Think India Foundation

‘It is development without jobs’

TUMKUR : The Tumkur district committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxists) has in a press release said that the Union government is expediting economic reforms resulting in development without employment.

The CPI(M) said that the public distribution system, the above poverty line and the below poverty line schemes are being diluted in the name of unit-wise distribution and now, the public distribution system is going to be shut down in the wake of the Direct Cash Transfer Scheme. Read more

Source : www.thehindu.com

20,000 Tamil Nadu kids severly malnourished

CHENNAI: At least 20,000 children under the age of six in Tamil Nadu are so severely malnourished that their growth will be permanently stunted if immediate action is not taken. 

According to a report released by the Union ministry of woman and child development, about 0.5% or 20,593 of the 41.52 lakh children weighed in anganwadis across the state are classified in the category 'severe acute malnourishment'. These children, all below the age of six, are classified as grade III and IV, which means their actual body weight is less than 50% of the ideal body weight. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

West Bengal opposes direct cash transfer

Kolkata : After Odisha and Tripura, West Bengal has opposed the Centre's direct cash transfer to bank accounts of beneficiaries claiming it would lead to breakdown of the existing public distribution system and closure of the Food Corporation of India.

"The basic objective of the public distribution system to arrest hunger among the poor will be defeated if the beneficiaries are provided cash instead of cheap food leading to closure of the Food Corporation of India," minister for food and supplies Jyotipriya Mullick said. Read more

Source : www.dnaindia.com

India's Economic growth will not feed the hungry, say researchers

New research on India's rural poor has revealed that the country's impressive economic growth has not made a significant dent in its low levels of adult and child nutrition.

The team from the Universities of Manchester, Delhi, Cape Coast and Arkansas say the large sector of the economy relying on low wages and physically demanding work hinders improvement in nutrition across rural areas. Read more

Source : www.domain-b.com

‘Moderately’ malnourished in five HK districts also to get milk, eggs

BANGALORE : The pilot project will roll out in the first week of December

The supplementary diet of milk and eggs — so far given through anganwadis to children categorised as ‘severely’ malnourished — will now be extended to ‘moderately’ malnourished children in five backward districts of the Hyderabad Karnataka region. Read more

Source : www.thehindu.com

'Malnutrition a major problem in Hyderabad Karnataka districts'

GULBARGA : Number of malnourished children in the region estimated at 3,953

Shashil Namoshi, MLC, inaugurates a seminar on malnutrition in Gulbarga on Saturday. Photo: Special Arrangement

The State government is taking several steps to address malnutrition among children, Shashil Namoshi, MLC, has said.

He was speaking at a seminar on malnutrition organised by the departments of Information and Kannada and Culture, and the Government College for Women, here on Saturday. Read more

Source : www.thehindu.com

Meet the green managers of garbage

BANGALORE: Civic authorities have cracked the whip on the hotel industry, considered as the biggest contributor to the city's burgeoning burden of garbage. A whopping 1,500 tonnes of the 5,000 tonnes of waste generated daily by Bangalore comes from hotels.

But waste management is not a burden in itself as can be witnessed in some of the best practices adopted by big players in the city. TOI details these model practices adopted by top notch hotels, IT companies and residential blocks in an effort to underscore the point that waste management is all about managing the basics. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

NSSO figures call Narendra Modi's bluff on malnutrition

NEW DELHI: Whichever way you slice and dice the data, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's statement about causes of malnutrition in the state he has been ruling for over a decade is wrong. In an interview to the Wall Street Journal, Modi had said malnutrition exists in Gujarat because it is "by and large a vegetarian state" and also because it is a middle class state which is "more beauty conscious than health conscious".

Whichever way you slice and dice the data, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's statement about causes of malnutrition in the state he has been ruling for over a decade is wrong.

So he was implying that vegetarians are more likely to be undernourished, and pursuit of beauty will lead to undernourishment and bad health. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Royal Bengal tigers suffering from starvation

KOLKATA (Bernama) -- Many Royal Bengal tigers in the mangroves on Sunderbans are suffering from starvation, said an Alipore zoo official in the capital of Indian's eastern state of West Bengal.

This came to light when a seven-year-old tiger had strayed into a village recently from the jungles and had to be captured by the state forest department officials and brought to the zoo for treatment of his weak hind leg. Read more

Source : www.mysinchew.com

Need to ensure India is free from poverty: Pranab

President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday called for making Indian economy a launching pad for the "second freedom struggle" to eradicate hunger, disease and poverty.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday called for making Indian economy a launching pad for the "second freedom struggle" to eradicate hunger, disease and poverty.

