India just came out
with a survey that covered one fifth of India’s child population. People were
astonished when they heard that 42.3%
of children under the age of five are underweight, 58.8% are stunted in heir
growth, and 11.4% are considered “wasted,” due to such horrible malnutrition.
The survey also linked malnutrition with education and sanitation; the less
education and knowledge in sanitation, the more likely you are to be malnourished.
Some reject the news found in this survey and reject the news that malnutrition
in India is not improving. However, malnutrition has only declined maybe two or
three per cent since their economic liberalization period, two decades ago. Prime
Minister, Manmohan Singh, decided not to let this go and released a report (http://www.naandi.org/CP/HungamaBKDec11LR.pdf)
about these figures and said it was, “a national shame.” Shockingly, this has
less to do with India’s poverty rate and more to do with India’s inequality
rate between men and women; according to the Globe in 2009.
I find this to be, for lack of a better word, sad. Children are starving
for what reason; inequality. Inequality is a major problem around the world and
is causing damage to our future generations. After reading this article I went
and did a little research on India as a whole. I found that India is, in fact,
a “booming” country. They have technology, middle class, restaurants, and they’ve
even sent a rocket to the moon; so why are they so behind on equal rights? The
truth is, a lot of nations are and it’s extremely damaging, globally. I’m not
saying that the only reason we have malnutrition is because of inequality, but
when I sit and really think about it; poverty is due to inequality and economic
disparity which ultimately leads to hunger and malnutrition around the world.
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