Child undernourishment 'alarming' in South Asia: report

KARACHI: With the deadline to achieve Millennium Development Goals just five years away, 2010 Global Hunger Index report prepared by International Food Policy Research Institute IFPRI paints a gloomy picture of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Some 29 countries in these regions, it says, have levels of hunger that are alarming or extremely alarming.

Regional statistics

Among South Asian countries, India (67) was ranked lower than Pakistan (52) on index and only Bangladesh (68) was ranked below India.

Bangladesh, India & Timor-Leste have highest prevalence of underweight children, at around 40 per cent in Asia.

Global hunger index was calculated for 122 countries on the basis of child mortality rate, prevalence of underweight children and proportion of undernourished people in a country. Data on these parameters were sourced from Food & Agriculture Organization FAO, United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF & World Health Organization WHO.

Recommendations

The report recommends that interventions, using evidence-based and locally appropriate approaches, are required from conception stage up to age of two to bring down hunger levels. These include improving nutrition of pregnant and lactating women, promoting sound breastfeeding practices, improving hygiene, sanitation, giving essential vitamin supplements where necessary, promoting universal salt iodisation, immunisation.

The report says governments should adopt policies that deal with underlying causes of undernutrition like food insecurity, lack of access to health services, poor caring, feeding practices, which are exacerbated by poverty, gender inequity. But in India, where poverty can be said to be man-made feature, undernutrition is cause and not outcome of inability of people to make themselves food secure or have access to health services.

Few case studies mentioned in report express clearly helplessness of people to combat hunger in absence of resources. It describes hunger as discomfort associated with lack of food.

Undernutrition signifies deficiencies in protein, energy, essential vitamins, minerals and says it is caused by inadequate intake of food – either in quantity or quality. Nations in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa will fall not in overnutrition category but in “hungry” and, to an extent, “undernutrition” categories.

Download the complete report in PDF format here.