Sri Lanka is going through serious food crisis. Poor harvest, rising global food price, and domestic conflict have contributed to serious food shortage in the country. According to the latest poverty assessment of the government, out of the 20 million people of the country, only half are getting the minimum daily calories at present.
IRINNEWS reports:
“An average poor person in Sri Lanka receives only 1,696 kcal per day while a non-poor person receives 2,194 kcal,” according to the Department of Census and Statistics, in a report entitled Poverty Indicators - Household Income and Expenditure Survey - 2006/07, released in March 2008.
Officials at the UN World Food Programme (WFP) told IRIN that high levels of under-nourishment prevail, especially in rural areas and those regions in the north and east affected by more than 25 years of conflict.
“The highest rates of under-nourishment are in the north and east as well as parts of the dry zone towards the centre of the island,” Jean-Yves Lequime, the deputy head of WFP in Sri Lanka, said.
For Sri Lankan children, the condition is even worse. Sri Lanka has a high child underweight rate. According to UNICEF, 14% of the Sri Lankan children under five years of age are suffering from underweight but the districts in the conflict zone have higher child underweight rates.
Though a small country, Sri Lanka has the highest literacy rate among all the countries of South Asia. Had there been no conflict, the country would have developed very quickly. For now, Sri Lankan government should focus on stopping the food crisis. If proper steps are not taken now, it would agitate the normal people which might result into country wide political unstability. I hope and pray, that the conflict ends and peace prevails in Sri Lanka.
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