Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday said that the central government would soon bring forth a food security bill for the benefit of the poorest sections of society. Addressing a Congress workers' 'Sadbhavna Rally' at Sewagram in Wardha district, about 85 km from here, Gandhi pointed out that the government has already legislated the Right to Education to ensure education for all children, and the food security bill will be the...

India may rank second in the medals tally, but it is on top of the heap among the Commonwealth countries as the home to the highest number of underweight children. About 43% of India's children are underweight, and 7 million under fives are severely malnourished, says a new report "Commonwealth or Common Hunger", released by Save the Children, a child rights NGO. The report reveals that 64% of the world's underweight children...

India’s performance at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 has been its best so far – second on the medals list.However, another kind of ‘competition’ ranked 84 countries in accordance with achievements in a different field this week. India was a lowly 67th. The field was hunger, measured by combining the proportion of people undernourished, the proportion of underweight children and the child mortality rate. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2010 –...

India, a global breadbasket with economic growth that rivals China's, is still home to 42 per cent of the world's underweight children. The stark statistic, released by the Washington-based Food Policy Institute ahead of World Food Day on Saturday, stands in contrast to the country's burgeoning economy and hopes of boosting its global stature as exemplified by its hosting of this year's Commonwealth Games. "We need to be asking ourselves, what or...

India’s abject failure to address hunger and malnutrition has been laid bare yet again by its poor ranking — 67th of 84 countries — on a global hunger index put together by the International Food Policy Research Institute. The fact that it is home to 42 per cent of the world’s underweight children in the under-5 age group has resulted in the poor ranking. This is reason for concern as child...