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<ul><li>The number of children with <keyword id="14094" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="anaemia" source="Orion">anaemia</keyword> has increased from 58% in 2015-16 to 67% in 2019-21 in India, says the State of Inequality report.</li><li>92.5% of children in Ladakh suffer from this health condition.</li><li>India has the highest percentage of anaemia as compared to other countries in the South Asian region.</li></ul>India is facing yet another health emergency and it’s affecting our children - aneamia. The number of children facing this condition caused by iron deficiency has increased from 58% in 2015-16 to 67% in 2019-21, says the State of Inequality report released by Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. The cold desert of Ladakh situated in difficult terrain fares the worst - as 92.5% of its children suffer from this health condition. Gujarat comes next with 78% - and this percentage has been growing in the state. The report said that it can be handled by giving importance to nutritional deficiency and ensure that poverty or discrimination isn’t causing it. “Every household should be empowered enough that the Cost of Recommended Diet (CoRD24) is not more than 16% of their household consumption expenditure,” the report said. <div type="image" title="States with highest percentage of anaemic women" msid="91659659" hostid="261"></div> Aneamia is a health condition wherein the body lacks healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen, causing fatigue and a weak immune system. It makes an individual more prone to infections - and in children, it affects their physical and cognitive development. This is majorly caused due to iron and folic acid deficiency. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Anaemia is going down in tribal-dominated areas" comment="subhead" text="Anaemia is going down in tribal-dominated areas">Anaemia is going down in tribal-dominated areas</cmsannotation> As many as 59% of adolescent girls and 57% of women of reproductive age suffer from it, in India. It is much lower for adolescent boys and men at 31% and 25%, respectively. Bihar has the highest percentage of <keyword id="1059161" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anaemic-women" source="Orion">anaemic women</keyword> at 76%, as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS) - 5. This percentage has also been growing. Ladakh and Gujarat come next with more than 60% of their women suffering from it. The condition has been declining in tribal-dominated areas like Madhya Pradesh, Dadra &amp; Nagar Haveli and Daman &amp; Diu, Nagaland, Andaman &amp; Nicobar Islands — probably due to focussed attention and interventions. Andaman and Nicobar Islands showed the biggest decline of 8%, while Himachal Pradesh also saw a similar decline. The number of pregnant women suffering from aneamia across India however went up to 52% from 50% earlier. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="India has the highest prevalence of anaemia in South Asia" comment="subhead" text="India has the highest prevalence of anaemia in South Asia">India has the highest prevalence of anaemia in South Asia</cmsannotation> Among the developing countries, India has the highest percentage of anaemia as compared to other countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh in the South Asian region. As per WHO estimates, Indian cases of the condition are much higher than the global average of 39.8% for children and 36.5% for pregnant women. However, the highest has been observed in Nigeria with 55% – and India with 52% isn’t too far behind. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/heatwave-has-turned-acs-from-a-luxury-to-a-necessity-but-margins-remain-muted-for-the-players/articleshow/91655568.cms">Heatwave has turned ACs from a luxury to a necessity — but margins remain muted for the players</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/tvs-new-iqube-electric-scooter-comparison-with-ather-450x-and-ola-s1-pro/articleshow/91657740.cms">TVS launches new iQube electric scooter in India – here’s how it fares against the Ather 450X and Ola S1 Pro</a>

Almost all —  92% — of Ladakh children suffer from anaemia and the rest of the country isn’t faring any better either

While on one hand India is one of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/indian-economy-will-register-fastest-growth-compared-to-other-nations-in-next-5-years-and-china-will-be-mired-in-complication/articleshow/57076499.cms">fastest growing economies</a> in the world with a bright and promising future, it also has a side that’s dark and terrifying. 
 As per the recently released <keyword id="121300" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="National-Family-Health-Survey">National Family Health Survey</keyword>, over 58% of <keyword id="6354493" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="children">children</keyword> below five years of age in India are <keyword id="143070" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Anaemic">anaemic</keyword>, suffering from <keyword id="4256368" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="insufficient-haemoglobin">insufficient haemoglobin</keyword> in their blood. This is alarming since the condition, caused mainly by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/poverty-line-is-going-to-be-re-defined-niti-aayog-expects-to-resolve-stalemate/articleshow/56514563.cms">poverty</a>, leaves them exhausted, vulnerable to infections, and might also affect their brain development. 
 
The survey, which covered six lakh households, was carried out in 2015-16, also shows that 38% of children under five years of age were stunted, 21% were wasted and 36% weighed less than normal. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Shameful-India-is-the-Worlds-Slave-Capital/articleshow/50012694.cms">Shameful! India is the ‘World’s Slave Capital’</a> 
 
As per the 2011 Census data, the total number of children in this age group under-five in India in 2015 is projected at 12.4 crore, which leaves around 7.2 crore anaemic, nearly 5 crore stunted, around 2.6 crore wasted and 4.4 crore underweight. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Low-cost-Innovation-May-Transform-Indias-Healthcare-Industry/articleshow/35202576.cms">Low-cost Innovation May Transform India’s Healthcare Industry</a> 
 
There has been only a little improvement since the last such survey in 2005-06. 
 As per the <keyword id="6356311" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="World-Health-Organisation">World Health Organisation</keyword>, high levels of these markers clearly indicate "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/World-Bank-says-Indias-poverty-rate-lowest-among-nations-with-poor-populations/articleshow/49229688.cms">poor socio-economic conditions</a>" and "suboptimal health and/or nutritional conditions," hinting at lack of food, unhealthy living conditions and poor health delivery systems. 
 
