AGRICULTURAL progress in the last decade has made India self sufficient in major food grains. Yet, under-nutrition continues to be a major nutritional problem. In fact, a recent report on hunger and nutrition brought out by Naandi Foundation points to how challenging the problem still is. About 42 percent of children under five years who have been surveyed are underweight, and about 58 percent stunted. These figures point out the unusual challenge India faces in child undernutrition even as its economic growth rates move up.
What is worrying is not just the high percentage of children who are malnourished, but the fact that the rate is going down so slowly as to be virtually negligible. Though the figure is marginally better than that of the Health Survey Conducted in 2004 and the percentage of underweight children has come down from 53 to 42, it is still unacceptably high, as the P.M. said. Sadly enough, there has not been any significant change in the nutritional values for children in India in all these years. There is therefore no room for lame excuses to hide the non performance of successive governments. Much more needs to be done to ensure that our young ones have at least minimum nutrition so that they have a fighting chance of survival.

Ours is a country of glaring contrasts. The contrasts between the richest and poorest, between a high economic growth rate and increasing disparity and inequality have always existed. But nowhere is this contrast more glaring than between the unchecked consumption in our cities and the absence of basic survival needs in our villages and poor settlements. On one side we see food grains rotting up and on the other, malnutrition stares us in the face. When 42 percent of our children are malnourished all other achievements, be it either in areas such as space exploration, information technology or stem cell research, are meaningless. How can we accept such poor indices and at the same time boast about a phenomenal growth in GDP?
Dr. Singh has described the high rate of malnourishment among children under five as a “national shame.” But what is really shameful is the indifference and apathy of this government that has failed to discharge its fundamental responsibilities to its people. For the PM to suddenly wake up from his slumber and find the report on hunger and malnutrition a shame is surprising. He ought to be reminded that he leads a country that produces a record-breaking quantity of food grains but 48 farmers commit suicide there every day.  India is the second largest producer of rice and wheat and the largest producer of Jowar, Bajra and Gram. Besides this tonnes of food grains are also exported. But the very fact that such a large percentage of its children is suffering under nutrition is shocking in itself. Clearly, we are no longer a food deficient country. So, where does the problem lie?
There are no simple explanations for India’s alarming child malnutrition rate. Although India operates the Integrated Child Development services scheme, touted as the world’s largest state- sponsored programme to fight malnutrition, experts agree that it has remained mired in corruption and is largely inadequate. There are numerous policies and programmes that have been in place for years. But how many of these have achieved even partial success? We have a number of welfare schemes at both the central and state levels. But quite obviously, they don’t benefit the needy as is evident from the poor show of the results. Although the government of India demonstrated its intent to control undernutrition by formulating the National Nutrition policy in 1993 and the National plan of Action on Nutrition in 1995, but poor implementation came in the way of achieving the desired goal. There was also a failure to involve people in the programmes and in increasing their awareness. The PM’s suggestion to restructure the ICDS is a welcome initiative. However, translating policies into tangible help on the ground for our children is where the challenge lies.
The problem of child undernutrition also has its roots in the perpetually anaemic women who are in poor health and yet keep on producing children. So they are unable to breastfeed their children. The most damaging effects of under nutrition occur during pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life. Owing to a resource crunch, both mothers and children, especially daughters, remain severely undernourished. There is no gainsaying that reducing child malnutrition requires enhancing the women’s health status and the promotion of gender equality. So any health project directed to reduce child undernutrition has to first boost the health of mothers to be. Both the central and state governments spend a lot on the health and welfare of pregnant women. However, for any of these programmes to have the desired impact, it is necessary to focus on the importance of health care for women. What makes all of this even more frustrating is the fact the beneficiaries of all these schemes do not get their due, thanks to corrupt officials and middlemen. Besides, there are other problems such as illiteracy, unhygienic conditions and lack of health facilities that perpetuate this national scourge.

What do we do to change this? The problem requires a holistic solution at the socio-economic level. To address the challenge of children’s malnutrition, states need to be far more active and take up a multi dimensional approach. For starters, there is a need to step up nutrition intervention schemes on a war footing. Government also needs to ensure that the programmes in place for the welfare of women and children are implemented with a sense of urgency and sincere commitment. And the anganwadis system has to be overhauled to make maternal and child health and nutrition major foci. Even today we find many women who have a low level of awareness on nutrition. Therefore there is a need to bring about awareness among expectant mothers on the benefits of vitamin A and iron supplements. It is equally essential to make them understand the importance of giving Colostrum to the newborn. This is turn requires expanding the reach of education so that more women are literate and become aware of health related problems and their solutions.

But we need more than that. Government needs to act decisively instead of mouthing platitudes. The health ministry is adept at holding frequent conferences and seminars but when it comes to implementing existing policies, it throws up its hands. It is time to take some emergency action rather than enact another law and wait for its results.
Malnutrition is not solely a health issue. Such defective growth of children will have a telling effect on the country’s future. Yet, the issue has never been a matter of debate among our leaders. Why is nutrition not part of any party manifesto? Ideally, such issues should become the topic of election campaigns but no party is concerned with it. It is a shame that our elected representatives are busy playing the caste and religion-based politics since the issue of underfed children is not distressing enough for them to topple any government.
There is no point in the government lamenting that the country’s health indicators are “shameful”. It is time we get our act together and approach the problem with fresh perspectives with as many as 42 percent of over children underweight, we have no time to waste.