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	Growing child labour in Indian cities by Anuradha Nagaraj Unicef, Thomson Reuters Foundation India   March 2017   Urban India is employing an increasing number of children - many under nine years of age - in producing everything from pickles to fireworks, working in tourism and labouring on building sites, a U.N. children''s agency report and campaigners said.   The State of Child Workers in India report by UNICEF, based on the latest Indian census data, says the proportion of child workers in the 5-9 year age group jumped to 24.8 percent in 2011 from 14.6 percent in 2001.   The same decade also saw an increase in urban child labourers to 2.9 from 2.1 percent of the child population.   While across India there was a drop in child workers, to 3.9 percent in 2011 from 5 percent in 2001, campaigners say the problem could be much bigger, with data failing to capture the extent of child labour in the home.   Andrew Sesuraj of non-profit Tamil Nadu Child Rights Observatory said most of the information available only takes into account those children working in the organised sector.   "Girls doing domestic work, children in agriculture, those working with their parents are totally discounted... What we see is just the tip of the iceberg," said Sesuraj.   Helen R. Sekar, co-author of the report which was published this month, said that most child workers are migrants with no home address and who do not figure on any government list.   "Investigators would not come across these children when they visit homes for data collection," said Sekar.   Falling agricultural returns, landlessness and few work opportunities are also forcing rural families into cities, putting their children at greater risk, say campaigners.   The analysis shows that although education policies have led to a rise in literate children, inadequate family earnings still compel them to work and supplement household incomes.   Komal Ganotra of non-profit Child Rights and You said there is an increase in work being outsourced to Indian homes and wages being paid per piece produced.   "It is motivating parents to employ their children to earn more. The number of children working with their families and dropping out of school is increasing," said Ganotra.   The report cites the embroidery, shoe, carpet, garment, leather and lock-making industries as examples where "invisible children" work with their parents to increase household income.   Produced in collaboration with the V.V. Giri National Institute of Labour, the report identifies 32 child labour hotspots, with the cities of Hyderabad and Jalore topping the list with 67,366 and 50,440 child workers respectively.   The report says that while the growth of child workers is decreasing at 2 percent annually, at that rate it will take almost 200 years for India to completely eradicate child labour.   It calls for better implementation of education policies, including better schooling for migrant children to reduce cases of child labour.   "We are looking at the report and will come up with suggestions accordingly," said Stuti Kacker, head of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.   http://tmsnrt.rs/2mGWBXw http://unicef.in/Whatwedo/21/Child-Labour Visit the related web page
	Humankind’s ability to feed itself, now in Jeopardy by FAO, WFP, agencies   March 2017   The number of people facing severe hunger worldwide has surpassed 100 million and will grow if humanitarian aid is not paired with more support for farmers, a senior United Nations official said.   Dominique Burgeon, director of the emergency division at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said latest studies showed 102 million people faced acute malnutrition - meaning they were on the brink of starvation - in 2016, up almost 30 percent from 80 million in 2015.   The hike was mainly driven by deepening crises in Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia, where conflict and drought have crippled food production, he said.   "Humanitarian assistance has kept many people alive so far but their food security situation has continued to deteriorate," Burgeon told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.   More investment is needed to help people feed themselves by farming crops and livestock, he added.   "We come with airplanes, we provide food assistance and we manage to keep them alive but we do not invest enough in the livelihood of these people," he said.   "We avoid them falling into famine but we are not good at taking them off the cliff, away from food insecurity."   The U.N. World Food Programme said last month more than 20 million people - greater than the population of Romania or Florida - risk dying from starvation within six months in four separate famines.   Wars in Yemen, northeastern Nigeria and South Sudan have devastated households and driven up prices, while a drought in east Africa has ruined the agricultural economy.   Famine was formally declared in February in parts of South Sudan, which has been mired in civil war since 2013.   In northeastern Nigeria, once a breadbasket for the country, a seven-year insurgency by Boko Haram militants has uprooted some 1.8 million people, forcing many to abandon their farms.   The government says it has clawed back most of the territory it lost to the jihadist group and tens of thousands of refugees are hoping to return to their crops, although security remains a concern.   Burgeon said the FAO had raised less than a third of the $20 million it needs within the next two weeks to support almost 2 million people in the upcoming planting season in Nigeria - an investment he said would save money in the future.   "If you don''t support those who want to return to their area to crop then you have to agree that you will have to provide massive aid assistance at least until the harvest in 2018, which is unbearable," he said.   Lack of funding was also hampering the agency''s response in Syria, where food production dropped to an all-time low in 2016, Burgeon said.   "A lot is going to food assistance and barely anything is going to help farmers who have decided to stay on their land," he said.   The soaring cost of seeds, fertilisers and tractor fuel was pushing many farmers to leave, making it more difficult to restart the economy once peace or stability returned, he added.   "What we need to do is to help them stay and crop their land and be there for the future," Burgeon said. "To survive is not enough."   http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/108-million-people-world-face-severe-food-insecuritysituation-worsening   * Access the report: http://bit.ly/2nU16RD   Feb 22, 2017   Mankind’s future ability to feed itself is in jeopardy due to intensifying pressures on natural resources, mounting inequality, and the fallout from a changing climate, warns a new United Nations’ report.   Though very real and significant progress in reducing global hunger has been achieved over the past 30 years, “expanding food production and economic growth have often come at a heavy cost to the natural environment,” says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report The Future of Food and Agriculture: Trends and Challenges, issued on Feb. 22, 2017.   “Almost one half of the forests that once covered the Earth are now gone. Groundwater sources are being depleted rapidly. Biodiversity has been deeply eroded.”   