(Image source: Povertyactionlab)

More than half of Indian kids under the age of 5 are anaemic

The number of undernourished people in <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> has declined in the last 15 years to 224.3 million in 2019-2021, according to a UN report, which also said that there are more obese adults and anaemic women in the <keyword id="6354507" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="world" source="Orion">world</keyword>'s second most populous country. The <keyword id="5004571" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="state-of-food-security-and-nutrition" source="Orion">State of Food Security and Nutrition</keyword> in the World 2022 report, issued on Wednesday by UN agencies <keyword id="397960" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="food-and-agriculture-organisation" source="Orion">Food and Agriculture Organisation</keyword> (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, <keyword id="49053" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="world-food-programme" source="Orion">World Food Programme</keyword> (WFP) and the <keyword id="6356311" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="world-health-organisation" source="Orion">World Health Organisation</keyword> (WHO), said that the number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report said that in India, the number of undernourished people declined to 224.3 million in 2019 21 from 247.8 million in 2004-06. It said that the number of children under 5 years of age who are stunted declined to 36.1 million in 2020 from 52.3 million in 2012, the number of children under five years of age who are overweight declined to 2.2 million in 2020 from three million in 2012. However, the number of obese adults in India, which has a population of over 1.38 billion, grew to 34.3 million in 2016 from 25.2 million in 2012 and the number of women aged 15 to 49 years affected by anaemia also grew to 187.3 million in 2019 from 171.5 million in 2012. The report added that the number of children up to 5 months of age exclusively breastfed touched 14 million in 2020 from 11.2 million in 2012. In percentage terms, the prevalence of undernourishment in the total population in India stood at 21.6 per cent in 2004-06 and declined to 16.3 per cent in 2019-21, the prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years of age declined to 30.9 per cent in 2020 from 41.7 per cent in 2012 and the prevalence of overweight children under five years of age was 1.9 per cent in 2020 from 2.4 per cent in 2012. The prevalence of obesity in India's adult population increased to 3.9 per cent in 2016 from 3.1 per cent in 2012 and anaemic women aged 15 to 49 years declined marginally from 53.2 per cent in 2012 to 53 per cent in 2019. The report also noted that in India, people who were unable to afford a healthy diet touched 973.3 million in 2020 or nearly 70.5 per cent, up from 948.6 million in 2019 (69.4 per cent). In 2017, about a billion people were unable to afford a healthy diet in India and this number has declined to 966.6 million in 2018. The report noted that subsidies to consumers provided in Lower- Income Countries and Middle-Income Countries most often take the form of in-kind or cash transfers under the social protection programmes. India and Indonesia, for example, provide substantial subsidies to final consumers under the Targeted Public Distribution System for grains in India, and the food assistance programme (BPNT) based on electronic vouchers for rice, in Indonesia, it said. The most prominent example of a (Lower-middle-income countries) LMIC is India, where the food and agricultural policy has historically focused on protecting consumers by ensuring affordable food prices, through export restrictions (on wheat, non-basmati rice, and milk, among others) and through marketing regulations around pricing and public procurement, public food stockholding and distribution of a vast range of agricultural commodities, it said. As such, farmers have constantly faced price disincentives in aggregate terms (negative NRPs). Input subsidies and expenditure on general services such as in R&amp;D and infrastructure have been widely used as a means of compensating them for the price disincentives generated by trade and market measures, and for boosting production and self-sufficiency in the country, it added. The report noted that after remaining relatively unchanged since 2015, the proportion of people affected by hunger jumped in 2020 and continued to rise in 2021, to 9.8 per cent of the world population. This compares with 8 per cent in 2019 and 9.3 per cent in 2020. World hunger rose in 2021, with around 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe difficulty obtaining enough to eat -- and that was before the Ukraine war, which has sparked increases in the cost of grain, fertiliser and energy, according to the report. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World paints a grim picture, based on 2021 data, saying the statistics should dispel any lingering doubts that the world is moving backwards in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms , it explained. It warned that the ongoing war in Ukraine, is disrupting supply chains and further affecting prices of grain, fertiliser and energy resulting in more price increases in the first half of 2022. At the same time, they said, more frequent and extreme climate events are also disrupting supply chains, especially in low-income countries. Ukraine and Russia together produced almost a third of the world's wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil, while Russia and its ally Belarus are the world's No. 2 and 3 producers of potash, a key ingredient of fertiliser. Nearly 924 million people (11.7 per cent of the global population) faced food insecurity at severe levels, an increase of 207 million in two years. The gender gap in food insecurity continued to rise in 2021 --- 31.9 per cent of women in the world were moderately or severely food insecure, compared to 27.6 per cent of men --- a gap of more than 4 percentage points, compared with 3 percentage points in 2020. Almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, up 112 million from 2019, reflecting the effects of inflation in consumer food prices stemming from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to contain it. An estimated 45 million children under the age of five were suffering from wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition, which increases children's risk of death by up to 12 times. Furthermore, 149 million children under the age of five had stunted growth and development due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients in their diets, while 39 million were overweight. This report repeatedly highlights the intensification of these major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition: conflict, climate extremes and economic shocks, combined with growing inequalities, the heads of the five UN agencies wrote in this year's Foreword. The issue at stake is not whether adversities will continue to occur or not, but how we must take bolder action to build resilience against future shocks, it added. (By Yoshita Singh <keyword id="6355833" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="united-nations" source="Orion">United Nations</keyword>) SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/golden-girl-p-t-usha-becomes-the-eighth-keralite-to-be-honoured-with-a-rajya-sabha-nomination/articleshow/92716060.cms">Golden girl P.T. Usha becomes the eighth Keralite to be honoured with a Rajya Sabha nomination</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/rbis-moves-to-boost-forex-inflows-could-have-an-impact-on-domestic-borrowing-rates/articleshow/92715761.cms">RBI's moves to boost forex inflows could have an impact on domestic borrowing rates</a>

