Malnutrition is the mother of all diseases. The Centre had admitted that more than 45 percent of the people are suffering from malnutrition in India. In the post-Corona world, India’s future depends on winning the war against malnutrition. The lockdown has had such a lethal impact on the life of the people that malnutrition has doubled along with an increase in unemployment and poverty. Children have become victims of these developments. Though we claim that today’s children are the citizens of the future, we are on the verge of creating a country that is disease prone and unhealthy. With the advent of the Coronavirus, all other diseases have been neglected and this has adversely affected the crores of children.
India has not seen any major achievements in addressing the problem of long-term malnutrition in children. In the 119-country Global Hunger Index, India’s rank has fallen and is now in the 100th position. India’s standing is poor even in children’s nutrition index so much so that a countless number of children have died due to malnutrition in tribal areas.
About 17 percent of the world’s population lives in India and about 25 percent of the global population suffering from hunger are in India. Though India has registered a commendable performance in food production, there has been no substantial improvement in eradicating hunger. United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published a report in 2017 that portrayed a grim situation. According to this report, about 19.70 crore people or about 14.4 percent of the country’s population is suffering due to the lack of nutrition. The health of a large number of women and children is in a miserable state in the absence of food security and nutrition is critical for women in their teenage years, during pregnancy, and when breastfeeding. Malnutrition has thus a more severe impact on women compared to men.
India that has the highest number of buffalo population is also at the forefront of milk production. It also occupies the second place in the world in the production of vegetables, fruits, and fish. Despite this, the grave reality is that the Body Mass Index (BMI) of one-third of the country’s adult population is below the normal range as they are deprived of adequate food, specifically nutritious food. Every day in India, more than 3000 children are dying due to illnesses related to the poor quality of food. This situation that we face in India is worse than that of several African countries in the Sahara region. The lack of good quality food, poor health care, and consumption, inadequate water supply, lack of hygiene, and deficient health services are responsible for such a situation in the country. A majority of mothers are suffering from anemia and malnutrition. While 33.6 percent of the children in India are suffering from long-term malnutrition, about 55 percent of young children are suffering from anemia. It has been estimated that the country is suffering losses to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh crore to its gross domestic product due to the problem of anemia that affects the people. This figure is three times more than the health budget of 2017-2018.
The Centre has already implemented two mega national programs to address the issue of malnutrition - Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the National Health Mission. But both these programs have failed to reach the common man and have fallen short of their objectives owing to administrative inefficiency and corruption. Studies have shown that about 40 percent of subsidized food is not reaching actual beneficiaries.
NITI Aayog has prepared a draft of a strategy to solve the problem of nutrition before 2030. It has come up with recommendations to reduce malnutrition by 3 percent in children aged below 3 and to reduce anemia among younger children and women in the age group of 15 to 49. But there is no doubt that the present economic slowdown will make it impossible to achieve these objectives. And the Centre, in an attempt to cover up its failures, will push issues such as the statue of Vallabhbhai Patel and Ram Mandir before the people. The future of India is not in temples, mosques, or statues but is dependent on the health of our children. The Centre should at least now wake up to this reality.
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Trouble ‘Miyas’ everywhere only then they will leave Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Says “Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP are openly against them, we are saying it openly
New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that four to five lakh “Miya voters” would be removed from the electoral rolls in the state once the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists is carried out. He also made a series of controversial remarks openly targeting the Miya community, a term commonly used in Assam in a derogatory sense to refer to Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official programme in Digboi in Tinsukia district, Sarma said it was his responsibility to create difficulties for the Miya community and claimed that both he and the BJP were “directly against Miyas”.
“Four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be deleted in Assam when the SIR happens,” Sarma said, adding that such voters “should ideally not be allowed to vote in Assam, but in Bangladesh”. He asserted that the government was ensuring that they would not be able to vote in the state.
The chief minister was responding to questions about notices issued to thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims during the claims and objections phase of the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in Assam. While the Election Commission is conducting SIR exercises in 12 states and Union Territories, Assam is currently undergoing an SR, which is usually meant for routine updates.
Calling the current SR “preliminary”, Sarma said that a full-fledged SIR in Assam would lead to large-scale deletion of Miya voters. He said he was unconcerned about criticism from opposition parties over the issue.
“Let the Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer,” Sarma said. He claimed that complaints filed against members of the community were done on his instructions and that he had encouraged BJP workers to keep filing complaints.
“I have told people wherever possible they should fill Form 7 so that they have to run around a little and are troubled,” he said, adding that such actions were meant to send a message that “the Assamese people are still living”.
In remarks that drew further outrage, Sarma urged people to trouble members of the Miya community in everyday life, claiming that “only if they face troubles will they leave Assam”. He also accused the media of sympathising with the community and warned journalists against such coverage.
“So you all should also trouble, and you should not do news that sympathise with them. There will be love jihad in your own house.” He said.
The comments triggered reactions from opposition leaders. Raijor Dal president and MLA Akhil Gogoi said the people of Assam had not elected Sarma to keep one community under constant pressure. Congress leader Aman Wadud accused the chief minister of rendering the Constitution meaningless in the state, saying his remarks showed a complete disregard for constitutional values.
According to the draft electoral rolls published on December 27, Assam currently has 2.51 crore voters. Election officials said 4.78 lakh names were marked as deceased, 5.23 lakh as having shifted, and 53,619 duplicate entries were removed during the revision process. Authorities also claimed that verification had been completed for over 61 lakh households.
On January 25, six opposition parties the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) submitted a memorandum to the state’s chief electoral officer. They alleged widespread legal violations, political interference and selective targeting of genuine voters during the SR exercise, describing it as arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional.
