July 03, 2009

Pushpa lives with her ailing in-laws, five children and her husband in a crowded slum in east Delhi.Pushpa's husband earns about $10 a month selling herbal medicine - so several days a month, the family has to go to bed hungry.Two of her five children have been in and out of hospitals for severe malnutrition.In the heart of Delhi, families such as Pushpa's are registered with the government and have been issued identity cards that entitle them to subsidised rice.

But they rarely get their share.Pushpa is angry."I voted this government into power but to no avail," she says. "No one is taking care of us."We even have our identity cards that entitle us to subsidised food. The government has promised us cheap rice and wheat, but we get nothing."My children are dying of hunger. How can I feed them? They keep falling sick.