... by distributing edible oil
December, 2016 in Issue 4 - 2016, Comment
With robust macro-economic fundamentals, India has emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing significant economies. GDP growth, rising incomes, population pressure, age profile and appetite for consumption have all combined to drive demand up for various goods and services. Food, of course, tops the list.
Despite an impressive show on the economic front, India’s development indicators are far from satisfactory. The proof of this comes from the country’s low ranking in the Human Development Index and high rank in the Global Hunger Index. While India demonstrates economic growth, progress on social development front lags far behind.
A pernicious but under-appreciated challenge India currently faces is pervasive malnutrition or specifically, under-nutrition. This is prevalent especially in the rural areas and among the urban poor.
The National Family Health Survey revealed that as many as 42% of children below the age of five are under-weight with a high prevalence of stunting. An alarming 70% of women are found to be anaemic. They include pregnant women and lactating mothers. There is pervasive protein and calorie deficiency, leading to serious acute malnutrition.
The importance of nutrition to human well-being is well known. Under-nutrition exerts long-term adverse effect on human health, impairs labour productivity and general well-being.
Perpetual under-nutrition results in low resistance to infections and increased morbidity. It imposes higher healthcare costs on individuals and, worse, imposes huge hidden, unaccounted and unrecognised losses on society and the nation at large.
Within the country, we find stark inter-state variations in the nutrition profile of people. For instance, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Punjab do reasonably well, while the nutrition profile of states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan leaves much to be desired.
