No Great Escape

The Hindu     19th October 2020     Save    

Context: India’s poor progress on nutritional indices must turn national focus on reducing hunger, wasting and stunting among children. 

Global Hunger Index (GHI)

  • Parameters Used: 
    1. Wasting and stunting (under five), 
    2. Share of the population with insufficient caloric intake,
    3. Child mortality.
  • Worst among BRICS countries (27.2), and inferior to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. 
  • Low rank worldwide: India ranks 94 among 107 countries. 

India’s Nutritional Inaccessibility

  • Inadequate delivery of nutrition: especially to women and children; Three out of four rural Indians cannot afford a balanced, nutritious diet. - International Food Policy Research Institute:
  • Insufficient diet diversity: in Public Distribution System (PDS) and false equation of energy calories with a diverse diet.
    • Under-five stunting due to chronic undernourishment stood at 38%, and wasting, at 21% due to lack of nutrition. -  National Family Health Survey (NFHS).
  • Food inflation exaggerated by pandemic: putting pressure on depleted incomes or meagre pensions and savings.
  • Decreased accessibility of PDS: to disabled and the elderly due to necessary requirement of biometric verification to get supplies. 

Way Forward: Strengthen the PDS 

  • Stronger supplemental nutrition under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) with a focus on women and child health.
  • Pursuit of fraud within PDS with stringent measures. 

Conclusion: GHI measure must be used as a reminder that right to food would be meaningless without nutritional security.