Saturday, October 14, 2006
CHENNAI, OCT 13: Hunger and malnutrition continue to haunt India despite green, white and IT revolutions and economic reforms. India is world’s 24th most malnourished country, and in Asia, it has Bangladesh (18th) and Mali (19th) for company among the top 25 malnourished countries in the world. All others are in Africa. What is more alarming is the slowdown and near stagnation of the fall in poverty rates in India since 1992.
According to the Global Hunger Index, prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute and released in Washington on Friday, India scored 41.23 in the GHI in 1981. There was a substantial fall to 32.73 in 1992. In 1997, it touched 25.73 and continued to remain steadfast at that score even in 2003.
The GHI of IFPRI captures three dimensions of hunger: insufficient availability of food, shortfalls in the nutritional status of children, and child mortality, which, to a large extent, attributes to undernutrition.
The index includes three equally weighted indicators: The proportion of people who are food energy deficient as estimated by Food and Agriculture Organisation, the prevalence of underweight in children under the age of five as compiled by the World Health Organisation, and the under-five mortality rate as reported by Unicef.
The IFPRI report says “in India and Bangladesh, high rates of child malnutrition are main reasons for high GHI values relative to Gross National Income per capita”. Low status of women in the region and their lack of nutritional knowledge are important determinants of high prevalence of underweight in children.
IFPRI researchers have concluded that more educational opportunities for women must be created in South Asia and similar regions to address their inadequate knowledge and low status, which contribute to high child malnutrition rates. The GHI has been calculated for 1981, 1992, 1997 and the latest for 2003. In the latest round, 94 developing countries and 22 countries in transition were ranked.
Unlike in India, there has been significant fall in the hunger index of both Bangladesh and Mali from 35.73 to 28.27 and 31.97 to 28.07, respectively, between 1997-2003.
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