Sakshi Chaurasia
Jammu and Kashmir is changing drastically in different national and international parameters and became number one in several indices.
This UT sees dramatic changes in the progress of the stare and touches several milestones among all the states of India now. And again, the UT wrote a new story in the context of the food safety index to secure the first position in the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) in the third consecutive year 2023 among all UT and states.
This index was released by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on the occasion of World Food Safety Day. It will help to provide safe and nutritious food to every citizen.
In India, the State Food Safety Index (SFSI) was started from 2018-19 with the aim of creating a competitive and positive change in the food safety ecosystem in the country. The index is developed to measure the performance of states on five parameters of Food Safety such as Human Resources and Institutional Data, Compliance, Food Testing-Infrastructure and Surveillance, Training & Capacity Building and Consumer Empowerment. Number one rank of Jammu and Kashmir tells its own story of success.
There have been an extensive number of inspections of food premises carried out and a large number of enforcement samples lifted to ensure food safety compliance. There has been a prompt and efficient resolution of consumer grievances, ensuring timely disposal and addressing concerns effectively. For the development of any society, human resource is an important element and the development comes through hard labour. Any standardised representation or portrayal of facts or numbers that may be produced, gathered, processed, conveyed, or understood is referred to as institutional data. To ensure that the food is safe to eat, food testing and analysis are crucial components of the food safety ecosystem. This entails developing a network of laboratories for food testing, guaranteeing the standard of food testing, investing in human resources, conducting surveillance operations, and educating consumers. Building capacity is the process of enhancing the knowledge, talents, procedures, and resources that enable and communities to endure, adapt, and prosper in a world that is undergoing rapid change. Consumer empowerment motivates workers to believe in their abilities. It can avoid seeking approval for their judgments when they are confident in their ability to help customers.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reports that significant volumes of food are produced but not consumed by humans and this has significant negative effects on the environment, society, and economy. According to some reports, as the population has increased, more people are eating and throwing away food than ever before. Currently, over seven lakh people per year pass away from resistant infections and by 2050, such illnesses may kill more people than cancer. It is notable that the chiefs of G8 states resolved to act with the urgency and scale necessary to ensure sustainable global food security in a joint statement in July 2009. People frequently lack access to food, not because it is scarce on the market, but rather because it is restricted. Various academics have forth various food security indices.
Four metrics, including calories, poverty, dietary, variety, and subjective variables, were suggested by some scientists. Five parameters, including food sufficiency, nutrient adequacy, cultural acceptability, safety, certainty, and stability, were promoted by other scientists. Some other Food security indicators are the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS), and the Coping Strategy Index (CSI) were noted by other studies. According to scientists, the availability, access, and consumption of food are the three pillars around which food security is predicated. This is actually a hierarchical classification because access to food is dependent on availability, which is necessary but insufficient to ensure access, and effective utilisation, which refers to how people and households use the food to which they have access.
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) created the Global Hunger Index (GHI), which uses three equally weighted variables to assess hunger: undernourishment, underweight, and child mortality. A composite statistic called the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) aims to track national progress toward food security. Since 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has produced it annually, and it includes more than 100 nations. These nations are meant to represent regional variety, economic prominence, and population density.
Therefore, FSSAI started the SFSI ranking into three categories such as large states, small states and union territories (UTs). In 2023, Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu secured the top positions in large states. Goa, Manipur and Sikkim secured the top position in the category of small states and in UTs’ category Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh secured the top position. Although, in previous years Delhi, Chandigarh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands are among the top states in UTs. Interestingly, in the Human Resource and Institutional Data, Jammu and Kashmir scored 10.5 percentage marks less than Ladakh. Andaman and Nicobar. Hence, after the abrogation of article 370, Jammu and Kashmir has improved well and made a new mark in the development of state.
(The writer is a student of P.G. Diploma in Digital Media, Indian Institute of Mass
Communication (IIMC), Jammu).
