Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Death by biscuit -Gitanjali Chandrasekharan & Yolande D'Mello

Death by biscuit -Gitanjali Chandrasekharan & Yolande D'Mello

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Nov 17, 2014   modified Modified on Nov 17, 2014
-Mumbai Mirror

Malnutrition isn't a rural worry. Worse, in Mumbai, it's not the lack of food but craving for junk that's proving fatal.

Sammrudhi Pawar is playing with her two-anda-half-year-old brother Siddhartha. "Do you like Maggi?" we ask. She nods. "How many times can you eat it in a day?" One hand clinging to her dress, the four-year-old bends over a low stool placed outside the Dhobi Ghat centre of the Foundation for Mother and Child Health (FMCH-India), and raises the other hand, all five fingers up.

It's the answer you'd get from a noodleloving child anywhere in the world, except that until two years ago, that's all Sammrudhi ate. That and biscuits dipped in milk.

Her mother Anushka Pawar, 27, says with a smile, "Aur kuch nahin khaati thi. Usko biscuit hi chaahiye the."

The homemaker lives with the two children and her husband, who she says works in "housekeeping", in the Ganesh Nagar area of Dhobi Ghat, Mahalaxmi.

50% Indian kids under 5 are malnourished

Once, a predominantly slum area, it now houses high-rises built by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority. The average income of a nuclear family here ranges from 20,000 to Rs 25,000. Which means the Pawars can afford to feed their kids better, if they'd agree to eat. "Anushka brought in Sammridhi when she was a year old," says Piyasree Mukherjee, COO of FMCH, adding, "and at that time the child was far below her weight and height category."

Please click here to read more.


Mumbai Mirror, 16 November, 2014, http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/cover-story/Death-by-biscuit/articleshow/45162708.cms


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close