In his first address to the nation on the eve of Independence Day, he also said that inflation, particularly high food prices, remains a cause of worry and several gaps are yet to be bridged in this growth story, including in the areas of infrastructure and agriculture. Read more

Source : www.moneycontrol.com

Supreme Court comes to rescue of Vrindavan widows

New Delhi (IANS) : Irked over the insensitivity towards abandoned widows in Vrindavan, the Supreme Court Friday said India was the only country where every day people distribute free food and water yet there are people who remain hungry.

"Ours is the only country where every day people are offering food and cold water to those travelling on the roads but still there are people who go hungry", said the apex court bench of Justice D.K. Jain and Justice Madan B. Lokur. Read more

Source : www.newstrackindia.com

Only 33% tots exclusively breastfed in first 6 months

NEW DELHI: Malnutrition is responsible for about one third of deaths among children under five. Above two thirds of these deaths, often associated with inappropriate feeding practices, occur during the first year of life. 

The World Health Organisation now says that nutrition during the first years of life are crucial for life-long health. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Mysore's 282 kids are malnourished, reveals a survey

MYSORE: A survey of kids in the city has thrown up some startling stats. Some 2 per cent of the kids surveyed are found to be malnourished and children from even upscale areas are underweight. And, among the malnourished kids, girls have a lion's share.

The survey conducted by Urban Poverty Alleviation Cell (UPAC) attached to the Mysore City Corporation was spread over all the 65 wards in the civic body and nine times spread out to nine zones conducting the survey for nine days. At the end of the exercise, the teams had surveyed 15,595 kids out of which 282 are found to be malnourished. Of the 282 malnourished children, 161 are girls. The MCC was assisted by women and child welfare department and health and family welfare department. The World Health Organization has cited malnutrition as the greatest single threat to the world's public health. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

'Mumbai has maximum number of malnourished kids'

Mumbai : Mumbai has more undernourished children under the age of five than the whole of urban Maharashtra. Experts say malnutrition is prevalent amongthe slum dwellers, migrant labours and the city’s minority communities.

A recent report on malnutrition, titled ‘India’s nutrition crisis: A challenge of putting nutrition back in our food’ by Narotam Sekhasaria Foundation, an NGO, reveals that more than half of the country’s upcoming generation— children under four years of age — face a debilitating future because of malnutrition. Read more

Source : www.dnaindia.com

23% poverty target unrealistic for 2015

NEW DELHI: India's poverty rates fell from 51% to 37% between 1990 and 2008. But it will still not reach the required Poverty Headcount Ratio (percentage of population below the national poverty line) of 23.9% by 2015 to achieve the Millennium Development Goal(MDG). Now, the national HCR stands at 47.8%, and India will achieve poverty HCR level of 26.72% by 2015. 

The Millennium Development Goals, 2012, report, released by the United Nations on Monday, says by 2015, 1 billion people will live across the globe on less than $1.25 a day - a global extreme poverty rate of 16%. Four out of every five persons living in extreme poverty will be found in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia (of which India is the major country). Read more

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com

One in five maternity deaths across world occurs in India

New Delhi : In 2010, one in every five maternal deaths globally happened in India which accounted for 20 per cent of the total mortality in this respect.

The UN Secretary General’s Millennium Development Report 2012 released today reveals that while the world has achieved targets of poverty reduction, improved drinking water supply and decreased number of urban residents in slums, it hasn’t done well on maternal health and child nutrition goals. Read more

Source : www.tribuneindia.com

Right practices can transform agriculture: M S Swaminathan

KOCHI: Investing in agro-ecological agricultural practices, backed by the right technology, balanced against traditional wisdom would help ensure food security, said eminent agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan here on Monday.

Delivering the 11th Joseph Cardinal Parecattil Commemorative Lecture 2012, on the theme, 'Rio+20 - Green Economy With Inclusive Growth', Swaminathan said modern practices like precision farming and climate-resilient farming or 'smart farming', would help convert the concept of 'evergreen agriculture revolution' into a reality. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

India starts private food banks for poor

New Delhi : India has started its first Western-style food bank, which will collect excess food from weddings and parties to feed the poor in a country that is home to almost half the world's undernourished children.

