Foodless Children

Recently I was watching a TV serial based on recent real-life incidents. In that episode, a child servant was shown eating the leftover food of their masters. This immediately reminded me of a very emotional moment in my childhood. While on an NCC camp tour during my school days, our train stopped at a station named 'Akola' in Rajasthan. It was the afternoon time around 3.00 PM. We all cadets had just finished our lunch, served by the Railway pantry. In those days, lunch used to be served on rectangular steel plates with pre-divided sections. The serving waiter took all the plates out of our coach and piled them in a heap on the platform. To my utter surprise, I could see lots of young children flocking toward those plates. Within seconds they started eating all the leftover chapattis and vegetables from the plates. Leftover Dal was something they were really searching for on each plate as if it was something they had tasted after a long time. I still remember that at that time tears trickled out of my eyes. Even when I am writing this paragraph on my laptop, the situation is no different. 

Incidentally, I am writing all this while on a train journey, when the dinner is being served. Today each pack of dinner costs Rupees one twenty. At that time it was about Rupees five. But how come, even today some children of this country are devoid of food as their first right? How come even today TV serials have to show children going through the same trauma?