BETTER NUTRITION FOR THE POOR IS IMPERATIVE FOR INDIA TO CONTAIN HUNGER QUIBBLING OVER METHODOLOGY BY CENTRE WILL DO NO GOOD TO THE AFFECTED

After the sad happenings during COVID-19 which led to the death of 4 lakh people according to official figures (even though some independent agencies point out this number to be between 25-40 lakh), the news of vaccinating 100 crore people with first dose and 30 per cent population with second dose gave some respite. The data on how many doses were paid and how many free of cost is yet to be
released by the government. In the past too India has to its credit several successfulimmunizationprogrammes 100 per cent free of cost including
the most worked out door to door Pulse Polio as well as small pox eradication.

At this juncture it is extremely disturbingto note that India’s ranking in Global Hunger Index has further declined to 101 among the 116 countries surveyed. The government’s objections to the scoring method do not hold good as it is not for the first time that this data has been released. It is an annual affair based on the similar methodology.

Irony is that our rank is lower than all our South Asian neighbours with Sri Lank at 65, Nepal& Bangladesh at 76 and Pakistan at 92. Even Rwanda which has seen deadly internal strife for several years is better than us at 98. The countries below us are Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Congo (Republic of), Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, ,Central African Republic , Yemen, Somalia. All these countries are either faced
with civil wars or areat very low level of economic development.

Data on the GHI score reveals that from 2000 to 2012 the GHI score for India improved by 10 points. From 2012 to 2021 this improvement is only 1.3. O ur neighbouring countries have fared better with Bangladesh 9.5 points, Sri Lanka 4.6, Nepal 4 and Pakistan
7.4 points.

Under nourishment means that caloric intake is insufficient. This has serious effect on children. It causes wasting among the children which means that the child has low weight for height. This occurs as a result of acute under nutrition. Other impact is that the child does not gain enough height expected for that particular age. This is labelled as stunting and occurs due to chronic under nourishment. The poor nourishment leads to high percentage of mortality among the children.
A balanced diet means sufficient number of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and micro nutrients in the form of vitamins and minerals. Lancet had formed a committee to go into nutritional requirements of a person. It has suggested intake of 232 grams of whole grain, 50 grams of Tubers of starchy vegetables like potato, 300 grams of vegetables, 200 grams of fruits, 250 grams dairy food, 250 grams of protein sources in the formof meat, egg, poultry, fish, legumes, nuts, 50 grams saturated and unsaturated oils 30 grams of sugar. At the present market price the cost of these food items per person comes to be Rs.154/- per day. This means that a family of five members should spend Rs.770/- per day or Rs.23100/- per month on food. Barring a miniscule population our people are far from this target. The government’s scheme to give 5 kg of grains and one kg daal and a bit of oil does not fulfil the nutritional requirements. It is just enough for sustenance. It does not at all meet the requirements of micro nutrients like vitamins and minerals essential for physical and metal growth.

Therefore increasing purchasing capacity of the people and poverty alleviationwith sufficient wages is the only answer to meet the requirement

2014-15 budget and is now down to Rs 11,000 crore. The allocation for ICDS has also fallen below than 2015. The allocation for the Poshan Abhiyaan, which had a meagre budget of Rs 3,700 crore which has also beenreduced by Rs.1000 crore to Rs.2700 crore in the annual
budget 2021-22.

of quality food for the citizens. Several economic experts including the Nobel Laureate Abhijeet Banerjee have suggested several means to aleviate poverty. The basic principle however remains that buyingcapacity ofthe people should increase and the government should ensure food security to all citizens.

Various workers organizations have formulated their demand for minimum wage based on these principles. They have demanded a minimum wage of Rs.21000/- per month. To the utter dismay the government has fixed national minimum wage as Rs.178/- per day or Rs.5340/- per month. This is despite an internal labour ministry committee recommendation of Rs.375/- per day.

This low minimum wage will further increase inequality and poverty.

Large number of our population is in the unorganised sector where the legal formulations are hardly implemented. The farmers and agriculture labour who are the producers are among the worst sufferers. Agriculture labourers have to face double oppression, economic as well as social. The farmers are protesting as they fear that with the new acts not only their economic conditions will go worse but food security of the citizens too will be compromised.

Unfortunately instead of increasing budgetary allocation for the nutrition programmes and increasing the wages the government is further cutting them down. The government reduced financial allocation for the mid day meal and the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programmes in its 2015-16 budget. The central budget for mid- day meals was Rs.13000 crore in

N utrition forms the basis of developing immunity. A poorly nourished person is more likely to fall prey to diseases.

With the skewed policies we will never achieve a hunger free India. There is need to have the public discourse around such issues. The government has to ensure increase in financial allocation to nutritional programmes, increase and ensure minimum wage as demanded by the workers’ organisations, sort out issue of farming community, ensure food security to all, good housing, healthy environment, clean drinking water supply, proper sanitation and job security. People should not be made dependent like stop gap arrangements of aata daal scheme instead they should be remunerated well so as to increase their purchasing capacity.

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