Horrific Achhe Din: India 100th on hunger index; worse than Nepal, Bangladesh

Agencies
October 13, 2017

New Delhi, Oct 13: India has a “serious” hunger problem and ranks 100th out of 119 countries on the global hunger index — behind North Korea, Bangladesh and Iraq but ahead of Pakistan, according to a report.

The country’s serious hunger level is driven by high child malnutrition and underlines need for stronger commitment to the social sector, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said in its report.

India stood at 97th position in last year’s rankings.

“India is ranked 100th out of 119 countries, and has the third highest score 
in all of Asia — only Afghanistan and Pakistan are ranked worse,” IFPRI said in a statement.

“At 31.4, India’s 2017 GHI (Global Hunger Index) score is at the high end of the ‘serious’ category, and is one of the main factors pushing South Asia to the category of worst performing region on the GHI this year, followed closely by Africa South of the Sahara,” it added.

As per the report, India ranks below many of its neighbouring countries such as China (29th rank), Nepal (72), Myanmar (77), Sri Lank (84) and Bangladesh (88). It is ahead of Pakistan (106) and Afghanistan (107).

North Korea ranks 93rd while Iraq is at 78th position.

The GHI, now in its 12th year, ranks countries based on four key indicators — undernourishment, child mortality, child wasting and child stunting.

The report ranked 119 countries in the developing world, nearly half of which have ‘extremely alarming,’ ‘alarming’ or ’serious’ hunger levels.

“India’s high ranking on the Global Hunger Index [GHI] again this year brings to the fore the disturbing reality of the country’s stubbornly high proportions of malnourished children,” the statement said.

IFPRI pointed out that more than one-fifth of Indian children under five weigh too little for their height and over a third are too short for their age.

“Even with the massive scale up of national nutrition-focused programmes in India, drought and structural deficiencies have left large number of poor in India at risk of malnourishment in 2017,” said P.K. Joshi, IFPRI Director for South Asia.

However, he said that the on-going efforts are expected to make significant changes in improving the existing situation.

Mr. Joshi appreciated that India has developed and launched an action plan on ‘undernourishment free India’ by 2022. The plan shows stronger commitment and greater investments in tackling malnutrition in the coming years.

“As of 2015-16, more than a fifth [21%] of children in India suffer from wasting [low weight for height] — up from 20% in 2005-2006,” IFPRI said.

Only three other countries in this year’s GHI — Djibouti, Sri Lanka and South Sudan — show child wasting above 20%. India’s child wasting rate has not shown any substantial improvement over the past 25 years.

However, India has made considerable improvement in reducing its child stunting rate, down 29% since 2000, but even that progress leaves India with a relatively high stunting rate of 38.4.

Comments

Indian
 - 
Friday, 13 Oct 2017

No corruption itself is achhe din for me,..There may be incorrect decisions but govt is not sleeping , every day they take decision
This is achhe din for me

D'souza
 - 
Friday, 13 Oct 2017

Finally the voters deserve what they get. The bjp can easily inflame communal passions and is already nurturing its vote bank. It has now understood the arithmetic behind winning election. It won a brute majority with only 30 percent of votes. Now with a nonexistent opposition it might win more seats with lesser votes. The door buster sale of India will truly be over by them. One nation, one market.. for whom exactly? We all know it is for the corporates.

Kumar
 - 
Friday, 13 Oct 2017

Both Republic TV and NDTV are cheddi TV. They proved it many times

Unknown
 - 
Friday, 13 Oct 2017

Just 2 days back a media was showing how the GREAT INDIAN BANK LOOT took place under the previous UPA govt where state owned Banks were asked to disburse LOANS IN LAKHS OF CRORES and how corporates took advantage of this system.

Jay
 - 
Friday, 13 Oct 2017

Ha...This is what from day one of Modi his baiters have been telling ...some acting as though they voted and now changed mind ...are you guys serious about contesting Modi...give a good reason to change and show a better cleaner politician to depend on else this will be the same old story repeated even in 2024 ...

Rudresh
 - 
Friday, 13 Oct 2017

To those who are painting rosy picture , its not about Modi or BJP its about Indian Economy , we failed to take advantage of lower oil price for past three years . Just turn around and see how many children of friends and relatives who came out of college are jobless . Those who have graduated in last two years are struggling to find job and those who are already in job are looking scary . Is this not enough to understand how economy is doing ? Also look at the small businesses and see how they are impacted . RBI Governor escapes parliamentary committee meeting like a student escaping class exams .

