Hunger in South Asia at levels of Ethiopia and Chad

[DarkStar]

Hunger in India states 'alarming'

India has some of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world
Twelve Indian states have "alarming" levels of hunger while the situation is "extremely alarming" in the state of Madhya Pradesh, says a new report.

Madhya Pradesh's nutrition problems, it says, are comparable to the African countries of Ethiopia and Chad.

India has more people suffering hunger - a figure above 200 million - than any other country in the world, it says.

The report, released as part of the 2008 Global Hunger Index, ranks India at 66 out 88 countries.

'Scored worse'

The hunger index has been released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) along with Welthungerhlife and the University of California.

It measures hunger on three indicators which include child malnutrition, rates of child mortality and the number of people who are calorie deficient.

The problem of hunger is measured in five categories - low, moderate, serious, alarming or extremely alarming.

The survey says that not one of the 17 states in India that were studied were in the low or moderate hunger category.

"Despite years of robust economic growth, India scored worse than nearly 25 sub-Saharan African countries and all of South Asia, except Bangladesh," the report says.

The best performing state was Punjab, which has a 'serious' hunger problem and does less well than developing countries such as Gabon, Vietnam and Honduras.


About 60% children in Madhya Pradesh state are malnourished

"When Indian states are compared to countries in the Global Hunger Index, [the central Indian state of] Madhya Pradesh ranks between Ethiopia and Chad," it says.

India is long known to have some of the highest rates of child malnutrition and mortality in under-fives in the world.

According to the Indian government statistics two years ago, around 60% of more than 10 million children in the state were malnourished.

Nutrition experts say the abysmal record is due to an inadequate access to food, poor feeding practices and poor childcare practices in India.

And now the rise in the global food prices has reduced the food-buying capacity of many poor families, making their situation worse.

In the past year food prices have increased significantly, but people's incomes haven't kept pace, forcing many families further into hunger, experts say.

The report says "improving child nutrition is of utmost urgency in most Indian states".

"All states also need to improve strategies to facilitate inclusive economic growth, ensure food sufficiency and reduce child mortality," it adds.


BBC NEWS | South Asia | Hunger in India states 'alarming'



India Shining???

 

[Kasrkin]

I wonder if you ever hear about this sort of thing in the Indian Press or Media. I know there its always shiny India better than terrorist backward poor Pakistan.

 

[Goodperson]

darkstar, I admired few of the posts because of their contents and relevance.
I am surprised even you had to change the Title from the news source just to superimpose your thoughts.

 

[DarkStar]

darkstar, I admired few of the posts because of their contents and relevance.
I am surprised even you had to change the Title from the news source just to superimpose your thoughts.

I accept I changed the title to make it more eye-grabbing. I thought this title was more relevant. As for the comparison between India and Ethiopia, i took it from teh article, as it describes the conditions in Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere.

It is standard practice of charitable organisations and NGOs to use such methods to draw people's attention. If this helps in making people realise the plight of the hungry, I'd do it again.

However, it's not something for us Pakistanis to gloat about. If India is no. 66 in the list, then pakistan is no. 61, and there are people going hungry in Pakistan too.

I hope both our govts carry on the work in this regard, as they have both made an improvement since 1990 (according to the index), but not as much improvement as other develping countries have made.

 

[DarkStar]

Malnutrition getting worse in India

By Damian Grammaticas
BBC News, Madhya Pradesh


About 60% children in Madhya Pradesh state are malnourished

Lying on a bed is a tiny malnourished child. Her limbs wasted, her stomach bloated, her hair thinning and falling out. Her name is Roshni. She stares, wide-eyed, blankly at the ceiling. Roshni is six months old.

She should weigh 4.5kg. But when she is placed on a set of scales they settle at just 2.9kg.

Roshni is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, defined by the World Health Organisation as weighing less than 60% of the ideal median weight for her height. Roshni weighs 2.9kg - her weight should be more like 4.5kg

There are 40 beds in this centre. On every one is a similar child. All are acutely malnourished. Wailing, painful, plaintive cries fill the air. This is the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre in the town of Shivpuri.

You might think we are somewhere in Africa. But this is the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh - modern India, a land of booming growth.

