With 21% of its population undernourished, nearly 44% of under-5 children underweight and 7% of them dying before they reach five years, India is firmly established among the world's most hunger-ridden countries. The situation is better than only Congo, Chad, Ethiopia or Burundi, but it is worse than Sudan, North Korea, Pakistan or Nepal.
This is according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) which combines the above three indicators to give us a Global Hunger Index (GHI) according to which India is 67th among the worst 80 countries in terms of malnourishment.
That's not all. Data collected by GHI researchers shows that while there has been some improvement in children's malnutrition and early deaths since 1990, the proportion of hungry in the population has actually gone up.
Today India has 213 million hungry and malnourished people by GHI estimates although the UN agency Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) puts the figure at around 230 million. The difference is because FAO uses only the standard calorie intake formula for measuring sufficiency of food while the Hunger Index is based on broader criteria.
Nutrition schemes need to be expanded
Whichever way you slice it and dice it, the shameful reality is inescapable - India is home to the largest number of hungry people, about a quarter of the estimated 820 million in the whole world.
The National Family and Health Survey (NFHS), last carried out in 2004-05, had shown that 23% of married men, 52% of married women and a chilling 72% of infants were anemic - a sure sign that a shockingly large number of families were caught in a downward spiral of slow starvation.
Global research has now firmly established that depriving the fetus of essential nutrients - as will happen in an under-nourished pregnant woman - seals the fate of the baby once it is born. It is likely to suffer from susceptibility to diseases and physical retardation, as also to mental faculties getting compromised.
So, continuing to allow people to go hungry and malnourished, is not just more misery for them: it is the fate of future generations of Indians in balance.
What can be done to fix this unending tragedy? The government already runs two of world's biggest nutrition programmes: the midday meal scheme for students up to class 12 and the anganwadi programme under which infants and children up to 6 are given "hot cooked" meals.
These need to be spread further and more resources pumped in to tackle weaknesses. For instance, a report by the anganwadi workers' federation revealed that as many as 73,375 posts of anganwadi workers and 16,251 posts of supervisors are lying vacant. But the biggest contribution to fighting hunger would be providing universal coverage of the PDS with adequate amounts of grain, pulses and edible oils included.
This is according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) which combines the above three indicators to give us a Global Hunger Index (GHI) according to which India is 67th among the worst 80 countries in terms of malnourishment.
That's not all. Data collected by GHI researchers shows that while there has been some improvement in children's malnutrition and early deaths since 1990, the proportion of hungry in the population has actually gone up.
Today India has 213 million hungry and malnourished people by GHI estimates although the UN agency Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) puts the figure at around 230 million. The difference is because FAO uses only the standard calorie intake formula for measuring sufficiency of food while the Hunger Index is based on broader criteria.
Nutrition schemes need to be expanded
Whichever way you slice it and dice it, the shameful reality is inescapable - India is home to the largest number of hungry people, about a quarter of the estimated 820 million in the whole world.
The National Family and Health Survey (NFHS), last carried out in 2004-05, had shown that 23% of married men, 52% of married women and a chilling 72% of infants were anemic - a sure sign that a shockingly large number of families were caught in a downward spiral of slow starvation.
Global research has now firmly established that depriving the fetus of essential nutrients - as will happen in an under-nourished pregnant woman - seals the fate of the baby once it is born. It is likely to suffer from susceptibility to diseases and physical retardation, as also to mental faculties getting compromised.
So, continuing to allow people to go hungry and malnourished, is not just more misery for them: it is the fate of future generations of Indians in balance.
What can be done to fix this unending tragedy? The government already runs two of world's biggest nutrition programmes: the midday meal scheme for students up to class 12 and the anganwadi programme under which infants and children up to 6 are given "hot cooked" meals.
These need to be spread further and more resources pumped in to tackle weaknesses. For instance, a report by the anganwadi workers' federation revealed that as many as 73,375 posts of anganwadi workers and 16,251 posts of supervisors are lying vacant. But the biggest contribution to fighting hunger would be providing universal coverage of the PDS with adequate amounts of grain, pulses and edible oils included.
his is a report sure to sadden & perhaps to anger. How could it be otherwise when we look at the innocent faces of children whose lives were cut short by abuse or neglect? Each year our country fails to protect thousands of children in desperate circumstances, circumstances which sadly end only with their deaths.
