Mahatma Gandhi had said that there are people in the world who are so hungry that God can only appear to them in the form of bread. Hunger is one of humanity’s worst enemies and has driven millions to despair; it also provided the subject for powerful literature, a notable example being the classic “Les Miserables” by French writer Victor Hugo.

In her article “Let Them Eat Bread: The Theft That Inspired Les Misérables” published in “NPR” (National Public Radio) in March 2017, Nina Martyris wrote:

“On a freezing day in February 1846, the French writer Victor Hugo was on his way to work when he saw something that touched him deeply. A thin young man, with a loaf of bread under his arm, was taken away by the police. Passersby said he was arrested for stealing the bread. He was dressed in mud-splattered clothes, his bare feet stuffed into clogs, his ankles wrapped in bloody rags instead of stockings.

“It made me think,” Hugo writes. “The man was no longer a man in my eyes but the specter of misery, of poverty.” In his novel, Hugo describes the family’s situation in a few short lines: “A very hard winter arrived. Jean didn’t have a job. The family had no bread. Literally no bread. Seven children!

Jean Valjean is sentenced to five years of forced labor for stealing a loaf of bread! He attempted to escape four times, and each time his sentence was extended by three years; he also received an additional two years for once resisting recapture during his second escape. After nineteen years in prison, he was released, but the law required him to carry a yellow passport indicating that he was an ex-convict, an outcast. Hugo uses this bread to attack society’s criminal indifference to poverty and hunger and to highlight the injustice of the penal system.

“Les Misérables” should have awakened the conscience of humanity, but one must wonder if it succeeded. As former US President Dwight Eisenhower said: “Every weapon manufactured, every warship launched, every rocket fired means, ultimately, theft from those who are hungry and unfed, those who have cold and unclothed. »

As the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps says: “Hunger and malnutrition constitute the greatest health risks in the world – more serious than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Globally, food deprivation still claims the life of a child every three seconds, and almost half of all deaths among children under five are attributable to undernutrition. Eveyone.org, another charity, says: “Every hour of every day, 300 children die from malnutrition. It is an underlying cause of more than a third of child deaths, or 2.6 million each year.

There is an urgent need to act on a war footing against such a situation.

Unfortunately, the global famine situation is only getting worse. According to a United Nations report released on October 31, 2024, acute food insecurity is expected to increase in scale and severity in 22 countries and territories. The report titled “Hunger Hotspots: FAO-WFP Early Warnings on Acute Food Insecurity” – published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) calls for urgent humanitarian action to save lives. and livelihoods and prevent famine and death in hotspot areas where acute hunger is likely to worsen between November 2024 and May 2025.

According to the report, Palestine, Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali remain at the highest alert level and require the most urgent attention. Conflict is the main cause of hunger in all these regions. In all of the most concerning hotspots, communities are already facing or threatened with famine or facing catastrophic conditions of acute food insecurity. Chad, Lebanon, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen are hotspots of great concern, with large numbers of people facing critical acute food insecurity, coupled with factors that are worsening and expected to further intensify life-threatening conditions. in the coming months. It warns that the La Niña weather phenomenon could impact the climate until March 2025, threatening fragile food systems in already vulnerable regions.

The report also warns that the spread of conflict, particularly in the Middle East, coupled with climate and economic stressors, is pushing millions of people to the brink of famine. The report highlights the regional fallout from the crisis in Gaza, which plunged Lebanon into conflict.

The need to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza cannot be overstated. The official death toll in Gaza now stands at 43,259 people, with 101,827 injured, but the actual number of casualties is believed to be much higher. Furthermore, if people do not die under Israeli bombing, they will die of hunger. The UN report says that around 495,000 people (20 percent of Gaza’s population) are already facing famine, and that 96 percent of Gaza’s population faces high levels of food insecurity . Additionally, 41 percent of the population, or 876,000 people, will face “emergency” levels of hunger from November to the end of April.

Hopes for a ceasefire appear to have faded as the Israeli assault on Gaza and Lebanon continues with deadly strikes, killing hundreds more almost every day and displacing countless others. Hamas reportedly received a proposal from Egyptian and Qatari mediators for a short-term truce in Gaza, but rejected it because it does not include a permanent cessation of aggression, nor the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the strip. from Gaza.

According to the Israeli military’s own figures, just over 26,399 tonnes of food aid entered Gaza as a whole in October, up from almost 76,000 in September and an average of 95,513 tonnes authorized each month this year, and all these expeditions have not reached people inside. More than 500 trucks remain stuck on the Gaza side of the border, where the UN says it is having difficulty recovering cargo due to Israeli military operations, lawlessness and other obstacles.

The Israeli Parliament’s October 28 decision to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) has further hampered the delivery of essential aid to Gaza as Israel continues its attack there -down. The ban, which is expected to take effect over the next three months, is part of an effort by Israeli officials to dismantle it following Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel has charged 19 UNRWA employees to be involved in the attacks; a UN investigation concluded that 10 people may have been involved and fired, but it found no evidence to support the other cases. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening due to the ban on UNRWA.

Cindly McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Program, said: “It is time for world leaders to step up and work with us to reach the millions of people at risk of famine, providing diplomatic solutions to conflicts, using their influence to enable humanitarians to work safely and mobilize the resources and partnerships needed to end world hunger. FAO Director-General QU Dongyu echoed these sentiments: “If we want to save lives and prevent acute hunger and malnutrition, we urgently need a humanitarian ceasefire and restore access and availability of highly nutritious foods, including by reactivating local food production. .”

World leaders must prioritize conflict resolution to protect the most vulnerable populations on the brink of famine. We need longer-term stability and food security. Peace is a prerequisite for food security. Access to nutritious food is not just a basic need: it is a basic human right.

In conclusion, we as individuals also have a responsibility. We should not ignore hunger whenever we see it. In these difficult times, the words of Mother Teresa should guide us: “If you can’t feed a hundred people, feed just one. »

The writer is a retired Indian diplomat and had previously served as Consul General in New York. The opinions expressed in the article above are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Firstpost.