MALNUTRITION AND POVERTY

Malnutrition is caused either to an inadequate or excess intake of calories. One result of it is undernutrition, characterised by stunted growth, low weight, and nutrient deficiency. The other result is being overweight, obese and developing diet-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke etc.

India, like so many other countries, struggles with providing access to healthy food to all people. A report published by the Global Nutrition Report in 2018 says that India is home to 46.6 million malnourished children; this makes up a third of the world’s total. Undernourishment is the cause of death for nearly half of all children under the age of 5 and over a third of India’s wealthiest children are overweight.

The problem we aim to tackle is that of lack of nutrition, prevalent in the rural and semi-urban parts of the country.The causes for lack of nutrition are plenty; poverty, maternal health illiteracy, dietary practices, home environment, diseases such as diarrhoea etc. If the nutrition that a child receives during the first 1000 days of its life are not sufficient, it can lead to stunted overall development, meaning cognitive ability is impacted, which in turn affects school and work performance.

Often, for some of India’s poorest, the mid-day meal that they receive in school is the only proper meal that they get to eat all day; and this is if they are lucky enough to attend school in the first place. But in many instances, this meal itself becomes a motivator for parents to send their children to school, knowing full well that they themselves would be unable to provide them the same.

This shows that though development is on the rise in India, the effects of it aren’t often enjoyed by the poor. We have reached a point where it is estimated that almost 44 people escape poverty every minute in our country, but that still leaves over 73 million living in extreme poverty and many millions of others just getting by. We need to tackle this problem systematically, primarily by making the basic needs of life accessible and free — food, shelter, education, healthcare; and this is the end that we work towards achieving.