This book documents many painful stories ofliving with chronic, hopeless hunger; the anguish of not being able to feed oneself or one's loved ones; the impact of
prolonged deprivation and recurring uncertainty about food availability; the loss of dignity in securing food hrough foraging and begging; the desperation of debt
bondage and low end, humilating and exploitive, highly underpaid work; and the sacrifice of other survival needs like medicine. It attempts to understand these through listening to the experiences as recounted by destitute persons from intensely food insecure social groups themselves - specifically aged people without care givers, single women headed households, and adults with disability - in villages in Orissa, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.