Sen, Binay Ranjan

▪ 1994

      Indian diplomat (b. Jan. 1, 1898, Dibrugarh, India—d. June 12, 1993, Calcutta, India), as director general (1956-67) of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), drew on his experience as relief commissioner (1942-43) during a devastating famine in his native Bengal to build the FAO from a data-gathering bureaucracy into a major force against world hunger. After studying at the Universities of Calcutta and Oxford, Sen joined the Indian civil service in Bengal. In 1942 a massive typhoon, followed by Japanese bombing attacks, left parts of Bengal in ruins and brought about a famine in which some one million people died. Sen found that his efforts to distribute food were often thwarted by disorganization and official corruption. This, and his work as director general of food for all India (1943-46), convinced him that hunger and malnutrition were crucial issues in the modern world. He took his concerns to the international stage as a member of India's first delegation to the UN (1947) and as ambassador to the U.S., Italy and Yugoslavia, Japan, and Mexico. He worked on a variety of FAO projects before being named director general in 1956. In 1960 Sen announced the Freedom from Hunger campaign, which led to the 1963 World Food Congress in Washington, D.C., attended by representatives from more than 100 countries.

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