FAMINE

Famine means scarcity of foodstuffs. There are many causes of famine. One of the causes is drought. If there is no rainfall or little rainfall, nothing can do grown in the fields and there is a famine. Another cause of famine is excessive rainfall or a flood. Excessive rainfall or floods destroy crops, and there is a famine. Excessive rainfall is as bad as no rainfall. Sometimes, there is a famine due to war, hail or pestilence. Sometimes, there may be a famine when the foodstuffs of an area are sent to other areas.

A famine causes a lot of suffering to the people. The people do not get food and have to starve. Some people get insufficient food and fall a victim to diseases. They cannot go out for work and get little to eat. Some people eat grass, roots, leaves and other things. This makes them a prey to several diseases. People sell even their children. People leave their property for a morsel of food. Some people sell even their children. People eat the rubbish thrown in dustbins. Sometimes, there is a flight between a hungry person and street dog for piece of thrown-away food. A famine stricken area presents a ghastly scene of misery and suffering.

It is the duty of the government to take preventive measures against famine. Floods should be controlled. This can be done by building dams across rivers. Canals, wells and tanks should be dug to supply water in case of the failure of rains. Crops in an area of scarcity should not be allowed to be taken to other places. Peasants should be taught improved taken to other places. Peasants should be taught improved modes of agriculture and the use of good seeds and fertilizers. Steps should be taken to increase the yield of the land. Roads and railways should be built in different parts of the country. In case of actual famine, foodstuffs should be brought quickly from other places and distributed freely or at a nominal rate. Relief societies and rich persons also should help famine stricken people.

Nowadays famine is not as terrible as in the older days. In the older days, there were few good roads and few means of swift transportation. Food-stuffs could not be quickly transported from one place to another. As a result of a famine hundreds of people died of starvation and disease. Nowadays there are good roads and swift means of transportation. Foodstuffs can be quickly sent from one place to another. In case of actual famine, prompt relief is offered by the government and relief societies. So many places where walking was only way to take foods to their home has changed transportation facility that developed made it easy for them with which foods and crops started entering the place and developed those places.

Nowadays famine is not the result of the scarcity of foodstuff, but is the result of lack of purchasing power. The people do not have money to buy foodstuffs which are sold at a high rate. So, it is the duty of the government to formulate plans to increase production and raise the income of the people. Until and unless the income of the people is raised families cannot be stopped. We do not hear of famines in rich countries but only in poor and under-developed countries. Under-developed countries should have plans to drive off poverty and raise the living standard of the people. It is the poor people who are hit by famine; rich people have no fear of famine because they are fulfilled with everything they want.