Sujit De
The 2024 Global Hunger Index report, in which India ranks 105 among 127 countries, must not be ignored. The report says that India’s undernourished population would effectively rank as the seventh most populous country in the world — with roughly the population of Brazil, a staggering 200 million people. In other words, 13.7 per cent of India's population is undernourished.
Among neighbours, India is behind China (at the top bracket that includes 22 countries), Sri Lanka (56), Nepal (68), Myanmar (74), and Bangladesh (84), but only ahead of Pakistan (109) and Afghanistan (116). Bhutan could not be included in the 2024 GHI because of a lack of data.
The report is based on four indicators - Under nourishment, Child wasting, Child stunting and Child mortality. The nutrition indicators for children under 5 years show that one out of three children (35.5 per cent) is a victim of stunting, nearly one out of five children (18.7 per cent) is a victim of wasting, and 2.9 per cent of children die before completing 5 years. India has the highest global rate of child wasting.
Now, how can a country compete with others when the growth of more than one third of its future workforce has been stunted for not getting enough food to eat? It is not difficult to comprehend that it is impossible. However, we can look at the findings of this year’s Nobel laureates in economics - Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson - to get a clear answer. They have demonstrated that institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better.
A study says that many gig workers in India have to work for 10 to 14 hours daily for their employers and earn less than Rs 10,000 per month. While overwork damages their health, the poor wage makes their children and family members compromise on food intake. This is nothing but exploitation.
Children are unable to learn optimally when they are hungry. To address this problem, the new National Educational Policy has proposed that the mid-day meals provided to students in government and aided schools should be supplemented by breakfast.
The Centre should allocate more funds for introducing breakfast, in addition to the mid-day meal for all government and aided schools from the nursery level. It is highly commendable that some States and Union Territories provide additional items such as milk, eggs, and fruits to students from their own resources.
But why should not the Centre itself allocate the funds for the same for giving those nutritious food items to students all over the country? Otherwise, students of all the states in India will not get those additional, nutritious food items.
Some estimates show that three out of four Indians are non-vegetarian. A non-vegetarian student should eat a boiled egg every day in the mid-day meal. Whereas, an alternative food item needs to be served to a vegetarian student.
It will be highly unfortunate if prejudices against non-vegetarian items restrain students from having eggs. Boiled eggs can easily be prepared, can never be adulterated, and have high nutritional value for money.
How long should we turn a blind eye to our millions of hungry, malnourished children with stunted growth? The government should label the health of our children as a matter of top priority, instead of basking in the surreal glory of the sun and moon missions, which have no connection to our children's or people's welfare.
Both breakfast and midday meals comprising healthy items like milk, eggs, and fruits should be served to students in all government and aided schools throughout the country without any delay.