Acta Scientific NUTRITIONAL HEALTH (ISSN:2582-1423) Volume 7 Issue 12 December 2023 Research Article Introduction Food and Nutrition Security: Rural Community Awareness Sumanth S Hiremath* Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Rani Channamma University, Belagavi, Karnataka, India *Corresponding Author: Sumanth S Hiremath, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Rani Channamma University, Belagavi, Karnataka, India. Received: October 25, 2023 Published: November 21, 2023 © All rights are reserved by Sumanth S Hiremath. Abstract Keywords: Healthy Lifestyle; Rural Area; Food; Nutrition Education; Awareness With the goal of sustaining a pleasant, active, and healthy lifestyle, one must consume sufficient nutrition to fulfil their dietary requirements. At the family level, food security means that the family can buy or grow enough food to meet everyone's basic needs. In rural places, knowing about food and nutrition is important for making sure families have enough to eat. Everyone in the family needs to know about food, nutrients, and the right way to eat because these things affect their health. Students, pregnant women, nursing moms, and other vulnerable groups are often malnourished because they don't understand how food meets their nutritional needs. To show and feed the people in the rural area, nutrition education should be useful and flexible enough to take into account their eating habits, social status, and the food that is available locally. An effort to raise awareness will work with government programmes to increase people-centered programming using the newest tech tools and methods to protect everyone's right to health and food security. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals were compelled to prioritise the enhancement of their immune systems in order to effectively counteract the virulent viral variant, owing to the ex- ceptional circumstances that unfolded. In light of this issue, indi- viduals directed their attention towards dietary choices and the cultivation of good eating habits, which have been identified as a straightforward and economically viable approach to address these issues [1]. An individual residing in an urban setting, en- dowed with ample resources, may have acquired knowledge about prevailing food trends. Nevertheless, it was captivating to observe how rural areas addressed the issue with significantly fewer re- sources, limited financial aid, and various other challenges. The ru- ral peoples’ level of awareness regarding food and nutrition is cru- cial for upholding the food and nutrition security of their families. It is imperative for all individuals within a household to possess knowledge regarding food, nutrition, and the cultivation of appro- priate dietary practices, as these factors significantly impact their overall nutritional well-being [2]. In contrast to the urban popula- tion, rural areas are characterised by a heightened susceptibility to preventable mortality, morbidity, and impairment, mostly attrib- utable to unfavourable social determinants such as impoverished conditions, inadequate nutritional resources, limited educational opportunities, and restricted availability of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities [3]. The main intent of the study was to find out the level of knowledge about food and nutrition in rural communities and examine the nutritional condition of the rural populace. National food security act, (NFSA) 2013 The main idea behind global food security is to make sure that everyone can always get the food they need to live a healthy, busy life. It’s defined by how easy it is to get food, how it’s used, and how stable it is. The Indian Constitution doesn’t say anything directly about the right to food, but Article 21 of the Constitution says that everyone has the fundamental right to life. This right to live with human dignity may include the right to food and other basic needs [4]. Through the Public Distribution System (PDS) and the Targeted Public Distribution System, the government has long addressed concerns about “food security” in households. However, the Na- tional Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 changed the way food secu- rity is dealt with from focusing on welfare to rights. Up to 75 per- cent of people who live in rural areas and 50 percent of people who live in cities are officially entitled to get food grains for free through the Targeted Public Distribution System. As a result, the Act allows about two-thirds of people to get food grains at a very low cost. As a way to give women more power, the Act says that the oldest woman in the household, who must be at least 18 years old, must be the head of the household for the purposes of giving out ration cards [5]. DOI: 10.31080/ASNH.2023.07.1329 Citation: Sumanth S Hiremath. “Food and Nutrition Security: Rural Community Awareness". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 7.12 (2023): 19-22.