India: Advancing Economy Reveals a Hungry Underbelly — Global Issues

 Millions of children in India are victims of a faulty and neglectful public healthcare system that is proving to be an obstacle to human development in this rapidly growing economy of 1.1 billion people.

A World Bank Report released mid-2011, ‘Undernourished children - a call for reform and action’, estimated that some 60 million children were underweight in India. The report also said 50 percent of India’s 1.1 billion people live on less than 1.25 dollars a day.

The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in New Delhi says India could easily tackle malnutrition. ‘As a food surplus and grain exporting nation, India can and must address malnutrition, which is caused by structural neglect and systematic failure, with resolute government and alternative interventions.’