A village woman cleaning subsidised rice in Orissa state. Some Indian villages manage their own food grain banks. (AP)

The Delhi government and the non-profit Indian Food Banking Network opened the first food bank this month, with two warehouses to store food and 15 donors lined up, including corporations and retailers. Read more

Source : www.thejakartapost.com

Maharashtra to open 9 nutritional rehab centres

PUNE: Among the 36,906 severely acute malnourished (SAM) children in Maharashtra, around 5,000 have medical complications who need specialised therapeutic nourishment and paediatric care to nurse them back to health.

Waking up to the need, the state government will roll out nine more Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRC) in nine tribal districts by September. These include one centre at the district hospital in Aundh for facility-based management of these children. The facility will have a qualified paediatrician, a nutritionist and a dietician. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Early Death Assured In India Where 900M Don’t Eat Enough

The death certificate for 3-year-old Rashid Ahmed hides more than it reveals.

Mohamed Hafiz Khan, left, eats lunch along with his wife, middle bottom, and four children in their rented home iin the Dharavi slum area of Mumbai, India. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

It lists his name, misspells his mother’s and says he died of malaria. What it doesn’t say is how little he weighed when he was brought to hospital with the disease in New Delhi one August night, how his ribs jutted from his chest, or how helpless his doctor, 28-year-old Gyvi Gaurav, was in trying to save him. Read more

Source : www.bloomberg.com

Government way off its growth-for-all goal, says Planning Commission

New Delhi : India has little cause for celebration and much ground to cover on vital socio-economic indicators, such as health and hunger, directly linked to the UPA government's "inclusive growth" agenda, shows a Planning Commission report submitted to the Union cabinet.

The cabinet had asked the panel to update it on how far the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -globally agreed benchmarks on socio-economic prosperity - had been realised. Read more

Source : www.hindustantimes.com

Taskforce plans to tackle malnutrition among kids

MANDYA: Justice N K Patil, chairman of the high court, has appointed a taskforce to prepare an action plan on tackling malnutrition among children.

He said: "Unless high-ranked officers are made responsible for the malpractices and corruption in implementing the 'Integrated child development services project' in the state, malnutrition cannot be eradicated". Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

3 malnutrition cases reported from Karnataka districts

MANGALORE: Justice N K Patil, who heads the committee appointed by the Chief Justice of the Karnataka high court following complaints of child malnutrition and starvation in the state, found three malnutrition cases during his random visit to five anganawadi centres in the district on Friday.

He said that provision should be made to serve local and fresh food instead of standardized food at anganwadis. Read more

Source : articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

India ranks 46th in child welfare, says Unicef

Chennai, DHNS : Many children in the country live in poor health

Amidst increasing urbanisation and poor nutrition levels, many children in the country have managed to survive in the first decade of the new millennium with under-five mortality (U5MR) rate, a critical indicator to measure children’s wellbeing, dropping. Read more

Source : www.deccanherald.com

For a new highway, from Rio to Delhi

Brazil and India can benefit from each other's experience for an inclusive development agenda.

COOPERATION FOR SOCIAL BENEFITS: In the affordable housing sector, the opportunities for partnerships between Brazilian and Indian entrepreneurs are significant. A scene at Dharavi, Mumbai.

Expectations are high for the fourth summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, to be held in New Delhi on March 29. With an economic crisis in the eurozone and signs of another global recession, anticipation is mounting for how the BRICS leaders will address the world economic slowdown and how far they will push to reform the institutions of global governance. Read more

Source : www.thehindu.com

Govt unveils five-point blueprint on security

New Delhi: The Government on Monday unveiled a blueprint for guaranteeing internal and external security and economic and livelihood security as it expressed confidence that it will steer the country back to the high growth trajectory of 8 to 9 per cent.

With the government's image taking a knock on account of a number of scams, President Pratibha Patil listed a number of measures and said together these have the potential of bringing about a transformational change in curbing corruption and enhancing transparency and accountability in governance. Read more

Source : ibnlive.in.com

Food bill to cover just 66% of India's hungry

With 230 million people under-nourished, the country awaits some comprehensive policy intervention from the government to tackle this haunting crisis. One of the most logical measures would be to provide a fixed amount of foodgrain to all citizens. But wouldn't the costs be enormous, ask sceptics?