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 19,2020

Udupi, May 19: Within minutes after health and family welfare department announced four fresh covid-19 cases in Udupi district, a girl who had come from central part of Karnataka tested positive for the coronavirus thereby taking the count of cases detected after last evening to five. 

With this the total number of confirmed covid-19 cases in the district rose to 16. Three among them have recovered. One patient died last week. There are 12 active cases. 

According to sources, the 17-year-old girl from Chitradurga had visited KMC hospital in Manipal for cancer treatment on May 16. 

Her throat swabs were sent for corona testing on the following day. Today she obtained a positive report. Hence, she was shifted to Dr TMA Pai Covid hospital.

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News Network
March 27,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 27: In the wake of mounting number of coronavirus positive cases in Dakshina Kannada and surrounding areas, the government has decided to fully shut down the coastal district on Saturday, March 28.

Announcing this today, district in charge minister Kota Srinivas Poojary urged the people not to step out their homes at any cost for any reason as nothing would be available outside except the deadly coronavirus.

All grocery stores, food outlets and markets also are likely to remain closed. For last few days grocery shops remained open till noon. 

Dakshina Kannada today reported two fresh cases of Covid-19. So far the district witnessed seven positive cases and none of them are fully cured. Shockingly neighboring district of Kasargod today reported 34 new coronavirus positive cases on a single day.

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Agencies
February 20,2020

India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and secures 131st spot on a flourishing ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children, according to a UN-backed report.

The report was released on Wednesday by a commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world. It was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and The Lancet medical journal.

In the report assessing the capacity of 180 countries to ensure that their youngsters can survive and thrive, India ranks 77th on the Sustainability Index and 131 on the Flourishing Index, it said.

Flourishing is the geometric mean of Surviving and Thriving. For Surviving, the authors selected maternal survival, survival in children younger than 5 years old, suicide, access to maternal and child health services, basic hygiene and sanitation, and lack of extreme poverty.

For Thriving, the domains were educational achievement, growth and nutrition, reproductive freedom, and protection from violence.

Under the Sustainability Index, the authors noted that promoting today's national conditions for children to survive and thrive must not come at the cost of eroding future global conditions for children's ability to flourish.

The Sustainability Index ranks countries on excess carbon emissions compared with the 2030 target. This provides a convenient and available proxy for a country's contribution to sustainability in future.

The report noted that under realistic assumptions about possible trajectories towards sustainable greenhouse gas emissions, models predict that global carbon emissions need to be reduced from 39·7 giga­ tonnes to 22·8 gigatonnes per year by 2030 to maintain even a 66 per cent chance of keeping global warming below 1·5°C.

It said that the world's survival depended on children being able to flourish, but no country is doing enough to give them a sustainable future.

"No country in the world is currently providing the conditions we need to support every child to grow up and have a healthy future," said Anthony Costello, Professor of Global Health and Sustainability at University College London, one of the lead authors of the report.

"Especially, they're under immediate threat from climate change and from commercial marketing, which has grown hugely in the last decade," said Costello – former WHO Director of Mother, Child and Adolescent health.

Norway leads the table for survival, health, education and nutrition rates - followed by South Korea and the Netherlands. Central African Republic, Chad and Somalia come at the bottom.

However, when taking into account per capita CO2 emissions, these top countries trail behind, with Norway 156th, the Republic of Korea 166th and the Netherlands 160th.

Each of the three emits 210 per cent more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target, the data shows, while the US, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the 10 worst emitters. The lowest emitters are Burundi, Chad and Somalia.

According to the report, the only countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly – within the top 70 – on child flourishing measures are: Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam.

"More than 2 billion people live in countries where development is hampered by humanitarian crises, conflicts, and natural disasters, problems increasingly linked with climate change," said Minister Awa Coll-Seck from Senegal, Co-Chair of the commission.

The report also highlights the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing.

Evidence suggests that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250 per cent in the US over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people.

Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the US – among many others – have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children.

Children's exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity, it said.

The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 – an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs, the report said.

To protect children, the authors call for a new global movement driven by and for children.

Specific recommendations include stopping CO2 emissions with the utmost urgency, to ensure children have a future on this planet; placing children and adolescents at the centre of global efforts to achieve sustainable development, the report said.

New policies and investment in all sectors to work towards child health and rights; incorporating children's voices into policy decisions and tightening national regulation of harmful commercial marketing, supported by a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it said.

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