…”(http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-06/indias-poor-starve-as-politicians-steal-their-food)

In 2010, the United States allocated $41 million dollars worth of foreign grants and credits to India. (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/foreign_commerce_aid/foreign_aid.html).

Compared to other expenditures I have investigated, the $41 million is actually a lower figure than I had anticipated. Therefore I’m finding it difficult to view India with an “all-or-nothing” approach I had taken with regards to other abused aid, such the poaching of elephants in Africa. I do however think the United States should threaten to withhold funds and put increased pressure on the Indian government to combat the corruption. If United States rejects any proposed involvement in going after the corruption, which may be a good thing in itself, then an international governing body must finally speak up for India’s people. It is grossly disgusting that a government would withhold so much of a basic necessity from its people. It does not even try to disguise it either. The stockpiles just sit, tantalizing and mocking the hungry: salt in an open wound.

India's rapidly growing urban population is only going to exacerbate the already existing food shortages. Unless something is done to implicate and stop the Indian government, the country will face an even larger problem in failing to feed its population. 

photo credit: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article32764.html

I never approved my tax dollars to do that.