"The situation in our village is very bad," says Roshni's mother, Kapuri.

"Sometimes we get work, sometimes we don't. Together with our children we are dying from hunger. What can we poor people do? Nothing."


Typical symptoms

The lunchtime meal of boiled eggs, milk and porridge is handed out.

Another mother is cradling her daughter, trying to feed her. The girl's name is Kajal. She is two-and-a-half years old and so weak she can hardly eat.

Her mother tries to spoon some milk into her mouth. It dribbles down her chin. Kajal barely even opens her eyes.

Kajal's skin is pale. Her breath comes sharp, shallow and fast. She too is suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Her weight is 6.7kg.


The nutrition centre here was set up by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

Doctor Vandana Agarwal, Unicef's nutrition specialist for Madhya Pradesh state, points to Kajal's swollen little feet.

"There is oedema on both the feet, scaly skin on her legs, even her respiration rate is high," Dr Agarwal says.

"The child is in a lethargic condition, her hair is thin, sparse, lustreless, easily-pluckable. These are the typical symptoms of protein energy malnutrition."

India has some of the highest rates of child malnutrition and mortality in under-fives in the world and Madhya Pradesh state has the highest levels in India.

There are around 10 million children in the state. A decade ago 55% were malnourished. Two years ago the government's own National Family Health Survey put the figure for Madhya Pradesh at around 60%.

So why is it going up?

Compounded

"It's basically inadequate access to food, poor feeding practices, poor childcare practices," says Dr Agarwal.

In Madhya Pradesh the situation is compounded by two significant factors. For four years in a row the rains have failed, so food crops have failed too. And now global food prices have risen, stretching many families beyond breaking point.

"In the past year food prices have increased significantly, but people's incomes haven't improved," says Dr Agarwal. "Like wheat, earlier they used to buy it at eight rupees a kilogram, now it's 12 rupees."

"Because of the increase in food prices a mother cannot buy an adequate quantity of milk, fruits and vegetables. So their staple diet has become wheat chapattis," she explains.

"A child cannot survive on wheat chapattis alone. About 80% of mothers and children are anaemic because they can't get good quality food."

To see why things are so bad, we headed out into the villages around Shivpuri. The drought zone stretches across this part of central India. The land is parched and barren. The air hot and heavy.

The village of Chitori Khurda is a ramshackle collection of 80 stone and mud huts on a rocky plain. The villagers here come from the bottom rung of India's social scale.

Among the lowest of the low in India's caste system are the Scheduled Tribes, just above them come the Other Backward Castes.

Together they make up 95% of the population of Chitori Khurda.


Worst hit

Even here, in this desolate spot, caste matters consign the lowest to the harshest existence.

Chitori Khurda village has no water supply. There are four wells in the fields around, but all belong to higher caste owners who often refuse to let the villagers use them.

So these are the people worst hit by rising food prices. They have little land of their own. What they do have is the least fertile, sometimes far away. Without water they cannot irrigate, so they cannot feed themselves.

And out here there is not much in the way of work either.

India has some of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world

The men of Chitori Khurda get odd jobs labouring for higher castes or just play cards all day. The women sit outside their houses sorting green leaves they have gathered into small bundles. The leaves are sold to make local cigarettes. But it does not earn much.

So in almost every home people are going hungry. Unicef says 79% of the children in this village are malnourished.

Siya showed me her house, crouching to get in through the low door, we entered a stifling-hot, single room where the family of six live.

Siya picked up the can where she keeps her flour. It should hold enough for a week's supply. There were just a few cupfuls left.

Her two youngest children, seven-month-old Anjali and two-year-old Aseel, are both severely acutely malnourished. The family can afford to eat only twice a day. The children chewed slowly on a few chapattis flavoured with a tiny bit of onion and ground chillies. It is all they have to eat.

Getting worse

Siya's husband works as a bonded labourer. He is still trying to pay off a loan he took out 15 years ago.

In theory the government provides 30kg of subsidised flour a month to every poor family. But corruption and inefficiency mean the system often does not work.

Even with the full allocation a family like Siya's would have to buy an additional 90kg of flour a month at a cost of more than 1,000 rupees.

