India: Dead last in nutrition
An Indian boy feeds his sister at their home in a slum in Hyderabad, on January 10, 2012. Levels of under-nutrition in the country were ‘unacceptably high’ despite impressive GDP growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday and added that the problem of malnutrition was a ‘national shame’.
India ranks dead last when it comes to providing healthy food for its children, says a new study by Save the Children.
According to India's Deccan Herald newspaper, the study compared commitments and outcomes of 36 countries which together account for 90 per cent of the world’s stunted children.
Commitment measured the national governments’ political, legal and financial promises, while outcomes were measured by analysing progress in addressing child nutrition. India, which spends only 1.67 percent of gross domestic product on health care, came in last in both categories.
The only surprise there is the depths to which India has sunk. As GlobalPost reported earlier this year, its food delivery mechanism can seem irretrievably broken, due to a poor design and even worse implementation.
And it doesn't even begin to address nutrition — all it guarantees the poor is rice and wheat, which are lacking in many essential nutrients.