Malnutrition: roadblock to India’s development
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Parents cribbing about their kids resorting to junk food is common today. But there are more than 50 million children in the country who fail to secure proper meals every single day, something that India needs to ponder upon very seriously. According to a recent UN report, 10 children die from malnutrition in the developing countries every minute. About three quarters of the undernourished children come from just 10 countries of which 57 million are from India and 8 million each in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
A World Bank report titled India’s under-nourished children: a call for reform and action released in May 2006 states that the number of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world. In recent decades, India has established a framework of programs with the potential to combat malnutrition, including a PDS (Public Distribution System), an ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) program, a NMMP (National Mid-day Meals Program), and several employment schemes providing food for work. But these programs have failed to meet the needs of the poorest because of ineffective targeting, implementation, and coverage. While the PDS, for example, absorbs 0.5% of GDP, it fails to reach the segments of the population that need it most. Furthermore, spending on direct nutritional programs, mainly the ICDS, the NMMP, and the micronutrients programs now amounts to only 0.19% of GNP. Sri Lanka, which successfully dealt with malnutrition in the 1980s, spent about 1% of GNP on direct nutritional programs while simultaneously improving health services, education for females, and antipoverty measures. Lacking, argue the report's authors, is sustained political commitment to the problem of malnutrition, as well as a comprehensive policy implementation structure. India also needs to better target nutritional programs and substantially increase their quality and impact. Decentralization of program implementation and major involvement of local government bodies will be crucial. Households below the poverty line must be reached by all of the nutritional programs in order to achieve a major impact. Malnutrition is closely related to other plaguing issues such as poverty and unemployment. If closely observed, it is more prevalent in the impoverished states of Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, certain parts of Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. There is an urgent need to focus on these regions. Medically, malnutrition is defined as the medical condition caused by improper diet. It mostly refers to under-nutrition resulting from inadequate consumption, poor absorption or loss of nutrients. Thus, a child will suffer from it when appropriate amount or quality of nutrients are not consumed over a period of time. It may lead to PEM(Protein Energy Malnutrition) caused due to inadequate availability of proteins or energy in the body or micronutrient malnutrition. This is caused due to inadequate intake of some essential nutrients like vitamins, calcium, potassium, and so on. PEM usually leads to precarious conditions like Kwashiorkar or Marasmus among the children. Kwashiorkar is characterized by wasting, loss of hair, skin pigmentation, anaemia, blindness, and various other symptoms among children. Similar symptoms characterize Marasmus as well. Although India has abundant human resources, yet if a majority of young people suffer from malnutrition, hunger, and poverty, their productivity automatically decreases. This would affect the social, political, and economic health of our nation in the long run. Source: TerraGreen |
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