Hunger is a state in which a person is unable to eat sufficient food for a continuous period and due to this, he cannot meet basic nutritional needs. Hunger has seasonal and chronic dimensions.
Seasonal Hunger Seasonal hunger is mainly related to food harvesting cycles. Here are few points below:
(i) In a rural area, we mainly witness this due to seasonal nature of agricultural activities and lack of casual labour in urban areas.
(ii) The existence of this hunger is mainly when someone is unable to get work for the entire year, e.g., construction labours get unemployed due to monsoons.
(iii) This mainly happens in certain community or society at only during particular times of the year and the pattern continues year after year.
Chronic Hunger is mainly related to malnutrition caused due to less intake of enough energy which is necessary to lead normal active life.
(i) This happens due to lack of good diet in terms of quantity and quality.
(ii) This is mainly seen in rural areas where people cannot afford quality food due to low income. They even cannot buy food for survival.
(iii) This is also due to less earning capacity as people lack the opportunity to be educated enough and gain skills. If this hunger continues, it leads to death.