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FAMINE CAN
HAPPEN IN
GOOD HARVESTS
ENTITLEMENT THEORY
I
ndian economist Amartya Sen
grew up during the Great
Bengal famine of 1943. He was
only nine years old when a man
arrived in his school who hadn’t
eaten in 40 days. Prior to this
meeting, Sen had been unaware of
the suffering that was taking place
in his region. None of his family, nor
his friends’ families, were affected.
Even at this young age, Sen was
shocked at the class-based nature
of the suffering. Almost 40 years
later, the memory of the Bengal
famine drove Sen to research and
write about the subject in Poverty
and Famines: An Essay on
Entitlement and Deprivation in- Sen concluded that, contrary
to popular belief, famine is not
caused primarily by a shortage of
food. Bad harvests, droughts, or
reductions of food imports are
often contributing factors, but a
more important factor is the way
the food is distributed.
Entitlement
An absolute scarcity of food is very
rare; it is far more common for food
supplies to be unavailable to those
who need them the most. Sen
termed the bundles of goods and
services that individuals haveIN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Growth and developmentKEY THINKER
Amartya Sen (1933– )BEFORE
1798 Thomas Malthus
concludes that an increasing
population will lead to famine
and death in An Essay on the
Principle of Population.1960s The commonly held
view is that famine is due to
a decline in food availability.AFTER
2001 British economist
Stephen Devereux argues that
entitlement theory misses the
political causes of famine.2009 Norwegian academic
Dan Banik publishes
Starvation and India’s
Democracy, showing how
starvation and undernutrition
can still occur despite a
functioning democracy.Families exchange their
labor for money, with which
they buy food to survive.Famine can happen
in good harvests.If there is a change in the
price of their labor or food...... and wages become too low
to buy the minimum amount
of food a family needs...... the family will starve,
even if plenty of food
is being produced.