As a result, “planetary boundaries may well be surpassed, if current trends continue,” cautions FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva in his introduction to the report.   By 2050 humanity’s ranks will likely have grown to nearly 10 billion people. In a scenario with moderate economic growth, this population increase will push up global demand for agricultural products by 50 per cent over present levels, intensifying pressures on already-strained natural resources, The Future of Food and Agriculture projects.   At the same time, the report continues, greater numbers of people will be eating fewer cereals and larger amounts of meat, fruits, vegetables and processed food — a result of an ongoing global dietary transition that will further add to those pressures, driving more deforestation, land degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions.   Alongside these trends, the planet’s changing climate will throw up additional hurdles. “Climate change will affect every aspect of food production,” the report says. These include greater variability of precipitation and increases in the frequency of droughts and floods.   The core question raised by the new FAO report is whether, looking ahead, the world’s agriculture and food systems are capable of sustainably meeting the needs of a burgeoning global population.   The short answer? Yes, FAO says, the planet’s food systems are capable of producing enough food to do so, and in a sustainable way, but unlocking that potential – and ensuring that all of humanity benefits – will require “major transformations.”   According to the report, without a push to invest in and retool food systems, far too many people will still be hungry in 2030 — the year by which the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda has targeted the eradication of chronic food insecurity and malnutrition, the report warns.   “Without additional efforts to promote pro-poor development, reduce inequalities and protect vulnerable people, more than 600 million people would still be undernourished in 2030,” it says. In fact, the current rate of progress would not even be enough to eradicate hunger by 2050.   Where Will Our Food Come From?   Given the limited scope for expanding agriculture’s use of more land and water resources, the production increases needed to meet rising food demand will have to come mainly from improvements in productivity and resource-use efficiency, says FAO.   However there are worrying signs that yield growth is leveling off for major crops. Since the 1990s, average increases in the yields of maize, rice, and wheat at the global level generally run just over 1 percent per annum, the report notes.   To tackle these and the other challenges outlined in the report, “business-as-usual” is not an option, The Future of Food and Agriculture argues.   “Major transformations in agricultural systems, rural economies and natural resource management will be needed if we are to meet the multiple challenges before us and realize the full potential of food and agriculture to ensure a secure and healthy future for all people and the entire planet,” it says.   “High-input, resource-intensive farming systems, which have caused massive deforestation, water scarcities, soil depletion and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, cannot deliver sustainable food and agricultural production,” adds the report.   More With Less   The core challenge is to produce more with less, while preserving and enhancing the livelihoods of small-scale and family farmers, and ensuring access to food by the most vulnerable.   “For this, a twin-track approach is needed which combines investment in social protection, to immediately tackle undernourishment, and pro-poor investments in productive activities — especially agriculture and in rural economies — to sustainably increase income-earning opportunities of the poor. “   According to the UN body, the world will need to shift to more sustainable food systems which make more efficient use of land, water and other inputs and sharply reduce their use of fossil fuels, leading to a drastic cut of agricultural green-house gas emissions, greater conservation of biodiversity, and a reduction of waste.   This will necessitate more investment in agriculture and agri-food systems, as well as greater spending on research and development, the report says, to promote innovation, support sustainable production increases, and find better ways to cope with issues like water scarcity and climate change, it underlines.   Along with boosting production and resilience, equally critical will be creating food supply chains that better connect farmers in low- and middle-income countries to urban markets — along with measures which ensure access for consumers to nutritious and safe food at affordable prices, such as such as pricing policies and social protection programs, it says.   On this, Kostas Stamoulis, FAO Assistant Director General for Economics and Social Development, said a media briefing, when asked about the most important challenge of tomorrow regarding food and agriculture, said that it is climate change. “This demands change in practice of agriculture and developing agriculture that is more adaptable to climate change.”   Kostas Stamoulis and the other two authors of the report, Rob Vos, Director of the Agriculture Economics Development Division, and Lorenzo Bellu, Team Leader, Global Perspective Studies, organised on Feb. 21, a briefing session for the media to explain the key issues the new document incudes.   The FAO report identifies 15 trends and 10 challenges affecting the world’s food systems:   15 Trends:   A rapidly increasing world population marked by growth “hot spots,” urbanization, and aging; Diverse trends in economic growth, family incomes, agricultural investment, and economic inequality. Greatly increased competition for natural resources. Climate change. Plateauing agricultural productivity. Increased conflicts, crises and natural disasters. Persistent poverty, inequality and food insecurity. Dietary transition affecting nutrition and health.   Structural changes in economic systems and employment implications. Increased migration. Changing food systems and resulting impacts on farmers livelihoods. Persisting food losses and waste. New international governance mechanisms for responding to food and nutrition security issues. Changes in international financing for development.   10 Challenges:   Sustainably improving agricultural productivity to meet increasing demand. Ensuring a sustainable natural resource base. Addressing climate change and intensification of natural hazards. Eradicating extreme poverty and reducing inequality. Ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition. Making food systems more efficient, inclusive and resilient.   Improving income earning opportunities in rural areas and addressing the root causes of migration. Building resilience to protracted crises, disasters and conflicts. Preventing trans-boundary and emerging agriculture and food system threats. Addressing the need for coherent and effective national and international governance.   * http://www.fao.org/publications/fofa/en/ http://bit.ly/2lHC0UV Visit the related web page
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