India has fewer undernourished people now but obesity and anaemia are on the rise

India has emerged as the world’s fastest growing economy. However, Asia’s third largest economy just ranked 97th among 118 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) released by the <keyword id="108578" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="International-Food-Policy-Research-Institute">International Food Policy Research Institute</keyword> (<keyword id="6557928" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="ifpri">IFPRI</keyword>). This puts the country behind even <keyword id="6354759" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bangladesh">Bangladesh</keyword>, <keyword id="41896" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Iran">Iran</keyword>, <keyword id="6355112" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Iraq">Iraq</keyword>, and <keyword id="6354767" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nigeria">Nigeria</keyword> in the hunger map. 
 
India’s policy addressing hunger and malnutrition in all age groups has a feast of questions and a famine of answers. India’s hunger, being worse than any sub-Saharan country, needs crisis management and a long term vision. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">ALSO READ: Excise duty in cigarette hiked. Tobacco farmers in India are struggling to make ends meet</a> 
 Be it <keyword id="4227644" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="manohar-das">Manohar Das</keyword> of <keyword id="4227647" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="tewri">Tewri</keyword> village in <keyword id="6360371" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jharkhand">Jharkhand</keyword>, who works in hundred days of wage-employment or <keyword id="4227646" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="shib-baksha">Shib Baksha</keyword> of <keyword id="4227645" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="amlasol">Amlasol</keyword> village in <keyword id="61773" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="West-Midnapore">West Midnapore</keyword> district of <keyword id="6357783" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="West-Bengal">West Bengal</keyword>, who works as contract labour at nearby village, the thin line that connects them is the ignorance about ‘<keyword id="2209492" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Modi-Sarkar">Modi Sarkar</keyword>’. The only thing they understand by the government is getting staples at Rs 2/kg and free goodies. However, staples alone can’t fulfill nutritional needs, as a result they end up with stunted growth and other diseases. Not everyone is as lucky as them. Their neighbours, unable to procure <keyword id="49514" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="bpl">BPL</keyword> (below poverty level) identity cards and Ration Cards aren’t entitled to these basic facilities and have to starve most of the days. Only feast they can think of is ant eggs roast during the scorching summer months. 
 
 
 
India’s overall GDP growth is expected to end at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">7.1% this financial year</a>, as compared to 4.6% two years back. While food still counts as the basic requirement of human existence, India is a country that not only produces enough, but ironically, there is never enough for its ever growing population to eat. Funnily, while millions go hungry, for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">India storage of surplus food</a> has always been a problem. 
 
 
 
India’s hunger-management disaster 
While development in many sectors is acknowledged, what is lesser known is that India has also made considerable progress on many social fronts, such as fertility decline, expansion of schooling and bridging the gender gap in education, especially at the primary and lower secondary levels. However, there is one <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">area of human development</a>, where India has been a disaster: tackling hunger and malnutrition. 
 
Child malnutrition rates in India are extraordinarily high- among the highest in the world, with nearly one-half of all children under 3 years of age being either underweight or stunted. Indeed, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">child malnutrition rates </a>are higher in India than in many countries of sub-Saharan <keyword id="12925" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Africa">Africa</keyword>, even though income levels are significantly higher and levels of infant and child mortality are lower in India. 
 
 
 
Pediatric malnutrition Prevalence of child malnutrition in India has remained stubbornly high even after nearly a half-century of respectable agricultural productivity growth and two decades of post-reform economic growth and prosperity in the country. Adding more support to the view that child malnutrition is weakly correlated with income is the finding that among children of mothers with 10 or more years of schooling as well as mothers from the top income quintile, around one-quarter are underweight. Even in a relatively prosperous and dynamic state like <keyword id="6354766" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gujarat">Gujarat</keyword>, child malnutrition rates have been stagnant over the past decade. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-indepay-is-making-rural-india-cashless/articleshow/57232771.cms">ALSO READ: HOW INDEPAY IS MAKING RURAL INDIA CASHLESS</a> 
 The <keyword id="121300" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Family-Health-Survey">National Family Health Survey</keyword> (NFHS) found that a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-indepay-is-making-rural-india-cashless/articleshow/57232771.cms">significant number of adults</a> in India suffer from malnutrition. Almost 58 per cent of pregnant women aged 15-49 were found to be anaemic. The Global Food Security Index also revealed that Indians lack adequate quantities of iron, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-indepay-is-making-rural-india-cashless/articleshow/57232771.cms">Vitamin A and protein in their diets</a>. 
 
