This refers to Shanti Maria Fonseca’s article, ‘Hunger haunts humanity on World Food Day’ (O Heraldo, October 16, 2023). India has slid into a horrific 111th rank among 125 countries in the 2023 Global Hunger Index. India is behind China (at the top bracket that includes 20 countries), Sri Lanka (60), Nepal (69), Myanmar (72), Bangladesh (81) and Pakistan (102). At present, we are only ahead of Afghanistan (114) among our neighbours. Bhutan could not be included in the 2023 GHI because of lack of data.
Hunger means the distress associated with a lack of sufficient calories that makes children disabled and stunted forever. Global Hunger Index scores have been calculated in a three-step process. First, each country has been valued by four indicators – 1 Under nourishment, 2 Child wasting, 3 Child stunting and 4 Child mortality.
Second, each of the four component indicators is given a standardized score on a 100-point scale based on a global scale in recent decades. Third, standardized scores are aggregated to calculate the GHI score for each country where zero is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
The report, prepared by German NGO Welt Hunger Hilfe and Irish NGO Concern Worldwide, claimed that the child wasting rate of India was 18.7 per cent, which is the highest on the global level and signalled acute under-nutrition. In this context, it is pertinent to remember what the former World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim said about child stunting in India, “This is the bottom line: if you walk into the future economy with 40 per cent of your workforce having been stunted as children, you are simply not going to be able to compete.”
Children are unable to learn optimally when they are hungry. To address this problem, the new National Educational Policy (NEP) has proposed that the midday meals provided to students in government and aided schools should be supplemented by breakfast. It is time to introduce both breakfast and midday meals for all government and aided schools throughout the country.
The Centre should allocate more than double of the existing funds for successful implementation of both breakfast and midday meal all over India. It is a pity that only Rs 11,600 crore has been allocated for 2023-24 for this scheme which is even lower than the revised allocation of Rs 12,800 crore for 2022-23.
It is highly commendable that some States and Union Territories provide additional items such as milk, egg and fruits to students from their own resources. But why should not the Centre itself allocate the funds for the same for giving those nutritious food items to students all over the country.
I feel sad that some Indian states have banished eggs from midday meal as a result of government’s reservation against non-vegetarian items. It is a brutal act as surveys reveal that most of the students as well as their parents are eager for its inclusion. This is quite natural as some estimates show that 3 out of 4 Indians are non-vegetarian.
A nutritious breakfast and midday meal can address the agonising problem of child stunting and malnutrition. It is highly unfortunate, to say the least, of allowing prejudices to deprive children of boiled eggs. Boiled eggs can easily be prepared, can never be adulterated and have high nutritional value for money.
How long should we turn a blind eye to our millions of hungry, malnourished children with stunted growth? The government should flag the health of our children as top priority instead of basking in the surreal glory of the sun and moon missions which have no connection to our children’s or people’s welfare.
