Theories of famines

On the other hand, inequalities in wealth or ability to exit food shortage areas sufficiently explain such phenomena.

[2] It has been suggested by Amartya Sen in his book Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation that the causal mechanism for precipitating starvation includes many variables other than just the decline of food availability such as the inability of an agricultural laborer to exchange his primary entitlement, i.e. labor for rice, when his employment became erratic or was completely eliminated.

Sen further argues that the situation was aggravated by the British government's suspension of trade in rice and grains among various Indian provinces.

[4][page needed] Olivier Rubin's review of the evidence disagrees with Sen; after examining the cases of post-Independence India, Niger, and Malawi, he finds that "democracy is no panacea against famine."

[5] On the other hand, Andrew Banik's study Starvation and India's democracy affirms Sen's thesis, but indicates that while democracy has been able to prevent famines in India, it has not been sufficient to avoid severe under-nutrition and starvation deaths, which Banik calls a 'silent emergency' in the country.