The Center for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), a Delhi-based think tank, crunched all the numbers and came up with the answer. It would take Rs 1.85 lakh crore every year to provide 24 crore households with adequate monthly food grains. This assumes that each household will be sold 23 kg rice at Rs.3 per kg, about 12 kg wheat at Rs.2 per kg and millets at Rs.1 per kg every month. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

People sell kidneys to beat starvation in West Bengal village

BINDOL (NORTH DINAJPUR): In these arid, impoverished parts, Bindol has another name -kidney village. The wasted, skeletal men and women you would see slumped under the shade of trees are awaiting death with feeble breaths. This is the kidney sale capital of the state, perhaps of the country. Every second home here has someone who has sold his kidney to escape starvation. Many die within years. 

Now, the dying men have started forcing their wives to give up a kidney. Read more 

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Malnutrition Needs to be Prioritized in Odisha, India

Malnutrition is one of the major issues Odisha has been grappling with for several years and successive governments in the state have come in for severe criticism on the handling of this issue from different quarters, including the National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court.

Natural calamities have made a dire situation, worse, especially since agriculture continues to be the mainstay of the state`s economy with over 60 per cent of the population still dependent on it, although its share in the Gross State Domestic Product had declined to a low 18 per cent in 2009-10. Read more

Source : thesop.org

Social welfare for all a pipe dream in India

India shines in its malls but slips badly when it comes to ensuring the well-being of its millions.

Rural migrants coming to big cities in search of a better life are not well placed on social scale

India may well be the world's fastest growing "free market" economy, but it is no competition to its neighbours when it comes to the social wellbeing of her people. Read more

Source : indiatoday.intoday.in

Girls’ education must to tackle malnutrition, say experts

New Delhi : As many as 92% mothers either don’t know of the term ‘malnutrition’, or are unaware of the fact that poor nutrition causes more than 50% deaths of children below five years of age in the country.

Education of girls/ women so that they can make good health and nutrition choices for their families is key to tackling the problem of malnutrition in India, said experts at the country’s first-ever International Symposium on Access at Base of Pyramid on Tuesday. Read more

Source : hindustantimes.com

Malnutrition in Karnataka : panel suggests ways for better coordination

BANGALORE : Re-survey of severely malnourished children recommended

Only about 55 per cent of children aged between 0 and 6 are covered under ICDS, says the report. File photo: K. Gopinathan

A committee set up to study child malnutrition in Karnataka has recommended several institutional mechanisms to improve coordination between the departments of Women and Child Development and Health and Family Welfare, the lack of which has resulted in “overlapping goals with accountability at stake.” Read more

Source : thehindu.com

Chronic malnutrition puts almost half a billion children at risk

Westport - Chronic malnutrition, a deadly and widespread crisis largely overlooked in the face of food scarcity, currently impacts one in four children across the globe and places almost half a billion children at risk of permanent damage within the next 15 years.

A new report by Save the Children, A Life Free from Hunger: Tackling Child Malnutrition (pdf), reveals chronic malnutrition, the lack of proper nutrition over time, if far more extensive than short-term acute malnutrition frequently associated with food crises. Read more

Source : digitaljournal.com

In Asia-Pacific, health poses challenge to 2015 goals

DELHI — Sixty percent of the world’s population lives in the Asia-Pacific, which makes its performance critical to achieving the global Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  It stretches from Turkey in the west to the Pacific island nation of Kirabati in the east, and from the Russian Federation in the north to New Zealand in the south. 

The latest assessment, however, indicates that the region is performing poorly on reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. In 2010, over 3 million children died before their fifth birthday. Read more

Source : smartplanet.com

In wasting children, a richer India sees "national shame"

(Reuters) - Crying as she is put on an electronic scale, two-year-old Rajini's naked shrivelled frame casts a dark shadow over a rising India, where millions of children have little to eat.

Severely malnourished two-year-old girl Rajni is weighed by health workers at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri district,Madhya Pradesh 

The children are scrawny, listless and sick in this run-down nutrition clinic in Madhya Pradesh with its intermittent power supply. If they survive they will grow up shorter, weaker and less smart than their better-fed peers. Read more

Source : in.reuters.com

24 percent Indian kids go hungry daily: Survey

New Delhi : Nearly 30 percent of Indian families have been forced to cut back on food due to rising prices, while around a quarter of kids go without food the whole day, according to an NGO. A study on food inflation and its impact on eating habits, conducted by Save the Children, was conducted in five countries.

