DESPITE STEADY economic growth in the past decade, India ranks just 67th among 80 developing nations in the International Food Policy Research institute’s global hunger index, with alarmingly high levels of malnourishment and underweight children.
According to a recent report by the Washington-based institute, 21 per cent of India’s population of more than 1.20 billion, or about 231 million, were malnourished with nearly 44 per of the country’s children under the age of five, underweight. According to these findings 7 per cent of these underfed children died of hunger before they were five years old.
India has about 160 million children under six years old. The prognosis for their future under the current circumstances is bleak, according to various non-governmental organisations.
The hunger index also ranked levels of hunger across India below even economically worse- off neighbours like Pakistan and Nepal as well as Sudan and North Korea. Only countries such as Congo, Chad, Ethiopia and Burundi had a higher rate of malnourishment than India.
Meanwhile, the hunger and malnutrition survey by the Naadi Foundation released last week by prime minister Manmohan Singh revealed that 59 per cent of Indian children suffered from moderate to severe stunting.
Ironically, the number of underweight children in India had fallen, from 53 to 42 per cent, since 2004 when the last study on this aspect was conducted, but remained higher than even Sudan, North Korea and Pakistan.
The survey, which measured the food intake of more than 100,000 children and 74,000 mothers across six of India’s most populous states, also revealed that boys were given preference over girls with regard to nutrition.
The nutrition advantage girls had over boys in their first few months was reversed over time.
Other surveys have found that more than 10 million female births had been aborted in India over the past two decades, an annual loss of about 500,000 girls.
According to the People’s Health Movement, more than 55,000 women died annually in childbirth in the country while an alarming 1.3 million children failed every year to live beyond their first birthday.
Additionally, these surveys determined that lower castes and Muslims were discriminated against, pushing them further into impoverishment and starvation. India has the world’s second highest number of Muslims after Indonesia.
Health officials conceded that the fruits of India’s economic boom in recent years were confined to just a handful, with no economic, social, educational or environmental justice for the vast majority.