Poorly fed

IF THE children of India are any indication of the future health of the country,
there may be a dark tomorrow in store
for it. The Progress of Nations Report,
1996, released recently by the
Government of India and the United
Nations Children's Emergency Fund,
reports that as many as 53 per cent of
Indian children under five years of age
are underweight due to malnutrition.
The report observes that some of the
poorest countries in sub-saharan
Africa, which suffer from lower levels
of malnutrition are also known to suffer
from famines.

But India has long since won over
the problem. This points to the fact that
it is a slow death, in the form of malnutrition, that is holding the population at
ransom. The key factors linked to the
malady are social factors which keep
mothers at subsistence levels and the
people's ignorance of the nutrition
value of various foods (which for all
they know may be growing in their
backyards).