 
 
“Half of the children who die before five years of age have malnutrion as a cause in their pathogenesis. If we look at proportion of weight at birth, 23 per cent of children weigh less than 2.5 kg, which is below normal. This low birth weight has its reason in the womb, which is where they are malnourished already before being born. Low birth weight increases over time and so by the time they are three-years-old, half the children are malnourished. Because of poor sanitation we have widespread <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-indepay-is-making-rural-india-cashless/articleshow/57232771.cms">faecal oral contamination</a>. Water and food sources have high degrees of contamination and it results in diarrhoea and other gastro intestinal illnesses, which increases the child mortality rate,” said renowned public health specialist and activist Dr <keyword id="43944" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Binayak-Sen">Binayak Sen</keyword>. 
 
 
 
State of famine 
In 1943, three million people died in the infamous <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841">Bengal famine</a>. There was no shortage of grain in <keyword id="6356978" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengal">Bengal</keyword> at that time, yet people had nothing to eat. Interpreting the Famine of 1943,<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841"> Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen </a>suggested that the reason for it was the breakdown of the social arrangement in distributing food. To put the matter in a world context, every three seconds somewhere around the world, a child dies of causes related to avoidable malnutrition. "In those three seconds, the world armaments industry spends 120,000 USD in order to keep the system responsible safely in place,” Binayak Sen told <keyword id="824043" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Business-Insider">Business Insider</keyword>. 
 
 
 
Ignorant policies that do the most harm Skyrocketing prices of daily food items spell more woe for the people, who are already paying "too much" to survive. International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (<keyword id="1367836" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="IFAD">IFAD</keyword>) Rural Poverty Report-2011 states, “While international food prices have declined since mid-2008, they are still substantially higher than prior to the price surge, and they are likely to remain at 2010 levels or higher for the next decade.” The report has suggested that about 100 million of world’s rural and urban people have to remain hungry. 
 “It will remain high, the era of cheap food is over," said <keyword id="669006" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Richard-Mahapatra">Richard Mahapatra</keyword>, managing editor of Down to <keyword id="6359982" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="earth">Earth</keyword>. "This is because productivity of agriculture is low and thus impacts production. This is the supply side issue. Also the rainfed areas that contribute a signifcant amount of foodgrain is not getting the policy focus. Even though the new second Green <keyword id="24385" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="revolution">Revolution</keyword> is aimed at that, it seems to be flawed. Now, the demand side. Demand is increasing but we don't have robust distribution mechanism. So, it creates further price rise. Also, there is huge diversion of agricultural lands to other uses. Combined with low productivity, less lands and absence of distribution mechanism, we are set for high price rise.” 
 Due to the PDS (<keyword id="89442" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Public-distribution-system">Public Distribution System</keyword>) and the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841">public wage programmes</a> starvation deaths have definitely come down, he contended. Often we call cheap food grain programmes as populist. They are indeed popular as poor find them useful and their starvation is avoided with this entitlement. 
 
 
 
Adult malnutrition 
“Roughly 33-35 per cent of the entire Indian population have a BMI below 18.5, which is indicative of calorie malnutrition. They aren't getting enough food to eat. More than one-third of India is on a chronic basis not getting proper food to eat. Low BMI is also restricting people’s immunity,” said Binayak Sen. 
 “Without addressing nutritional status, there can be no adequate development. Food Security Act does nothing for betterment of nutritional status of the poeple as such. <keyword id="250148" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Bill">The Bill</keyword> is like 'something is better than nothing'. Five kilos of wheat per person per month make two chapattis per day. With two chapatis the nutritional question isn’t answered. This terrible nutritional deficit is yielding polarization in society,” he added. 
 
Urban malnutrition 
In villages, people stay in close bond with each other, who can be approached for help in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841">times of crisis</a>. Migrating people in cities start living in slums and ghettos, where they have to live with people unknown and untrustworthy. Moreover, people fight here to make ends meet, which actually leads to self-centric attitude. 
 
Red corridor hunger 
“People who are in chronic situation and stable famine are able to withstand only because of their access to natural resources like land, water and forest," opined Binayak Sen. "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841">Access to this resources was unrestricted</a>. Designating the common properties as commodities that can be owned by corporates is restricting poeple’s right to access and in a way right to live. Any form of resistance is labelled as insurgency. First they try civil ways and then take recourse in military measures. People have to confront. Application of eminent domain needs to be questioned. Under 5th schedule, govt has to ensure people’s access to natural resources but there is not a single instances of government intervening.” 
 
“They have mapped it as red corridor but poeple’s deprivation hasn't been mapped yet," said Sen. 
 
"We need to relook at the arm forces and UAPA laws. Whole discourse in election has become restricted to attitudes to development. Development is about accessing resources. Nobody is saying there are vital issues involved. What is going to happen to the poeple whose right has been denied? State will not be thwarted in its course. There needs to be a contestaion in the level of people. They need to raise the issue.” 
 
Business Insider’s Take 
Agriculture contributes around 16 per cent to<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841"> India’s GDP</a>; it is coming down over the years. But still 60 per cent people depend on this. What does this mean? Is it that it is reliable as a source of livelihood or people don't have any other source thus depend on agriculture? In both the cases, shifting people out of agriculture is going to be a tough challenge. Industries or the service sectors have their own limitation and can't absorb such a huge number of people. Strategically, this will be a blunder as we kill out food self-sufficiency.

