Malnutrition Crisis of India

 It is election time in India and even as we are celebrating democracy this election has evoked the least enthusiasm in me on a personal level even though I am very clear about the choice of voting I will make when I visit my voting booth next Monday, May 20, 2024. My blog today is based on what I heard in a podcast by Amit Verma featuring a relatively young economist Rohit Lamba which was a TIL moment for me. For the uninitiated TIL stands for (Today I learned). So what did I learn which gave me a subject for this blog. Why I call this a TIL moment is that this knowledge should count as a tragedy and a daily disaster of over 10-15000 daily deaths of children under age 5 and should give sleepless nights to the leadership of our nation. Today it is reported that the  underweight among under-five children ranged from 39% to 75%, stunting from 15.4% to 74% and wasting from 10.6% to 42.3% in different parts of the country. The under 5 mortality rate is 32 per 10,000 births. In sheer numbers the underweight children were double that of  sub Saharan Africa which is widely known as one of the poorest areas of the world.  

The countries in red including parts of Sub Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent account for almost 90 % of under 5 mortality and stunted growth. While this is a matter of shame, to be fair to my country this problem has reduced by more than 50% when compared with the 90's. While this may a saving grace but even in the 90's the nations licence permit raj policies stifled growth and India's well known entrepreneurial potential remain shackled and was about to get release during the reforms of the early 90's. The market driven economic growth started swinging the pendulum from a welfare state where profiteering and show of wealth was not encouraged to a situation where flaunting of wealth became fashionable and desirable. The rising inequalities seemed to give fodder to the critics of economic reforms and welfarist policies became populist and politically motivated. While it was said that market forces would create prosperity and by the trickle down effect the poor would be lifted out of poverty. India's shift from agricultural economy and jobs to manufacturing economy and then service industry was not gradual and in the race to concentrate on infrastructure and big industry and IT, primary education and primary health were neglected on a scale which is shameful. 

The importance of nutrition in the first 2 years and learning and brain development in the first 5 years of life creates irreversible deficits and for a young nation like India it is a policy which will negate the demographic dividend which we can easily take advantage of. Even so it is 5 backward states and 50% of the villages which account for 80% of the problem. It is also linked to gender discrimination and feeding the woman last and the girl child less than the boy. A simple measure of family eating together can help reduce this disparity. The lack of clean drinking water, proper sanitation, air and dust pollution and poor primary health care infrastructure are all responsible for this sorry state of affairs. 

The solutions to this are already available and states like Kerela and Tamil Nadu are examples which can be replicated and scaled up. Public sector and primary health care along with preventive initiatives are very much possible and countries across the world including China, South east Asia, Europe and USA spend far more than India on public health. Even in the North the Delhi government has improved education and healthcare better than before.

 

On the eve of this polarized election we must pledge to hold our leadership accountable for this colossal failure in policy and implementation and not get swayed by appeals pandering to caste, communal and even false corruption issues. Here all the parties have to share responsibility and we as citizens must hold the leadership accountable for this crime against humanity. The impact of this is similar to Covid crisis, great Bengal famine and even the holocaust. 

Vispi Jokhi