"It is shocking that parents are telling that they cannot buy food for their children because of high prices. This is destructive for the child's development as malnutrition is fatal and contributes to child mortality," Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children International CEO, told IANS. Read more

Source : dailypioneer.com

It will not stop at Rs 60,000 crore

How economically sustainable is food subsidy? The cost could even be double of what the government estimates

Food deprivation and malnutrition are completely unacceptable and everything has to be done to eliminate such an evil. The prevalence of malnutrition in a country like India is in itself a cause for serious concern since malnourished children may jeopardise India’s favourable demographic dividend (as per independent estimates, close to 60 per cent of India’s population is in the age group of 15-59 years). However, the question is whether we can afford to have a food subsidy bill (FSB) and if such an endeavour is economically sustainable. This paper tries to argue that the fiscal viability of the proposed FSB is not clear and the delivery outcomes could be highly compromised given the governance weaknesses and ineffective delivery mechanisms in place. Read more

Source : indianexpress.com

Hunger and riches coexist in India

A national daily presented the other day two contrasting pictures of India. On its front page were the findings of a research indicating the extent of hunger and malnourishment in the country and in one of the inside pages was a report on the explosion on its roads with millions of private vehicles causing traffic jams in its urban centres. One wonders whether these contrasting pictures in a single edition of a daily have caught the attention of those who frame and implement the country’s economic policies. They show, if anything, the growing economic inequality in the country, which can directly be attributed to the policies pursued since economic liberalisation. The government has taken some initiatives to deal with the pervasive hunger and malnutrition but the measures that have been taken seem to have failed to yield the desired results. Read more

Source : groundreport.com

Affordable Southern remedies for better health

When can a baby girl born in Madhya Pradesh expect to live as long and healthy as a baby girl born in Kerala, overcoming the six-fold higher risk of dying before her first birthday? When will a rural Indian have the same level of satisfaction about the healthcare he or she receives, as a foreign medical tourist featured in the brochures of corporate hospitals? Will the 40 million Indians, who are annually pushed into poverty because of unaffordable healthcare costs, be relieved of the crushing burden of catastrophic health expenditures in a country where private, out-of-pocket spending accounts for 71 per cent of all health financing?

Kerala and Tamil Nadu can teach the rest of the country about good health at low cost.

While the Indian media is currently concerned over the fluctuating growth rates of the economy, it is the health indicators which should cause considerable concern. Read more

Source : ibnlive.in.com

An organizational problem

Child malnutrition makes headlines but unless grass-roots practices are reordered, it’ll remain a persistent problem

With the release of new malnutrition statistics and the Food Security Bill gaining ground, I am tempted to ask the following question to all those working on the issue including the chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC):

“Have you ever spent a day at an anganwadi?”

Photo by Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint.

Anganwadis, or crèches, are the backbone of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme initiated in 1975. ICDS targets infant children and pregnant mothers to tackle the problem of malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality and immunization. And yes, like any other mega social welfare scheme, millions of rupees are doled out every year for fortified grains, oil, fruit, etc., to be made available to poor young children and their mothers. Read more

Source : livemint.com

Republic of contradictions

"Over half of the world’s most polluted cities are in India. Because of the poor quality of air, 18,000 premature deaths occur each year in its metropolises."

Sixty three years ago, Dr B.R. Ambedkar spoke of the “life of contradictions” into which the Indian Republic would enter on January 26, 1950. He underlined the need for eliminating, at the earliest, the contradictions in the social and economic sphere lest they should imperil our political freedom and democracy. Were he to come alive today, he would be appalled to see the extent to which the contradictions have deepened and, that too during the period when the Republic saw one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

A report by the Naadi Foundation on Hunger and Malnutrition, which was released by the Prime Minister on January 11, 2012, has brought out that “59 per cent of the Indian children, between the age group of 0-5 years, have stunted growth, 42 per cent are underweight and 11 per cent suffer from wasting disease”. Every year, 13 lakh children die before reaching their first birthday, and about 55,000 women lose their life consequent upon birth-related complications. Read more

Source : asianage.com

Social inequality the real culprit in India’s ‘shameful’ malnutrition problem

It’s the grim statistic that just won’t budge: new child malnutrition numbers are out for India, and there is no good news to be had.

The exhaustive door-to-door survey covered a fifth of India’s children and found that 42.3 per cent of children under the age of five are underweight for their age, 58.8 per cent are stunted and 11.4 per cent are so severely underfed as to be considered “wasted.” Read more

Source : theglobeandmail.com

No shortcuts, please

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh began 2012 by delivering two significant speeches. He spoke at the Indian Science Congress on January 3 and on January 10, released a report by some NGOs and corporates on the status of hunger and malnutrition in the country. Though the two speeches were on divergent issues,put together, they convey a disturbing approach towards realising India's potential. 