BI Investigation: India’s food nightmare is killing millions of
children across the country every day

<ul><li>There have been 129 deaths due to the Acute <keyword id="6382102" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="encephalitis">Encephalitis</keyword> Syndrome (AES) in <keyword id="30033" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bihar">Bihar</keyword> so far. </li><li>The National Research Centre on Litchi has denied speculations linking litchi to causing the syndrome. </li><li>The state-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences (<keyword id="40458" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="AIIMS">AIIMS</keyword>), Delhi, will soon study the actual cause behind the AES syndrome, which is listed under 'unknown category'. </li></ul>129 children have died so far in the Indian state of Bihar due to the latest outbreak of the acute encephalitis syndrome (AES). While poverty and lack of access to healthcare failed the children and their families, a humble fruit, litchi or <keyword id="1168849" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="lychee">lychee</keyword>, is taking the fall for the epidemic. The common ground between litchi and encephalitis is <keyword id="6374885" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Muzaffarpur">Muzaffarpur</keyword>, the centre of the outbreak and the country’s biggest litchi producing district. “We have witnessed around 20% decline in litchi sales in last one week after AES connection with this fruit,” <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/bihar-aes-outbreak-brings-litchi-sales-down-by-15-20/articleshow/69935680.cms">KP Thakur, managing director of a litchi processing and exporting firm, told the Times of India</a>. The fall in demand occurred after the state government of Bihar issued an advisory for parents to not allow their children to eat the fruit. The advisory was based on a speculation that litchi may be the major cause for the encephalitis syndrome, that affects children under the age of 10. "The cases of AES might be linked to litchi but the disease can be caused by a whole plethora of infections and encephalopathy situations," Professor Sheffali Gulati, Chief of Child Neurology Division, Department of Paediatrics AIIMS <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/aiims-delhi-to-find-out-cause-of-aes-listed-in-unknown-category-1561276211601.html">reportedly said</a>. The speculations regarding litchi being the cause for encephalitis gets validity from <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3014212/encephalitis-lychees-kills-31-children-india-say-health">a research done by the United States in 2005</a>, stating that a toxic substance in the fruit may be the reason. On the other hand, Vishal Nath, Director of National Research Centre on Litchi, has denied the charge that litchi has any link to the cause of the disease. Litchi is sold in many other countries but we don’t hear such epidemics elsewhere, he argued in an interview with IANS, adding that the fruit was a rich source of vitamin B, Calcium, Potassium, Sodium and phosphorus. From pride to panic in six months India exports a part of its litchi produce every year. The government of India wanted to promote the fruit earlier this year by giving it a ‘Geographical Indicator’ (GI) tag. “We have been waiting for GI tag for shahi litchi for a long time. The move has come as a boon for litchi cultivators of the region,” <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/muzaffarpur-shahi-litchi-gets-gi-tag/articleshow/66297801.cms">Nath had earlier said</a> adding that the GI tag will fetch them “good money.” <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[
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 Six months later, the same country is debating whether fruit is lethal for young children. The real reason The debate over the dangers of litchi may distract from the actual reason where the national anger must pour over -- poverty and lack of access to basic healthcare, which millions suffer from 70 years after independence. It’s not just the poor children of Muzaffarpur who ate the fruit, but the ones who died were mostly poor. The United Nations’ Global Hunger Report for 2018 placed India at 103rd spot out of 119 countries. The National Family Health Survey says almost half of the children under five in Muzaffarpur are stunted, almost 60% were anaemic, and more than 40% were underweight. A health ministry survey found that none of Muzaffarpur's 103 primary health centres - and its only community health centre - were even considered fit for evaluation, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/poverty-not-lychees-the-real-culprit-in-indian-brain-fever-outbreak/malnourishment-is-the-underlying-cause/slideshow/69888516.cms">the Economic Times reported</a>. The state-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, will soon study <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/aiims-delhi-to-find-out-cause-of-aes-listed-in-unknown-category-1561276211601.html">the actual cause behind the AES syndrome</a>, which is listed under 'unknown category'. The anxiety of the litchi farmers of Muzaffarpur will continue until the final results of the study are out.

India's tragic encephalitis epidemic has hit a humble fruit, Lychee, and its farmers

