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Millions of children are hungry

UNICEF report raps India’s record on malnutrition, but secretary says that’s based on old data.

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NEW DELHI: Even as Indian economy makes steady progress, its children remain undernourished. The UNICEF in its latest report — Progress for Children - has pointed out that 57 million, over one-third of the world’s 146 million undernourished children, live in India. And about a million children in India die due to malnutrition every year.

India has the same rate of malnutrition as Ethiopia (47 per cent), Nepal (48 per cent) and Bangladesh (48 per cent) and stands in stark contrast to countries like China (8 per cent), and even Afghanistan (39 per cent).

India figures among the top four countries, along with Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal - having the highest rate of underweight children under the age of five.

Meanwhile, China has taken a giant leap to reduce underweight prevalence rates by more than half - from 19% in 1990 to 8% in 2002.

The report says that South Asia is the only region which shows gender bias. In India, severe malnutrition is more frequent among girl children (19.1 per cent) than among boys (16.9 per cent).

Here, one in three adult women is underweight and, therefore, at risk of delivering babies with low birth weight.

More than the insufficient quantity of food it is the poor quality of food that is causing the damage. Women’s social status, early marriage leading to low child birth weights and poor sanitation are other reasons.

The malnutrition rate among children is the highest in Madhya Pradesh (55.1%), followed by Bihar and Orissa (both 54.4%), Uttar Pradesh (51.7%) and Rajasthan (50.6%) and lowest in Goa (28.6%), Manipur (27.5%) and Kerala (26.9%).

Sounding defensive, Reva Nayyar, Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), said the government has restructured its strategies to combat the situation.

She, however, added that the UNICEF report is based on old data of 1999 surveys and the new government survey report, to be released shortly, will show substantial improvements.

UNICEF experts have also pointed out that India, with only 1.6% improvement, has shown “insufficient progress” between 1990 and 2004 towards the Millennium Development Goal of halving child hunger by 2015.

 

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