India: Malnutrition Affects 42 Percent Of Children Under 5

NEW DELHI -- Forty-two percent of children in India younger than 5 are underweight and nearly 60 percent are stunted, a new survey found.

The Hunger and Malnutrition Survey monitored over 100,000 children in 112 districts across nine states in the country from October 2010 to February of last year.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released the report Tuesday and called child malnutrition the country's shame.

India's economy has boomed, with growth over the last few years averaging about 8 percent, but the country's development indicators continue to be abysmal.

Singh released a summary of the report's findings and more details on its findings were not yet available.

The survey conducted by a group of non-profits was the largest such study since 2004, when the Indian government had surveyed child malnutrition. It was the first study by the group so comparative numbers are not available.

UNICEF's latest data say one-third of the world's malnourished children younger than 3 lives in India, a rate worse than sub-Saharan Africa.

Comments

[Chitral]

01:25 PM on 01/11/2012

The failure to fix this problem lies squarely on the shoulders of the vast corrupt bureaucracy and the elected politicians who run them. (See other report out today which lists India as having the worst (mostly as in corrupt and ineffectual) bureaucracy in Asia). Developmental resources and money never reach these folks. Class system based persecution may have been a reason in the past but now with quotas and directed aid, that is not the case. It is the heartless and corrupt Government to be blamed here exacerbated by the size and reach of it. They can at their will acquire your land (for peanuts) to build a highway or a Economic zone/Industrial area. Courts are a joke taking decades to judge a case. I am a liberal Democrat but by any standards and despite the liberalization it is still a runaway demon of Big Government. It is a combination of the communist Soviet Union government but now in collusion with big Industry, to line the pockets of the politicians while the people get screwed.

[StopMakingSense2]

03:20 PM on 01/10/2012

Keep breeding like rabbits that should solve the problem!

[Tenjikuronin]

06:19 PM on 01/10/2012

Population growth rate is actually DOWN in India.

[Kenz300]

10:43 AM on 01/10/2012

Too many people and too few resources. We could not solve the worlds problems of poverty, hunger and despair when the world had 5 billion people and adequate resources. We will not solve the problem in a world with 9 billion people and LIMITED resources. The worlds never ending population growth is not sustainable. It will only lead to more hunger and despair.

[KIVPossum]

10:36 AM on 01/10/2012

Been many places and seen a lot of poverty and filth. But was not prepared for what I saw in India.

[NevaforLeadership]

10:29 AM on 01/10/2012

And we have a GOP platform of religious fools who are all anti-abortionists and right-to-lifers, who are attempting to have us believe that they are fit to be president of the United States.

Obama-Biden
2012-2016

[SangZe]

10:16 AM on 01/10/2012

Capitalism hard at work.

[athiesttoo]

10:12 AM on 01/10/2012

Why is it a shock? Anyone who has been there realizes the extreme poverty and the horrible class system that perpetuates it. Americans really need to get out of those resorts and see the real world.

[phdpamela]

10:09 AM on 01/10/2012

You cannot help a person, that does not want to help themselves. It's hard to not feel for these people, but they continue to have children, knowing the conditions. I would do without sex, before I would sit and watch my child die of malnutrition. We have been trying to help for YEARS, and they continue the same.

[NevaforLeadership]

10:32 AM on 01/10/2012

Equal responsibility lies at the feet of all those in the West who have more than two children (that's two per lifetime, not two per marriage).

A child in the West consumes exponentially more resources than a child in an under-developed country; yet we live on a finite planet with limited (and in some cases peaked) resources, with all people -- rich and poor -- competing for the same resources.

[rskindia]

08:44 AM on 01/10/2012

They say 90% of a person's brain development happens before the age of 5. If 42 percent of India's children under 5 are malnourished, then it does not bode well for the IQ of India's future adults. So depressing to hear this.

[Satirist1]

08:24 AM on 01/10/2012

Not to worry. Children in U.S. Germany and Gaza make up for it.