In zeroing down on the perfect budget (there being no such thing of course), the Government should strictly focus on (a) the suggestive overall fiscal stance, (b) the tax and expenditure policies and (c) the projective growth cum visionary reforms. Right now given the anaemic global growth, our own narrative is relatively clear- after recovering from a growth slow down, double digit <keyword id="22195" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Inflation">inflation</keyword>, policy paralysis, rising NPAs and a pig-headed <keyword id="6365485" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="fiscal-deficit">fiscal deficit</keyword>, we’re finally striving towards a sweet spot. 
<h2>
	Fiscal Consolidation </h2>
The 3.5% target set by the Government while sine qua non to achieving a robust fiscal standing, cannot be cast in stone if that means sacrificing growth in a sagging environment of flaccid private investment, low corporate earnings and stressed balance sheets. That said there probably isn’t an allowable exact deviation- 3.6, 3.7, 3.8…. %, but it would heavily depend on how the finance minister is able to justify the numbers by means of the quality and composition of his expenditure. He really doesn’t want to be the guy who slips by increasing consumption expenditure by way of the 7th pay commission and sends out wrong signals to the world at large thereby undermining our fiscal credibility; investors need to understand he means business. And let’s face it, if you can’t consolidate when oil is touching USD 30/barrel, then when can you? Hence, it becomes all the more imperative that we chart out a clear and transparent road map of public investment in infrastructure, health and education, saying ‘Look hey, we set aside x billion for infrastructure last year and this is what we achieved. This year we will channel y billion for infrastructure, and this is what we target’. But if they are to do that, they need to back up this expenditure by equally resilient revenue sources. This could be either through the IIFCL or dedicated infrastructure bonds floated in the bond markets. Moreover, we do have considerable leverage as far as increasing our tax base is concerned (right now, our tax/GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world, including economies with similar per capita incomes). The crucial consequence is that RBI will closely be watching what Mr. Jaitley does, and if it is not enough by their standards then he might as well give up on trying to convince Dr. Rajan to do his bidding and accommodate his fiscal stance. 
<h2>
	Pickup in Private Investment </h2> The following excerpt and graph from the mid-year economic review aptly captures the trend in the major components of <keyword id="35050" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="gdp">GDP</keyword> in H1 FY 16 over the last financial year:- 
 
“The remarkable thing about 2015-16 growth performance is that it continues to be as strong as it is given the weakness of exports (because of declining world markets) and private investment… For an economy that is powered only by private consumption and government investment, it is doing remarkably well. The difference with 2014-15 is that the decline in exports and private investment has been offset by higher consumption and public investment.” 
 
 
As explained by the diagram given below, stressed corporate balance sheets, dismal interest cover ratio, rise in indebtedness and flat PAT for India Inc. are the root causes contributing to the decline in corporate capital expenditure as a proportion of GDP. Other important factors leading to fall in private investment are tepid growth in domestic demand and dismal Ease of Doing Business in India. 
 
There are four broad policy measures to ensure a pickup in private investment, a critical component of aggregate demand. 
 
Firstly, lower interest rates are imperative for greater private investment. Despite 125 bps cut in the repo rate by RBI, there has been inadequate transmission. The Budget should focus on expediting the recapitalisation of public sector banks. In order to mitigate the issue of stressed assets of banks, besides strengthening the Asset Reconstruction Companies, the govt. can look at the prospects of a National Asset Management Company which can take over the NPAs from the banks’ balance sheets. This has the potential to lower the interest costs by providing more loanable funds to the banks. 
 Secondly, growth-conducive tax laws and consistency in interpretation and implementation are required to establish a predictable tax environment. A personal tax framework which boosts consumer demand through increase in disposable income is needed. A robust implementation plan for <keyword id="6354679" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="GST">GST</keyword>, removal of tax anomalies like the inverted duty structure and <keyword id="547488" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="tax-incentives">tax incentives</keyword> for directing investments to critical sectors are other policies to be adopted in the Budget. 
 
Thirdly, in the Ease of Doing Business Index, India’s rank is dismal in ‘Starting a Business’ and ‘Dealing with Construction Permits’. Hence, setting up of large dedicated industrial zones and land banks with all the necessary pre-clearances (akin to the plug and play model employed for Ultra Mega Power Projects) will address the major obstacles in the land-allocation process. 
 
Finally, the private sector incurs significant expenditure on health and education. In fact, the largest amount of precautionary spending by Indian households is done on education of children and retirement health. Increased government spending in the social sector will indirectly spur private investment because the higher residual income of the households will increase the domestic demand. 
<h2>
	Revival of Export </h2>
The Indian exports declined for the 14th consecutive month in January 2016 by 13.6% y-o-y. Although, global demand slowdown is a culprit, India still lags behind China, Japan, and South Korea in terms of exports. The Make in India Programme should be emphasized by giving special incentives for obtaining new investments in sectors that are important in the global value chain such as manufacturing electric components. Special incentives can be in the form of tax holidays, rebated <keyword id="6354751" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Income-Tax">income tax</keyword> for start-ups, employment-linked tax rebates to entrepreneurs, etc. 
 
Given the challenges faced by the MSME sector (inadequate credit availability, high cost factors, lack of technology and lack of marketing support), it is imperative to provide adequate support to this sector. Focus should be on sectors such as automobiles, textiles, transportation/logistics which have the highest potential to absorb labour migrated from agriculture. (Source – National skill development reports, Kotak instutional estimates). A lot of MSMEs don’t have any collateral and hence find it difficult to access formal credit. It has been found that 85% organisations feel that they face shortage of talent. Government should facilitate an environment that ensure MSMEs adopt long term incentive schemes to ensure employees have a vested interest and that they are run on performance incentives. 
<h2>
	Mitigation of Rural and Agrarian Distress</h2>
Slumbering global food and commodity prices and severe back-to-back droughts (first time in the last three decades) due to monsoon deficits have caused an unprecedented agrarian distress. The ensuing reduction in the value of agricultural exports has led to deceleration in rural wage growth. This has indirectly hurt businesses by reducing disposable income and thereby, rural demand. 
 
