Browsing by Subject "Hunger"

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Open Access
Food, Fetish and Public Display: A Sociological Analysis of the Performativity Involved in Consumption of Food
(University of North Bengal, 2024-03-31) Sinha, Titasha
Food is basic, natural and private. But when it comes to “eating” it essentially intertwines the notion of “performance” as eating is the “act of having food”. It involves an attention towards the performance of the act while eating. Now when this act of having food takes place in “public” the performative notion provides a space for the individual agency to translate this mundane, bodily need of having food to the act of consuming food in turn relegating it to an altogether different status. The sites of eating transform into a single site that becomes the theatre of “action”, the action is that of consumption. The social categories that previously dictated food choices, cooking and eating were largely found to be dictated by the social categories of caste, religion, culture etc. Contemporary urban settings have emphasised the performative dimension of all the activities related to food and eating. The foci of food are seen to traverse between hunger, appetite and “appetite appeal” making people wander in a state of trance to figure out the primacy between “real” and “symbolic” values attached to food. Analysing Goffman’s concept of performance as a theoretical framework together with the concept of panopticon surveillance of Foucault we have tried in this paper to develop a deeper understanding of the theme. Among 70 Hindu, educated, urban, middle and upper-middle class youth in Kolkata questionnaire as part of the quantitative study as well as qualitative method of observation was employed to figure out and analyse the contemporary situation. Participants were found to be strongly motivated by the “performative” dimension involved in food and its related activities. Tendencies of fantasising about food by performing the act of eating are popularised among people. Food has been treated as a fetish that is manifested with the symbolic association of food that goes well beyond the realm of hunger to the realm of “social appetite”.
Open Access
Significance of TPDS in the Light of Indian Legal Regime - An Overview
(University of North Bengal, 2021-09) Sarkar, Pratim
Poverty, hunger and food insecurity omnipresent reality in India. Government has implemented many programmes, schemes and policies to control poverty and foster development. Right to food is a basic human right and deeply linked with right to live with dignity. Articles 21, 39(a) & 27 of the Constitution mandates the states to provide adequate means of livelihood, raise the level of nutrition and standard of living of the citizens. As per the data report of national and international agencies, a large number people in India are suffering from malnutrition, undernourished, underweight and stunted. In many cases Indian Judiciary has taken serious concern about the socioeconomic offences. Targeted Public Distribution System is a major and wide-ranging poverty alleviation programme in India that leads towards the socio-economic welfare of the people. Essential foodstuffs like rice, sugar, wheat, kerosene and other goods are supplied to people through this system at a cheap price. Though it is commendable step to ensure food security to the needy people but could not achieve its desired results because of widespread corruption, leakage of funds and other reasons.