People & Their Problems

New Delhi, 7 November 2008

Malnutrition Stalks India 

FEED THE NEEDY ENOUGH, ON TIME

By Radhakrishna Rao

The stunning achievement of the recent launch of India’s maiden lunar probe Chandrayaan-1 this October contrasts appallingly with the poor developmental index on the ground—of widespread hunger and malnutrition. A most recent fact-filled report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), says India is home to more hungry people—over 200-million—than any other country in the world. As many as 12 States are found to have abnormally high levels of undernourishment and starvation.  Going into specifics, it says that the prevalence of hunger in Madhya Pradesh is as bad as that in Ethiopia.

Not surprisingly, the IFPRI report ranks India at 66 out of 88 countries in the global hunger index. But what is striking is the reason for malnutrition and hunger, which far from being non-availability of food, is the lack of purchasing power among the vast majority of the poor in the country. Even a high-level of economic growth cannot ensure the elimination of hunger and malnutrition. For even the industrially-advanced States of Gujarat and Maharashtra have a large section of population suffering from malnutrition and hunger.

Indeed, this calls for widening the scope of poverty alleviation programmes and State intervention to improve maternal and child health care. One clear-cut indication of malnutrition is that 2.5-million Indian children die annually, accounting for one out of every five child deaths worldwide.

A huge percentage of India’s pre-school children are suffering from a range of negative effects linked to malnutrition. Nutritional deficiencies including the lack of iron, zinc and Vitamin A have been found to be responsible for the stunted physical and mental growth. Unfortunately, as medical experts point out the damages arising out of childhood malnutrition are irreversible, thereby implying a serious threat to India’s long-term economic development. According to a study carried in the Lancet, the prevalence of stunting among children under five is around 505.

Poor purchasing power of the masses and the glaring failure of the food delivery system to make available sufficient quantities of nutrition to the needy are cited as major reasons for this pathetic state of affair. Food policy experts are of the view that India needs low-cost and more effective interventions to combat malnutrition and hunger.

On another front, the need for boosting rural income is quite pronounced to tackle the serious problem of malnutrition. For instance, Harvest Plus, an ambitious project of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has come out with an innovative strategy to cross conventional crops with the existing high-yielding varieties to boost their nutritional content. The bio fortified crops so realized are known to offer a rural based intervention to minimize the problem of malnutrition.

Clearly, these so called “bio fortified seeds” can be easily grown and replanted by Indian farmers with little training. “With continued support, a one-time investment of tens of millions of dollars in agricultural research could reap the benefits of billions of dollars through improved nutrition and well-being of India’s poor which ultimately will lead to greater economic productivity” says Howrath Bouis, Director of Harvest Plus.

Meanwhile, reports of malnutrition-related deaths in the tribal pockets of Madhya Pradesh stand out as a crying shame on India’s food security regime. On the other hand, in the tribal belt of Thane, Maharashtra, which not long back was in limelight for malnutrition-linked deaths, an innovative endeavor by Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF) and the Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technologies (CAPART) has helped bring a change for better in the overall nutritional status.

A well-documented study “Towards A Food Security In India” published jointly by the New Delhi-based Institute for Human Development (IHD) and the Hyderabad-based Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) says that “achieving freedom from hunger still remains one of the biggest challenges of democratically free India”. The study, featuring a contribution from the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen highlights the fact that mere food availability is no panacea for ending the crisis of malnutrition, semi starvation and hunger.

Far more important is the need to make food available to the needy on time and in sufficient quantities. As such, creating a purchasing power through employment opportunities and revenue earning activities should be a major step towards the evolution of a ‘sound and foolproof’ food security regime in the country.

Further, this path-breaking study highlights the fact that despite many well-meaning welfare schemes and developmental programmes, the problem of food insecurity continues to haunt the policy makers. Observing that the food security issue differs across the States and has diverse connotations in different regions, the study suggests a holistic perspective taking into account both macro and micro level aspects as well as hunger and nutrition to deal with the persisting food insecurity. ‘It takes more than food to fight hunger, a multi-faceted approach is a must to improve food and nutrition security in the country,” the researchers insist.

Low calorie intake due to abysmally poor income and poverty is another major cause for the incidence of widespread malnutrition in India. The national family health survey reveals that about 47% of children under the age of four are underweight. In addition to poverty, the low status of women in the society plays a key role in pushing up the incidence of malnutrition. A high rate of malnutrition among children and mothers is a major obstacle to reducing mortality rates, including those among pregnant women.

The poor purchasing power of the rural poor—which is a contributing factor to malnutrition—is considered a fall out of the decline in public investment in the rural development sector. As such, some food policy experts have urged for a greater role for diversifying the agricultural sector in tandem with the creation of a vibrant rural no farm sector for reduction in poverty and malnutrition levels. As things stand today, failure to boost the rural economy through effective long-term policy measures could prove a big hurdle in India’s plan to do away with the incidence of hunger and malnutrition. ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)