The government should address four critical dimensions viz. cushioning against weather fluctuations, reducing the cost of cultivation, providing favorable market conditions for the farmers to sell the farm produce, and increasing agricultural productivity. Accordingly, the Budget should increase the expenditure on the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (to enhance crop <keyword id="35450" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="insurance">insurance</keyword>), the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (to extend irrigation coverage) and fertilizer subsidy. Besides Minimum Support Price, creation of mandis and local markets needs to be encouraged. Finally, crop diversification and mechanisms to provide advice on the appropriate crop for specific variations of the fertile soil will augment productivity. Alleviation of rural distress (beyond that achieved by alleviating agricultural distress) will require increased allocation towards infrastructure projects in rural areas. These projects coupled with MGNREGA can create social assets apart from providing the employment to the rural tenants. 
 
(The article has been authored by a bunch of IIMB students - Dinkar Mohta, Spriha Saggar, Madhur Bajpai and Punit Parekh - on behalf of Networth, The Finance Club of IIM Bangalore. The students take keen interest in the subject.)

With less than a day to go for Budget, here's what you should look out for in India's balance sheet

<ul><li>The Indian government has asked schools — both in rural and urban areas — to set up <keyword id="769027" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="nutrition-gardens">nutrition gardens</keyword> to address undernourishment. </li><li>The initiative is aimed at promoting experiential learning at schools which instills the habit of growing vegetables and fruits. </li><li>Recently, the government added staple grains and vegetables to the <keyword id="50851" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mid-day-meal">mid day meal</keyword> menu as the preferred food choice. </li><li>In India, over one third of the children below the age of five are stunted while over 40% are anaemic, Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS).</li></ul>While India’s economic slowdown is hurting the children the most with starvation, the government has asked schools — both in rural and urban areas — to set up <a href="https://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/SNG_Guidelines.pdf">nutrition gardens</a> to address undernourishment. The initiative is aimed at promoting experiential learning at schools and instill the habit of growing vegetables and fruits in students. According to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), eating a good diet is relative to the learning abilities of children. “They can provide fruit and vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals, add nutritional value to Mid-Day meals and increase the variety,” the guidelines said. In 1925, the Indian government introduced the Mid-day meal programme for underprivileged children to improve nutrition levels. The country has over 1.1 million government schools. And the move will especially benefit children from rural schools. Most of the meals of children is rich in grains which is subsidized, but they lack the key source of vitamins-vegetables. Now, the government too made a few amendments to its mid day meal menu, adding staple grains and vegetables among the preferred choices for meals. The mid day meal programme <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/education/mhrd-guidelines-soon-for-kitchen-gardens-in-govt-schools/article27003720.ece">covers 94.6 million children</a> across schools in India, and employs 2.5 million cooks and helpers, says BusinessLine. <keyword id="6378239" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="malnutrition">Malnutrition</keyword> in India According to the government’s <a href="https://www.indiaspend.com/5-indian-children-overweight-show-early-signs-of-diabetes-high-cholesterol/">Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS)</a>, malnutrition among children caused several diseases including diabetes, <keyword id="22984" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="hypertension">hypertension</keyword> and chronic kidney disease. In India, over a third of the children below the age of five are stunted while over 40% are anaemic, the report highlighted. In 2018, India recorded the highest number of stunted children at 48.2 million — all due to malnutrition. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/indian-economic-slowdown-is-leaving-its-infants-hungry-as-only-10-are-given-acceptable-diet/articleshow/71610005.cms">Indian economic slowdown is leaving its infants hungry as only 10% are given acceptable diet</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-third-of-indian-children-will-be-stunted-by-2022-thanks-to-malnutrition/articleshow/69986703.cms">A third of Indian children will be stunted by 2022, thanks to malnutrition</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/poor-diet-obesity-and-climate-change-strongly-linked-lancet-report/articleshow/67722970.cms">Climate change, obesity, and malnutrition are strongly linked: Lancet report</a>

Indian schools to set-up vegetable gardens and turn mid-day meals nutritious

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over the global food situation wherein "more than 820 million people do not have enough to eat" while one billion tonnes of food is wasted every year. In his message on '<keyword id="59209" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="World-Food-Day">World Food Day</keyword>', which was released here on Thursday by the UN India, he said, "It is unacceptable that hunger is on the rise at a time when the world wastes more than one billion tonnes of food every year." Two billion men, women, and children are overweight or obese. Unhealthy diets present an enormous risk of disease and death, Guterres said, adding that "it is time to change how we produce and consume, including to reduce greenhouse emissions". World Food Day marked call for zero hunger "for a world where nutritious food is available and affordable for everyone, everywhere". Transforming food systems is crucial for delivering all the sustainable development goals (SDG) and "that is why I hope to convene a 'Food Systems Summit in 2021' as part of a decade of action to deliver SDG. As a human family, a world free of hunger is our imperative, he said. Climate emergency was an increasing threat to food, the UN Secretary General warned. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, India has the world's largest undernourished population with 194.4 million (14.5 per cent). About 20.8 per cent children under the age of five years are underweight. Similarly, 37.9 per cent of children in that age group are stunted. As high as 51.4 per cent of Indian women in the reproductive age of 15-49 years are anaemic, the report claimed. JBL KJ

