Contents: Introduction. I. The global dimension of hunger: 1. "Poverty - power" amidst deprivations. 2. Right to land and food. 3. Poverty and maladministration. 4. Poverty and globalization. 5. Hunger the greatest social crime. II. The Indian scenario: 6. Famines and hunger in Orissa. 7. Hunger in Palamu (Jharkhand, India). 8. Poverty in Orissa. 9. Hunger deaths in Keonjhar (Orissa, India). 10. Measures taken by Government of Orissa. 11. Health hazards and death. III. Africa, The Sorrow of Civilisation: 12. Africa - a robbed continent. 13. Eliminating ideological stagnation. 14. Poverty in Africa. 15. Sufferings of Somalia. 16. Rwanda's economic massacre. 17. Zimbabwe grew out of dust. IV. Latin America and Russia; Victims of Globalisation: 18. Poverty in Latin America. 19. The perils of Peru. 20. Poverty in Former Soviet Union. V. Epilogue: 21. Epilogue. Bibliography. Index.

"Even a God-fearing man like Mahatma Gandhi was so much depressed to observe the poverty-stricken world that he said: God can never appear before the starving man except in shape of bread. The statement clarifies that for a hungry man no sermon, no ideology, no prophecy could work.

Hunger and poverty are both sides of a coin. They are synonymous. It is difficult to enumerate who stands first between the two. Whether poverty first or hunger first. Eradication of hunger goes neck and neck with eradication of poverty. Author has pointed out in this book about the plight of some of hungry zones of the world with an objective to create 'human consciousness' against hunger and poverty.

The poor cannot get access to food simply through stabilized economy or through market economy at the national level. It could be achieved through balanced increase of food production, equitable distribution of food and ownership rights of the poor over the instruments of production. These important aspects of economy should be inducted to the economic science which only can uphold the right for food for the hungry." (jacket)