13 lakh kids in India die before 1st birthday
NEW DELHI: Over 55,000 women die due to child birth in India every year. Of the total children born in one year, a mind boggling 13 lakh die before they reach their first birthdays, most of them within a few weeks of entering this world. Another indicator that the world watches is how many children cannot survive beyond five years of age. In India every year, over 16 lakh under-5 years children die.
These are hair-raising numbers, the highest in the world, mainly because India has the highest number of births in the world - over 2.62 crore per year. But how can one compare this with other countries with lower population or lower birth rates? That is done by expressing mother's deaths in terms of how many per 1 lakh live births. For India this maternal mortality rate works out to 212. And for infant deaths the ratio is written as so many per 1000 live births. For India this works out to 50. Under-5 mortality in India is 63.
Although maternal mortality has fallen drastically from 570 in 1990, this should not be a matter of complacency. In highly advanced countries like in Western Europe it is below 15, and even in medium human development countries like in Russia or Brazil it is below 133. China has maternal mortality of just 38.
Death of mother during or immediately after child birth is a direct function of health infrastructure, says Dr Amit Sengupta of the People's Health Movement. "Child birth is a natural function. Death will occur only if there is an emergency, like an obstruction. For that you need trained personnel and facilities. If people have to rush 30-40 kms in an emergency, a tragic and avoidable death results," he explains.
Infant mortality rates too are still high in India, despite slowly reducing from about 65 in 2000. Our neighbours, though poorer, have done better - IMR is 48 inNepal and 52 in Bangladesh. In China it is just 19.
Most infant deaths occur in the first few weeks because, again, health facilities and doctors are not easily available or cost too much. A clear indication of this comes from the wide difference between rural and urban rates. In rural areas, infant mortality is 55 while in urban areas it is much less at 34.
A revealing fact is the variations across states. Infant mortality varies from 67 in MP, 65 in Orissa and 63 in UP to just 12 in Kerala, 28 in Tamil Nadu and 33 in West Bengal.
Maternal mortality varies from 390 in Assam and 359 in Uttar Pradesh to 81 in Kerala. Obviously there are some lessons in all this: better education, better infrastructure, better nutrition. But what is perhaps most direly needed is political will across the board.
These are hair-raising numbers, the highest in the world, mainly because India has the highest number of births in the world - over 2.62 crore per year. But how can one compare this with other countries with lower population or lower birth rates? That is done by expressing mother's deaths in terms of how many per 1 lakh live births. For India this maternal mortality rate works out to 212. And for infant deaths the ratio is written as so many per 1000 live births. For India this works out to 50. Under-5 mortality in India is 63.
Although maternal mortality has fallen drastically from 570 in 1990, this should not be a matter of complacency. In highly advanced countries like in Western Europe it is below 15, and even in medium human development countries like in Russia or Brazil it is below 133. China has maternal mortality of just 38.
Death of mother during or immediately after child birth is a direct function of health infrastructure, says Dr Amit Sengupta of the People's Health Movement. "Child birth is a natural function. Death will occur only if there is an emergency, like an obstruction. For that you need trained personnel and facilities. If people have to rush 30-40 kms in an emergency, a tragic and avoidable death results," he explains.
Infant mortality rates too are still high in India, despite slowly reducing from about 65 in 2000. Our neighbours, though poorer, have done better - IMR is 48 inNepal and 52 in Bangladesh. In China it is just 19.
Most infant deaths occur in the first few weeks because, again, health facilities and doctors are not easily available or cost too much. A clear indication of this comes from the wide difference between rural and urban rates. In rural areas, infant mortality is 55 while in urban areas it is much less at 34.
A revealing fact is the variations across states. Infant mortality varies from 67 in MP, 65 in Orissa and 63 in UP to just 12 in Kerala, 28 in Tamil Nadu and 33 in West Bengal.
Maternal mortality varies from 390 in Assam and 359 in Uttar Pradesh to 81 in Kerala. Obviously there are some lessons in all this: better education, better infrastructure, better nutrition. But what is perhaps most direly needed is political will across the board.
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