{"id":142382,"date":"2021-10-21T19:50:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T14:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=142382"},"modified":"2021-10-25T09:18:16","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T03:48:16","slug":"towards-zero-hunger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/towards-zero-hunger\/","title":{"rendered":"Towards zero hunger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis: <\/strong>Food programmes must focus on nutrition<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021<\/strong><\/a><\/span> places India at a lowly 101st position among 116 countries, below many of its smaller neighbors like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.<\/p>\n

The Global Food Security Index<\/strong> (FSI) 2021 puts it in a marginally better position. It ranks India 71st among 113 countries with an overall score higher than that of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

However, the common inference from the two reports is that far more needs to be done to move towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030.<\/p>\n

How affordability of food is guaranteed in India?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

India has put in place a unique Right to Food Act<\/strong> under which highly subsidized food grains are being supplied to nearly two-thirds of the population.<\/p>\n

This programme, moreover, is supported by several other free food distribution schemes, many of which have been scaled up due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

These programmes \u00a0are also being supplemented by the distribution of raw and cooked food by innumerable social, religious and philanthropist organisations.<\/p>\n

How India is faring w.r.t nutritional security?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

While India has managed to surmount hunger, as normally manifested in starvation deaths, it has failed to do so in the case of malnutrition, which is still rampant.<\/p>\n

Deficiency of protein<\/strong> and various key vitamins and minerals, which retards physical growth of children and causes ill-health among adults, is fairly common.<\/p>\n

This is borne out by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4<\/strong> (2015-16) and revalidated by the NFHS-5 (2019-20).<\/p>\n

The NFHS-4 had found that 38.4% kids below five had low height for their age (technically called \u201cstunted\u201d) and about 21 per cent had low weight for their height (dubbed as \u201cwasted\u201d).<\/p>\n

The NFHS-5, while more or less endorsing these findings, goes a step further to conclude that the nutritional status of kids below five has actually tended to worsen in some states.<\/p>\n

What are the reasons for poor nutritional security? <\/strong><\/h5>\n

The genesis of poor nutrition can be traced in the flawed basic approach of most food-aid programmes. They aim primarily at filling the bellies rather than providing nutritionally balanced and healthy diets.<\/p>\n

What needs to be done?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The need, therefore, is to diversify the meals supplied through welfare programmes by including non-cereals and nutrient-enriched fortified foods to make the meals nutritionally balanced and wholesome.<\/p>\n

Even small, but well-advised, changes in the menus of these programmes can make a noticeable difference in the nutritional profile of the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis: Food programmes must focus on nutrition Introduction The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 places India at a lowly 101st position among 116 countries, below many of its smaller neighbors like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The Global Food Security Index (FSI) 2021 puts it in a marginally better position. It ranks India 71st among 113… Continue reading Towards zero hunger<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,9116,356,10394],"class_list":["post-142382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-issues-related-to-hunger","tag-malnutrition","tag-sero-hunger","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704793510},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}