On August 23, 2005, Koppoli Chenna Krishnamma, a landless woman agricultural labourer in Goturu village, Kadapa district; Andhra Pradesh, India, died from starvation at 30 after months of severe hunger and a short and fatal illness. According to her husband Pedagangulaiah, the family had struggled for a prolonged period to survive and had led a hand-to-mouth existence on a daily basis. Due to draught conditions the family was unable to find work. Alternative employment was also missing.
State authorities failed to properly implement various social assistance programmes in the area. Goturu is not the only village where the failure of Andhra Pradesh to secure the villagers’ means of subsistence and to implement existing social assistance programmes lead to starvations deaths: Some of them were documented by FIAN, most of them went unrecorded.
The families of the starvation victims and many people in the affected villages continue to live in dreadful poverty suffering starvation-prone illnesses. Charity is no lasting solution for hundreds of villages. National and international pressure is necessary to get the state to act.
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