Starvation in Jharkhand

Exactly a year ago, 11-year-old Santoshi Kumari of Simdega died of starvation while asking her mother for rice. Her family’s ration card was cancelled for not being linked to Aadhaar. In the last one year, at least 15 people have died due to hunger. Of these, six were Adivasis, four Dalits, and five hailing from backward castes. All these deaths happened due to the denial of security pensions or rations from the public distribution system (PDS).

Of these, five families did not even have a ration card and five families faced sustained issues with the Aadhaar-based biometric authentication (ABBA), leading to denial of rations. In addition, six people were denied their social security pensions. In 10 cases, Aadhaar-related issues played a role in the hunger deaths.