Doctors say inadequate access to food is one of the causes of malnutrition

Siya says several days a month the family has to go to bed hungry.

"The children cry and create a commotion," she tells me. "I go door-to-door until somebody gives me a little."

Every lunchtime the children of Chitori Khurda gather at the Anganwadi centre in the village. It is where nutrition and health services are provided at village level.

On the day we visited, each child was given two puris (small bread puffs fried in oil) along with some sweet porridge. The allocation is 80g of food a day per child.

The children ate it, then sat hoping for more, but there was none.

Madhya Pradesh is trying hard to tackle the problem of malnutrition, but it is getting worse, not better.

Corruption and inefficiency hamper the system. Some Anganwadi workers skim off food to sell. Others refuse to give food to lower-caste children. Many simply do not turn up as they are not paid much for the job.

Add to that high food prices and the poorest are sliding into hunger.

Back in Shivpuri, two-and-a-half-year-old Kajal had to be transferred to hospital. Her condition was so serious, she was so anaemic and her haemoglobin levels so low that she had to have an emergency blood transfusion.

Lying in her hospital bed Kajal was reviving, slowly. Her mother, anxious, looked on, a pressing question weighing on her mind.

Kajal should survive, but how will she feed her child?

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

If the members are interested, we can change the title to hunger in South Asia, move the thread to the Current Affairs or economy and development sections, and actually discuss viable and potential means of increasing food stocks, agricultural productivity and dispersal mechanisms in both India and Pakistan.

 

[DarkStar]

great idea, i'm all for it, AM

 

[ashfaque]

Dark star, story of starvation, poverty in India is very bitter truth and whole world know that. I do not know what new thing you are trying to project? So these facts are not new for GoI.

What GoI is doing for their Poor’s and malnutritioned children is below and that makes this country different that African and many other developing country in the world-

Because GoI know that there is massive starvation in children, that is why they are running multi billion dollar ambitious programs, like Mid day meal where they are trying to ensure every child should at get at least a balanced single meal. These meals are served at all primary schools in India, these meals are balanced and freshly cooked. Till now midday meal was getting served to students till class 5th on school’s working day, now gov has decided to server meal every day of year and till class 8th. Apart from that students below poverty line will get 10 Kg rice and 5 Kg of wheat every month also free education fee, books and dress.

Anganwadi - There are an estimated 650,000 anganwadi centers employing 1.8 million mostly-female workers and helpers across the country. They provide outreach services to poor families in need of immunization, healthy food, clean water, clean toilets and a learning environment for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. They also provide similar services for expectant and nursing mothers. According to government figures, anganwadis reach about 33 million children and 6 million pregnant or lactating women.

There are many other programs targeting to increase the general health of children. All these programs, as I said multi billion dollar and largly funded by GoI, and this is difference between India and other African countries who are fully dependent upon aids, that is why future of Indian more optimistic that others

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Thread moved, title changed.

Lets dispense with arguing over whether hunger exists - the ranking of India and Pakistan would clearly indicate it does, as it does in many other countries.

Causes? Solutions?

In India BT cotton has been used to good effect in some states (not so good in others), whereas in Pakistan the Utility Stores Corp. can play a meaningful role IMO if expanded in scope and size in terms of creating an efficient nationwide network of cheap and in some cases free food for the deserving.

Food stamps etc.? The PP had some program they were talking about related to this, but I can't remember what it was...

Genetically Modified crops to increase yields and resistance to disease and insects?

 

[DarkStar]

Well, I cannot speak for the bt cottong situation in India, but I have seen that the utility stores have had an impact on working class and middle class families, as they have kept prices reasonable, and even helped push the market prices downwards.

There is a big case for expansion, and even increasing govt subsidy in this regard.

I have heard a lot about taxing farmers and land owners, and people railing at the feudal system. This feudal system has been teh salvation of Pakistan, and taxing it would be tantamount to economic suicide. All major western countries subsidize their farmers (some of whom have huge land holdings) while we are talking about taxing them. It would be a wrong move.

