Malnourished India!
Worse than the coronavirus, the country is facing a more severe health threat in the form of malnutrition. There is a saying that children are the future of India.
By witnessing how today’s children are growing, we can understand how tomorrow’s India could turn out to be. Malnutrition is not a contagious disease but is a mother of several diseases. A vaccine can be discovered for the coronavirus but it is impossible to find a cure for malnutrition that the coronavirus has created in this country.
The only way to address this problem is to provide nutritious food. Malnutrition starts affecting a child right in the womb of the mother. It is impractical to expect a healthy baby when the mother struggles with malnutrition and lack of adequate nurturance.
The first phase of the National Family Health Survey of 2019-2020 was released earlier this month and the survey spanned 17 states and five Union Territories. According to this survey, the number of children below five years whose growth has been stunted has increased in several states including progressive states such as Kerala and Goa and several Union Territories.
North Eastern states such as Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Tripura, where traditionally the consumption of nutritious food has been encouraging, have also shown an increase in the number of children with stunted growth. Most of the states have registered a significant increase in the number of malnourished children.
Ladakh that has been centrally administered has seen an increase in malnourished children from 9.3 per cent to 17.3 per cent. The number of malnourished children has increased significantly in Bihar and Assam as well. In Nagaland alone, malnourished children has increased from 11.3 per cent to 19.10 per cent. Children’s stunted growth and malnutrition is a very serious malaise. The reasons for these health malaises need to be investigated and action must be taken to stop this dangerous trend.
At the same time, it is worrying that it has not been possible to control the problem of anemia that is growing. Even now, the number of people suffering from anemia is high in several states and in many of them, this problem has seen an increase, especially in children (between six and nine months), mothers, and women in the age group of 15 years to 49 years. Among children, youth, women, and the aged, the problem of anemia leaves an impact on both mental and physical growth, learning abilities, physical activities, and earning capabilities. To sum it up, the problem of anemia reduces the quality of human resources.
Another dangerous trend is that in many states, the number of infants below 24 months who have access to and consumed adequate and healthy diet has reduced by less than 20 per cent. Only in Kerala, Meghalaya, Ladakh, West Bengal, Sikkim, and Goa, about 20 per cent to 30 per cent children had adequate diet. But in Gujarat, only 5.9 per cent of children had access to adequate diet. While the provision of nutritious food supplements is reducing under the comprehensive child development programme, moderately priced nutritious food supplements are also not available in the market. If this problem is not mitigated, it is impossible to address the problems of low body weight, stunted growth, and malnutrition in children.
Compared to urban areas, the numbers are worse for rural areas. A multitude of reasons including poverty, unemployment, and perhaps demonetization, and its impact on the economy could be responsible for this pathetic state in rural areas. Demonetization saw an impact on jobs, salaries, and expenditure in rural areas over the following two years.
The problem of malnutrition that has impacted large numbers of people in India including children and the elderly does not kill the affected directly neither is it an epidemic. On the contrary, the problem of malnutrition results in long term exhaustion, stunted physical growth, and poor emotional growth. The report has divided districts into those with very poor development indicators, poor distribution systems, and minimum income. But if the government is sincere in its efforts to address the issues of malnutrition and low body weight, it should review and redesign its programmes such as ICDS and mid-day meal scheme. Only then can it obtain expected results.
Post lockdown, several reports have revealed that the problem of hunger has become worse. In this situation, the priority of the government should be on providing nutritious food. But by implementing the law against cow slaughter, the government is trying to snatch nutritious food from the poor. In the North Eastern states, beef is the main food in rural areas.
The poor have direct connection with the leather industry and the meat industry. The government’s decisions of promulgating these laws have a direct impact on this section society. And if the government’s decisions continue in this manner, it will not be surprising if India reaches the top position of being the most malnourished country in the world.
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Texas halts H-1B visas at state universities, agencies; to affect Indians
Houston (US) (PTI): Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered state agencies and public universities to immediately halt new H-1B visa petitions, tightening hiring rules at taxpayer-funded institutions, a step likely to impact Indian professionals.
The freeze will remain in effect through May 2027.
The directive issued on Tuesday said that the state agencies and public universities must stop filing new petitions unless they receive written approval from the Texas Workforce Commission.
The governor's order, in a red state that is home to thousands of H-1B visa holders, comes as the Trump administration has initiated steps to reshape the visa programme.
“In light of recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa programme, and amid the federal government’s ongoing review of that programme to ensure American jobs are going to American workers, I am directing all state agencies to immediately freeze new H-1B visa petitions as outlined in this letter,” Abbot said.
Institutions must also report on H-1B usage, including numbers, job roles, countries of origin, and visa expiry dates, the letter said.
US President Donald Trump on September 19 last year signed a proclamation ‘Restriction on entry of certain non-immigrant workers’ that restricted the entry into the US of those workers whose H-1B petitions are not accompanied or supplemented by a payment of USD 1,00,000.
The H1-B visa fee of USD 1,00,000 would be applicable only to new applicants, i.e. all new H-1B visa petitions submitted after September 21, including those for the FY2026 lottery.
Indians make up an estimated 71 per cent of all approved H-1B applications in recent years, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with China in the second spot. The major fields include technology, engineering, medicine, and research.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the second-highest beneficiary with 5,505 approved H-1B visas in 2025, after Amazon (10,044 workers on H-1B visas), according to the USCIS. Other top beneficiaries include Microsoft (5,189), Meta (5,123), Apple (4,202), Google (4,181), Deloitte (2,353), Infosys (2,004), Wipro (1,523) and Tech Mahindra Americas (951).
Texas public universities employ hundreds of foreign faculty and researchers, many from India, across engineering, healthcare, and technology fields.
Date from Open Doors -- a comprehensive information resource on international students and scholars studying or teaching at higher education institutions in the US -- for 2022-2023 showed 2,70,000 students from India embarked on graduate and undergraduate degrees in US universities, accounting for 25 per cent of the international student population in the US and 1.5 per cent of the total student population.
Indian students infuse roughly USD 10 billion annually into universities and related businesses across the country through tuition and other expenses – while also creating around 93,000 jobs, according to the Open Doors data.
Analysts warn the freeze could slow recruitment of highly skilled professionals, affecting academic research and innovation.
Supporters say the directive protects local jobs, while critics caution it could weaken Texas’ competitiveness in higher education and research.
The order comes amid broader debate in the US over skilled immigration and state-level interventions in federal programmes.
H-1B visas allow US companies to hire technically-skilled professionals that are not easily available in America. Initially granted for three years, these can be extended for another three years.
In September 2025, Trump had also signed an executive order ‘The Gold Card’, aimed at setting up a new visa pathway for those committed to supporting the United States; with individuals who can pay USD 1 million to the US Treasury, or USD 2 million if a corporation is sponsoring them, to get access to expedited visa treatment and a path to a Green Card.
