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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 1 in 2 under-5 Indian kids malnourished: Study by Gokul Chandrasekar

1 in 2 under-5 Indian kids malnourished: Study by Gokul Chandrasekar

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published Published on Sep 18, 2010   modified Modified on Sep 18, 2010


Around a quarter of the world’s population who are deprived of food live in India and 43 per cent of all children in the country under the age of five are malnourished, claims a recent report published by an international non-profit organisation.

While India’s per capita income tripled between 1990 and 2005, the number of hungry people also increased by 53 million, bringing the total numbers of chronically hungry people in India to a staggering 270 million, says the study by Actionaid International.

Out of 28 nations ranked in the report, India got a dismal 21st rank while Brazil and China came 1st and 2nd, respectively. The report called ‘Hunger-free scorecard’ predicts that India cannot halve its number of people starving until 2083 - nearly 70 years after the Millennium Development Goals target date. “Since India went full steam with economic liberalisation the number of people starving in the country also shot up by an extra 30 million,” said Sandeep Chandra, executive director of Actionaid India.

“Two inferences are clear from this: the growth has failed to reach the poorest of the poor; and along with massive rise in food prices and agriculture distress, the focus on industry and resource intensive growth has widened the bracket of poverty,” he added.

The major reason for this situation, according to the report, is low budget allocation for agriculture and rising food prices in India. “Though the budget allocation for agriculture keeps increasing year over year the amount is inadequate to reform food production. Lack of long term public investments, rising food prices compounded by constrained supplies, lack of land reforms are other major challenges ahead in tackling hunger,” states the report.

“From the 1990s onwards, the Indian government cut public investment, plummeting from a high of 13 per cent to only 6 per cent in 1999. Ironically, as investment in agriculture stagnated, government expenditure on food subsidies rocketed. Meanwhile, as public support dwindled, smallholders found it increasingly hard to cope without the support previously given by the state, explains Sandeep.

“Need of the hour is urgent reforms of the public distribution system to ensure equitable distribution of food grains. Land reform would also help reduce hunger, since small and marginal farmers operating on less than two hectares each constitute 84 per cent of all farmers in the country,” added Sandeep.


The Express Buzz, 17 September, 2010, http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/1-in-2-under-5-indian-kids-malnourished-study/207595.html


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