Invoking the legendary mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (whose 125th birth anniversary is on December 22, 2012) and Satyendranath Bose (the elusive search for a sub-atomic elementary particle bearing his name, Boson, that may revolutionise humanity's understanding of our universe, continues at the CERN laboratory's Large Hadron Collider experiment), the PM ended by candidly admitting that India's spending on scientific research and development (R&D) is "too low and stagnant". At present, we spend less than 0.9% of our GDP on R&D. The PM bemoaned that China has left us behind on this and urged that we should spend at least 2% of our GDP on R&D by the end of the 12th Plan period. Read more

Source : hindustantimes.com

India’s Chronic Battle With Malnutrition

“It is unrealistic to expect any major breakthroughs in dealing with the diets of impoverished Indians,” a correspondent wrote in The New York Times in an article on Oct. 23, 1981.

Malnutrition in India is worse than in many African nations, stunting the growth of children like this girl in Shivpuri, photographed in November 2008.

While the words were written thirty years ago, they might have been written this week. Read more

Source : india.blogs.nytimes.com

Big child nutrition problem in AP: Report

HYDERABAD: That 42% of the country's children are malnourished is a statistic that finds stark reflection in Andhra Pradesh. While the state did not figure in the Naandi Foundation study, the latest findings by National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) note that 38.8% children in AP, in the age group 1-5 years, are undernourished. And, an alarming 48.1% of children have stunted growth, according to the 2010-11 study that is presently being finalised.

The NIN's National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau carried out the study in AP, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra for a population of 5,000 pre-school children. It found that, overall, 45.6% of the children in rural areas are underweight and undernourished with 49.6% of them showing stunted growth. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

80% kids below five are malnourished in Bihar

PATNA: PM Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said levels of under-nutrition in the country were "unacceptably high" despite impressive GDP growth, and did not hesitate in accepting that malnutrition is a national shame.

The pronouncement resonates in the state even though several health indicators have shown an upward trend, including high vaccination percentage, for which chief minister Nitish Kumar became the first recipient of the Gates Vaccine Innovation Award. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Nutrition surprise in rich kids

New Delhi : Even wealthy children show signs of poor nutrition in some Indian states, according to a new report on child malnutrition from a non-government organisation released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today.

Nutrition not just a problem among poor children

The report, based on a survey across 100 districts in six states with poor child development indicators, has shown that child malnutrition is widespread — 42 per cent of children under five years of age are underweight, and 59 per cent are stunted, or are shorter than their ideal height. Read more

Source : telegraphindia.com

Child malnutrition in India a "national shame" –PM

NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - India's "unacceptably high" levels of child malnutrition are a "national shame", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday, adding that almost half the children in the country were still under-weight despite two decades of rapid economic growth.

A malnourished child waits for food at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre in Sheopur district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh April 6, 2010. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause

Despite doubling the size of its economy between 1990 and 2005, Asia's third-largest economy has not yet been able to wipe out the mass hunger which still haunts rural landscapes and lurks in the alley ways of urban slums. Read more

Source : trust.org

Food security Bill: Instead of subsidies to food grains, policy should aim to increase purchasing power

While some may view the food security Bill as the instrument of combating poverty, this distinction belongs to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the flagship anti-poverty programme of the United Progressive Alliance government. The proponents of the food security Bill at the National Advisory Council have promoted it as the instrument of fighting widespread and rising hunger, instead.

But what is the empirical basis of the claims of widespread and rising hunger in India? Surely, we cannot go bythe claims of the Food and Agricultural Organization, World Bank and many NGOs who themselves prosper from propagating the view that India and Africa suffer from ever-rising hunger and poverty. Read more

Source : articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Mixed bag for Karnataka’s farmers

''Research in agriculture might have grown manifold. But do we have an invention that can produce grains and pulses in factories? Efforts to eradicate hunger and create interest in agriculture should happen simultaneously,'' farm scientist Mallanna Nagaral questions the relevance of the Global Agri-Investors’ Meet held in Bangalore at the beginning of this month.

The meet might have enhanced the credit flow to the agricultural sector, but will it help farmers in any way?

This year left its own footprints on the agriculture sector in the State. Farmers of Halligudi in Gadag who were dreaming of a good harvest after the first phase of Singatalur Lift Irrigation project was complete, were shocked to realise that the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board, the mandated agency of the State government, wanted to acquire more than 3,000 acres for a major steel plant. Read more

Source : deccanherald.com