India: Three starvation deaths in one family in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Mr. Vishambhar, a resident of the village of Sankarpur, district Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh lost his job as a weaver as a result of a slow down in the industry. His family has no land or source of income. Despite being poor he was not given a red ration card and identified as a beneficiary of highly subsidised food grains from the state social programmes. Due to the lack of income and food his wife and two children aged two months and sixteen years died of starvation. Mr. Vishambhar and his surviving children continue to be excluded from the social programmes and face starvation.

An international action is urgently needed to fulfil the right to food of Mr. Vishambhar’s family and other weavers in Varanasi. Please write polite letters to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh with a copy to the Prime Minister of India and the National Commission of Human Rights, requesting them to meet their obligations under the human right to food and guarantee access to food to this family and others in a similar situation in Varanasi.