Another important thing to tackle, is the century old tradition of hoarding (kaala bazari). Hoarders of grain, rice, cereals, wheat should be punished, their hoards confiscated. Mills who don't mill should be closed down. These sharks use hunger to gain windfall profits. It is immoral, illegtimate and tantamount to murder. It must be stamped out.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Banking on food​

THALIF DEEN - Oct 15 2008 06:00

Bangladesh, one of the world's 49 least developed countries and described as the poorest of the poor, is calling for the creation of a global food bank.

"We have suggested that a food bank could allow countries facing a short-term shortfall in production to borrow food grains on preferential terms," said Bangladeshi Prime Minister Fakhruddin Ahmed. Once they overcome the shortfall these countries could return the quantum to the food bank, he said.

At a summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) last August, the leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka reiterated their own proposal for a regional food bank.

"We direct that the Saarc food bank be urgently operationalised," said the declaration adopted at the conclusion of the meeting in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

The summit also directed that an "extraordinary meeting" of Saarc agriculture ministers be convened in New Delhi in November to discuss the "emerging global situation of reduced food availability and the worldwide rise in food prices".

The proposal for a food bank comes at a time when most food-deficit developing nations are worried that the spreading economic crisis will affect them --sooner or later -- making the situation worse.

In an interview Hamid Rashid, director-general of Multilateral Economic Affairs in Dhaka, spelled out details of the proposal, which Bangladesh is pushing at the highest levels at the United Nations. "We envisage that the Global Food Bank will have two operational 'windows' to stabilise world food prices," Rashid said.

The first window, based on special drawing rights (SDRs), will allow countries to borrow food grains in times of crisis and shortfalls, according to a pre-determined quota.

The quota for each country, Rashid said, will be determined on the basis of a formula, which will take into account the size of its vulnerable population, variability in its food production, its dependence on food imports and other related factors.

Borrowing countries will repay in the form of food grains. The food stock will remain dispersed all over the world, perhaps closer to high-risk locations, and will cross borders only when SDR would be exercised.

The second window of the Global Food Bank -- the market window -- will create a trading platform for futures and options on food grains.

"Governments will be able to buy and sell futures and options to and from private parties, to smooth and stabilise the prices of food grains overmedium to long run," Rashid said.

He said that whether his prime minister's proposal will materialise or not will depend on a number of factors, including strong political leadership, the willingness of large food exporters to participate in such a mechanism and the lessons learned from the current crisis.

Matthew Wyatt, of the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad), said several ideas have been floated involving physical or virtual grain reserves, creation of regional or global funds for agricultural development and food, establishment of private investment funds for agricultural and enterprise development, or a combination of all of these.

"Ifad welcomes the suggestion of the Bangladeshi prime minister as an important contribution to this debate," Wyatt said.

But, he added, there is also a need to consider other instruments to address access to food by poor rural people, including safety nets, cash transfers, investments in increased smallholder agricultural productivity and creation of sustainable, non-agricultural economic activities to increase the capacity of the poor to demand food through the market.

Banking on food - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source
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Interesting suggestion on the issue of meeting periodic food shortages in nations, but does not address the issue of actually ensuring that food is available to everyone in the country through effective social schemes and distribution infrastructure.

 

[TOPGUN]

Its really sad come to think of it & i hope we can have peace so we can focous on feeding and helping our poor and try to build up or economy !! may GOD help us all.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Some saddening images of the effects of the food shortage in Pakistan:

http://www.dawn.net/wps/wcm/connect...ia+gallery/queuing+for+rations+on+food+day+yn

 

[su-47]

food shortage will get worse in South Asia if we dont control population growth. one reason china managed to get out of the doldrums of crushing poverty was their one child law. it helped the poor concentrate their efforts on one child instead of several, and helped them raise that child out of poverty by providing him/her with good education and better healthcare, etc.

in south asia the poor breed like rats, creating more mouths to feed. with food prices going up, this inevitably results in malnutrition. south asian nations HAVE to implement some form of effective population control.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

I agree on the problems caused by large families - you hear so many stories of a poor labourer who is struggling to take care of his seven children and wife etc.

But then you cannot address the issue of family planning without ensuing a universal access to education and health facilities, and we lag on that count as well!

Too many years of ignoring basic services and not investing in our people.