UN Secy says 820 million people go hungry as billion tonnes of food is wasted

Mumbai, May 14 () The poor in general, and those suffering from malnutrition among them, are at higher risks of contracting coronavirus infection, highlighting the weakness of the food and health systems across the world and more so in India, says a report.The Global Nutrition Report 2020 comes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic spreading at a much faster clip in the country, leaving over 78,000 infected and killing over 2,500. Tens of thousands of poor and daily wagers are on transit in most daring conditions across the country where public transport is still patchy, it said.The report notes that one in nine of the world's population or a whopping 820 million are hungry wherein India alone is the single largest contributor as most of them cannot access or afford healthy food, while one in three is overweight or obese.Ironically, the report said, both the under-fed poor/undernourished and the over-fed or the obese are at risks with the latter facing 10 times more risk from the deadly virus infection.It further said that following the spread of the pandemic, millions of households in formerly food-secure regions of the world have fallen into severe food insecurity, while in India various media reports say tens of millions of the migrant workers and their poor families face starvation as the lockdown lingers. The report also warns that the levels of hunger and malnutrition could double within the space of just a few weeks.Accordingly, the report calls for an overhaul of the world's food and health systems to tackle malnutrition, which has become a threat-multiplier given the coronavirus pandemic and its infectious grip over the poor which is now the leading cause of ill-health and deaths globally.The report says most of the poor across the world cannot access or afford healthy food primarily because of agricultural systems that favour calories over nutrition on one hand and on the other the ubiquity and low cost of highly processed foods."An increasing number of countries have the double burden of malnutrition, obesity and other diet-related diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer," notes the report.Venkatesh Mannar, a special adviser on nutrition to the Tata Trusts and the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition, two of the organisations that has funded the report, told that "the COVID-19 has exposed the deep inequality of our food system, wherein both under-nutrition and over-nutrition as visible from abject poverty and obesity have come to the fore."And both of these segments of the people are at higher risk to COVID-19 infections. In fact, the obese are 10 more at risk to COVID infection and fatality than the rest of the populations," says Mannar.Asked whether most of the close to 3 lakh dead or the 4.3 million infected with the virus are poor and obese, he answered in the affirmative saying many studies have established that the obese are among largest of the dead.This is also evident from the fact that a vast majority of the dead are from the richest nations like the US, Britain, France, Italy and Spain and the least from Africa. At over 83,300 dead, nearly a fifth of the total casualties are in the US alone.On the peculiar condition of India where a third of its 136 crore are poor, Mannar said the bigger problem in the country is not poverty now as the number of the poor and the malnourished is coming down, but over-nutrition as the rate with which the number of the obese is rising much faster.As the world's leading report on the state of global nutrition, Global Nutrition Report 2020 underlines the need to address food inequity to end malnutrition in all its forms as food and health inequity are the major causes for malnutrition -– both under-nutrition and over-nutrition or overweight/ obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases.On the risk of more coronavirus infections among the poor and under-/over-nourished, the report says, "undernourished have weaker immune systems, and are at greater risk of severe illness due to the pandemic. At the same time, poor metabolic health, including obesity and diabetes, is strongly linked to worse COVID-19 outcomes including the risk of death".Stressing that good nutrition is an essential part of an individual's defence against the virus, the report says nutritional resilience is a key element of a society's readiness to combat the pandemic threat."Focussing on nutritional well-being provides opportunities for establishing synergies between public health and equity, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. And the COVID-19 exposes the vulnerability and weaknesses of our already fragile food systems which is already stressed by increasing climate extremes," says the report.On India, the report notes that the country has had some success in reducing the number of underweight children and adolescents."Between 2000 and 2016, these rates declined from 66 to 58.1 per cent for boys and from 54.2 to 50.1 per cent for girls. But is still high compared to the average of 35.6 per cent for boys and 31.8 per cent for girls in Asia.Additionally, 37.9 per cent Indian children under-5 being stunted and 20.8 per cent wasted, compared to the Asia average of 22.7 per cent and 9.4 per cent, respectively, says the report.While diet-related illness continue to be an issue, with one in two women of reproductive age being anaemic, rates of overweight and obesity continue to rise, affecting almost one-fifth of adults with 21.6 per cent females and 17.8 per cent men being obese.Also, India is home to largest number of within-country malnutrition inequalities based on communities at the sub-national level, with UP having over 40 per cent children stunted on average and at 50.7 per cent among the poor. The same applies for overweight/obesity, where there are nearly double as many obese adult females than there are males -- 5.1 per cent against 2.7 per cent, the report said. BEN MKJ

You Searched For "Anaemic children in India" and got 9 results

Almost all — 92% — of Ladakh children suffer from anaemia and the rest of the country isn’t faring any better either

Vaamanaa Sethi

More than half of Indian kids under the age of 5 are anaemic

BI India Bureau

India has fewer undernourished people now but obesity and anaemia are on the rise

PTI

BI Investigation: India’s food nightmare is killing millions of children across the country every day

Suchayan Mandal

India's tragic encephalitis epidemic has hit a humble fruit, Lychee, and its farmers

Sriram Iyer

With less than a day to go for Budget, here's what you should look out for in India's balance sheet

Guest Author

Indian schools to set-up vegetable gardens and turn mid-day meals nutritious

Prerna Sindwani

UN Secy says 820 million people go hungry as billion tonnes of food is wasted

PTI

Poor facing more risks from coronavirus due to malnutrition: Report

PTI

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