Despite economic slowdown, India still can meet goals on poverty, hunger

The ongoing slowdown in economic growth could increase the need for government programmes to alleviate poverty and hunger

Growing up in the late 1980s at the base of the Niyamgiri hill range, home to the animist, scheduled Dongria Kondh tribe, Dashrath Majhi was familiar with hunger.

His family would eat millets as a staple and, during frequent shortfalls, his mother would feed the children powdered mango seeds and bamboo “rice”, which are really seeds collected from the flowering bamboo grass.

Today, Majhi, 45, has been working at an alumina refinery for longer than a decade, where he supervises construction works and takes home a salary more than four times the Rs 220 daily