24 percent Indian
kids go without food every day, reveals ‘Save the Children’ study. The
study was conducted in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Peru and
sampled over 1,000 adults in rural and urban areas. It revealed that
nearly 30 percent of Indian families have been forced to cut back on
food due to rising food prices. Save the Children is an international
NGO working for children's rights in 120 countries.
Although India has a fast emerging economy, the fact is that many
people are yet to experience the economic benefits. It was noted that in
India 24 percent reported that their children go without food for an
entire day. The report also highlighted that the family size is critical
in driving child hunger in India.
Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children International CEO, told IANS "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."
She added that "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 the urgent need to set
goals and measure progress for achieving the millennium development
goals (MDG)."
The key findings from
the report revealed that more than one in four in India and Peru say
that their children complain of insufficient food to eat. Around a
quarter in India say that their children ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ go
without food for a whole day. And those with three or more school-age
children in India, Peru, and Nigeria are most likely to report that
their children go hungry for whole days at a time.
The report also suggests that those in India are least likely to have
reduced the food they buy but noted that 27 percent of people in India
report that they can never afford to buy nutritious food such as meat,
milk or vegetables.
17 percent respondents in India said they have allowed their children
to miss school in order to work and help pay for the family’s food. This
was more likely noted to prevail in parents who were less educated. The
foods that the poorest eat in times of hardship in India were recorded
to be pulses, chapatti, vegetables, rice, etc which are generally of low
quality.
About 66 percent respondents in India said that rising food prices were
a pressing concern in 2011. The report also suggests that in India and
Nigeria, parents struggle to feed their children. It seems like a large
section of the population is unaffected by the economic progress of
these countries. 51 percent surveyed in India strongly agreed that
rising price of food has become the most pressing concern.
Dr.
Rajiv Tandon, Senior Advisor, Save the Children, India said “17 percent
food rate rise in one year is what has probably made 20 percent more
families unable to afford a nutritious diet.”
Another report from ‘Save the Children’ revealed that 40 percent
children in India are stunted and 80 percent of stunted children are
recorded to live in just 20 countries. One in four of the world children
are stunted, which means their body and brain has failed to develop
properly because of malnutrition. It is also noted that the global
progress on stunting has been extremely slow with the proportion of
stunted children falling only from 40 to 27 percent from 1990 to 2010.
The report also suggested that in the poorest countries, the poorest
children are twice more likely to be chronically malnourished than their
richest counterparts. Also, 450 million children will be affected by
stunting in the next 15 years if the current trends continue. It was
seen that adults who were malnourished as children earn at least 20
percent less on average than those who weren’t.
