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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

India Has Highest Number Of Underweight Children

India's higher economic growth has not translated into a superior nutritional status for the country's women and children, as the country houses the highest number of underweight children globally, the World Bank has said. "The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world," the bank said in its publication, 'The World Bank in India'."Despite experiencing unprecedented economic growth during the last decade, South Asia, including India, has the highest rates of malnutrition and the largest numbers of undernourished in the world," it said.

Citing estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it said about 49 per cent of the world's underweight children, 34 per cent of the world's stunted children and 46 per cent of the world's wasted children, live in India.The prevalence of malnutrition varies across states, demographic and socio-economic groups, with scheduled tribes and scheduled castes ranking highest among all."Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand have the highest malnutrition rates," it said, adding that even in urban areas, a third of the children are underweight."Over the past decade, progress in reducing malnutrition in India has been limited; in fact anaemia has increased," it said.
Meanwhile, in the United States....

12 comments:

Orsonwells said...

Meanwhile, the sacred cows roam among them eating the vegetation...

Anonymous said...

yep, keep feeding your kids fast food and this is inevitable!
Learn how to cook and feed your kids home cooked meals! They WILL thank you for it when they are the ones who DON'T look like these kids in this picture!

Grape Soda said...

Since they don't eat the cows, send them KFC and Popeye's....then they will get fat like the kids in the US.

Anonymous said...

Grape Soda, most Indians are vegetarians so they can't eat the KFC, but whatever they eat you can fry up in non-animal source Crisco and that'll get them up to speed with the US population.

I agree with the home cooking, even if you use margarine and fats to cook, your kids will not get as fat as those who eat fast-food all the time. I think it's because we use more variety of veggies, unfried potatoes and rice in home meals. At a fast food places, they only get fried potatoes and now mac n cheese-which is a change from fried but still a starch.

Chimera said...

Actually KFC tried to franchise into India at one time but the authoritarian government there outvoted it,declaring KFC fare "unhealthy" for its people.(Like malnourished children ARE healthy,but I digress)
Its sad to see those kids suffer,and the social "caste" system there probably does not improve matters. Meanwhile,we have kids in the US that are so obese there is an epidemic of early onset Type 2 diabetes.Ironically minority children (Hispanic,Black,Native American) are the most high-risk group in the US when it comes to childhood obesity and its myriad of health issues.

Anonymous said...

One of the other main things in this country making our kids (and adults) fat is all the "extras" place in the processed foods and the meats.

I do not eat processed foods anymore if I can get around it and my weight dropped like a lead balloon after realizing what was happening to me.

Yes, I still eat meat, but less than I used to. It's the prepackaged stuff that I stay well away from. I will cook it from scratch.

Also, I don't believe oil and margarine really have anything to do with it either.
I fry a lot of my foods in vegetable oil and believe me, I am not a heavy person and neither is my family.
I was brought up in the South where it seems like everything is fried. My family has no history of high cholesterol, heart problems or obesity so go figure.
You can eat whatever you want (not processed foods) as long as you do so in moderation.
THAT is where so many people mess up....moderation.

Anonymous said...

Where did you get that old picture of Jonathan? Bwaahahaha

Cruggly said...

Aint "Capitalistic Corporate GREED" great, it may well even dictate cultural behavior, do ya think.

Anonymous said...

Why is it only women and children that are reported malnourished? What about the men? Just curious.

Anonymous said...

Yeah but if government regulated how many big macs and fries a kid can eat it would be socialist, that's the parents fault. If you charged them with child abuse somebody else would scream socialism! Let them eat Cake.

Anonymous said...

7:30 - Over there the men eat first & anything left goes to the women & children.

Anonymous said...

thank you anon 12:34. Wow, that is horrible. Very sad