Hunger In Our Neighborhoods: The Crisis We No Longer See

Walk through any city and you’ll notice how easy it is to look away. A man sits by the roadside eating plain rice from a newspaper sheet. A child at a red light taps the window, not asking for money, just food. Somewhere near a construction site, a woman shares a single packet of biscuits with her two children. None of this makes the news anymore. It’s too ordinary to shock us.
In a city like Delhi, where cafés spill over with food deliveries and late-night diners run past midnight, hunger has learned how to stay quiet. It doesn’t scream; it hides. It lives behind the metro stations, near garbage dumps, in the corners of markets that shut early. People walk past it every day — not because they don’t care, but because it has blended too seamlessly into the background of city life.

Here’s how we at Durga Sapatashti NGO, Dwarka are leading the charge with “No People Hungry” program →

1. The Invisible Hunger of Urban India
Urban hunger doesn’t always look like famine. It looks like a security guard skipping dinner to send money home. It looks like a rickshaw puller drinking tea for dinner after a day with no passengers. It looks like a child carrying an empty tiffin box to school. These are the silent faces of food insecurity — people working every day yet unable to afford enough to eat.

According to various urban food studies, millions of Indians in metropolitan areas live below the food security line. Delhi alone has thousands of homeless families and migrant laborers relying on free kitchens or leftovers to survive.

2. Why Hunger is Hidden?
Most of the times, hunger doesn’t scream. It just stays there: invisible, behind the traffic, behind the routine, behind the screens that keep us busy.
There’s also a certain psychological distance. The idea that “hunger happens elsewhere” allows comfort to coexist with crisis. When food delivery arrives in minutes and celebrations spill with abundance, it becomes harder to imagine that someone, just streets away, may be wondering where their next meal will come from.
This is not a moral failure alone; it’s also a gap in systems — in how cities distribute surplus food, manage waste, and support those who fall through the cracks of policy and privilege.

3. Local Efforts, Real Change
The solution doesn’t always begin with large-scale policies. Often, it starts with smaller, grounded acts of care. Local NGOs and community kitchens are showing that hunger can be fought right where it exists — within neighborhoods.

Initiatives like “No People Hungry” by Durga Saptashati NGO in Dwarka, Delhi, are built on that belief. We try to bridge excess and need by connecting donors, volunteers, and hungry individuals through organized food drives in Dwarka, community meals, and awareness programs.

Bottom Line

To bring change we don’t need grand gestures but everyday awareness and a willingness to contribute. To learn more about our “No People Hungry initiative” and how you can contribute to building a hunger-free community in Delhi, click here!