Child Malnutrition
212 million people in India are undernourished, and most are children.
This is just one of the many horrifying statistics. Indian children are the worst sufferers of child malnutrition in the world. Many countries experience these problems, but India's malnutrition rates are astronomical. One in every three children that are malnourished live in India. India needs to provide the necessities of food and water to its youth. Many believe the country doesn't have the financial means to do this, and that malnutrition is just a sign of an impoverished country. This is simply not true. Many African countries have severely worse poverty rates than India, yet have lower child malnutrition rates. The investment of nutrition is an affordable one, and has been extremely successful in other countries. Not only would the country help the children, but also help themselves. According to Cini, "Undernutrition greatly impedes countries’socio-economic development and potential to reduce poverty. Many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)... will not be reached unless the nutrition of women and children is prioritized in national development programmes and strategies.". India can and must address the malnutrition problem, for the sake of their own country and the children. More facts about child malnutrition can be found here.
The graph above shows the dire situation in India throughout the 21st century. Clearly shown above, the South Asian region, which includes India, has a significantly higher percentage than any other region, even higher than Sub-Saharan Africa. As previously stated, child malnutrition is not directly linked to poverty. Just by analyzing the graph, it is evident that South Asia is on the worst end of child malnutrition. Confusing, however, is the fact that Sub-Saharan Africa holds a much higher poverty rate and a much lower income per-capita. This, coupled with the fact that African malnutrition rates are lower than India's, presents the opinion that child malnutrition is not just a product of poverty. Even odder still is the fact that, although 26% of Indians are below the poverty rate, 46% of kids are malnourished. This problem plagues Indian children throughout their entire lives. A malnourished child will suffer irreversible damage for the rest of his life. One such child was Abdul, the boy from Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Abdul is now a young adult, yet he is extremely short and severely underweight. His whole life, he has lived like this. In fact, he is so malnourished, nobody can tell how old he is. He can pass for a 17 year old, yet it mentions in the book that he could be as old as 27. Abdul is one of many other Indian children whose lives have been drastically altered before age 3 due to their lack of nutrition.