India 24 Per Cent Indian Kids Go Hungry: Survey

[Archived_Member16]

24 per cent Indian kids go hungry: Survey

By migration@dc.com

15 Feb 2012 - 00:00

India may be an economic success story. But a Save the Children study says around a quarter of Indian children in the 0-6 age group go without food every day.

And nearly 30 per cent of Indian families have been forced to cut back on food due to rising food prices, said the study released on Tuesday along with a report on tackling child malnutrition.

Save the Children conducted the study 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, said.

The study was conducted in December and January in Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Peru. It sampled over 1,000 adults in rural and urban areas.

"The reason we chose these countries was because the five nations cover more than half of the world's malnourished children. India is a growing economy and this survey tells (us) the urgent need to set goals and measure progress for achieving the millennium development goals (MDG)," Whitbread added.

Nearly 66 per cent respondents in India said that rising food prices were a pressing concern in 2011. Another 17 per cent parents said their children skipped school to work and pay for food.

The report says that in India and Nigeria, parents struggle to feed their children. A large section of the population seems unaffected by the economic progress of these countries.

Food inflation in India has dipped after remaining high for a long time. But figures show that although prices of foodgrains have dipped, those of vegetables, milk, eggs, meat and protein diet have risen substantially.

According to the study, every year around 1.72 million children under five years die in India. Of these, more than half the deaths take place in the first one month of a child's life.

India also ranks 134 among 187 countries in Human Development Index, 73 among 78 countries as the best place to be a mother, and 67 among 81 countries in the Global Hunger Index.

More than a fifth of under five deaths per year take place in India - the highest anywhere in the world.

India also holds the 11th highest rate of stunting globally.

Eighty per cent of stunted children live in just 20 countries. Forty-eight per cent of the children are stunted, said Save the Childrern.

Stunting means the children's body and brain have failed to develop properly due to malnutrition.

It said that social protection schemes - which provide families with regular cash transfers or food parcels that provide a safety net during hard times - have proved successful in many countries in protecting families from the worst effects of poverty.

Brazil, it said, has shown how investing in social protection can dramatically reduce hunger and malnutrition, and also contribute to economic growth.

"Our recommendations include setting up a nutrition mission, better defining and refining the selection criteria of families below poverty line and a host of essential interventions to improve nutritional security of families," said the NGO's India CEO Thomas Chandy.

source: http://www.asianage.com/india/24-cent-indian-kids-go-hungry-survey-956

 

[Archived_Member16]

By The Associated Press, cbc.ca, Updated: February 15, 2012 10:49 AM

Malnutrition kills 2 million kids a year

Five children around the world die every minute because of chronic malnutrition, according to a new report.

Wednesday's report also said that almost half a billion children are at risk of permanent damage over the next 15 years.

The report from Save the Children said the deaths of 2 million children each year could be prevented if malnutrition were better addressed.

It called chronic malnutrition a largely hidden crisis that affects one in four children globally. Global hunger has fallen markedly over the last two decades, but the 2011 Global Hunger Index found that six countries have higher rates of hunger today than two decades ago. Five of those countries are in Africa. The other is North Korea.

The 2011 Global Hunger Index said that Congo, Burundi, Comoros, Swaziland and Ivory Coast have higher degrees of hunger today than in 1990. Kuwait, Turkey, Malaysia and Mexico have made the biggest gains against hunger.

Karin Lapping, a senior director of nutrition for Save the Children, said many Asian countries have made strides against hunger because of an explicit focus on reducing chronic malnutrition, but that many African countries have not made that same commitment and have fallen victims to predictable cycles of drought and famine.

"When we look at successful examples in Asia like Bangladesh, they have a national nutrition program," Lapping said. "We haven't seen that to be the case in many nations in Africa."

Ethiopia is one exception, she said, because of successful nutrition programs. But, she said, in many other regions "progress has been undercut by cyclical emergencies like what we're seeing now in the Sahel," a belt across northern Africa that experiencing a food crisis. Lapping said many African countries need greater political commitments from their governments and more external aid.

Hunger and brain damage

Malnutrition numbers in Africa remain startling. The report said that nearly two in five children on the continent — 60 million children — are stunted. The average yield of staple cereals is a third less than in Asia.

The British government estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 people died during a famine in Somalia last year. Most of those killed were children.

Chronic hunger leaves children vulnerable to starvation when food crises hit, but also leaves them vulnerable to death by diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria even in better times.

"It also likely causes permanent damage to their bodies and brains," said Tanya Weinberg, a Save the Children spokeswoman.

The Save the Children report said that if action is not taken to reduce chronic malnutrition, 450 million children will be affected by 2025.

The report said that malnutrition must be made more visible so that governments are forced to act, that more health care workers are needed and that governments must help small-scale farmers improve their yields.

source: http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/malnutrition-kills-2-million-kids-a-year

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

actual figures are higher...

 

[Kamala]

Eh, most people know this. Also most people are cheap as well and are in no obligation to pay for others who can't help themselves..