Artist's Statement
Malnutrition Stalks India's Children
How and why are our young ones falling prey to this silent epidemic called acute malnutrition?
Malnutrition has recently been much in the news owing to a number of reports divulging shocking statistics from India. 8.82 lakh Indian children under the age of five died due to malnutrition in 2018. The country ranks 102 out of 117 in the Global Hunger Index 2019, which reported that around 90 percent of children aged between six and 23 months in the country don't even get the minimum required food. According to the National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4), the Infant Mortality Rate in urban India is 29 as compared to rural which is at 46 per 1000 live births, while the under-five child mortality rate is 34 in cities and 56 in villages. Stunting (low height for age) is prevalent among 38 per cent of our under-fives and the rate of wasting (low weight for height) of 20.8 percent among our under-fives is the highest in the world. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, as studies estimate that the situation will only escalate further in the years to come. It is time the people of India become aware of the shocking state of the country's future generation.
With reed-thin arms, the swelling of oedema distorting their body, some with distended tummies, others wheezing with pneumonia, and most of them with disinterest in their eyes and lethargy in their limbs … this is the state of our country's future generation. These children from sections of society that often go under the radar are at the receiving end of a long line of problems that stem from corruption, lack of opportunities to parents, social neglect or ostracization due to poverty, religion or caste, etc. While they may not all be dying of starvation before our very eyes, millions of India's children are at risk of having lifelong problems because their daily diet does not support their physical and cognitive development. It's imperative that the issue be examined closely and rectified quickly.
Many organizations are working to address this huge problem besetting our next generation and its potential for productivity, but is the help reaching the right people? What exactly lies at the end of the chain? We decided that we must investigate the conditions at the grassroots to get answers that will present the true and whole picture. Over the last month, our team visited remote areas in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Odisha to assess how the Integrated Child Development Services' outreach programs via Anganwadi Centres actually work; to see first-hand what the ground realities and stumbling blocks are in the implementation of central and state government initiatives; and to find out if there were any success stories that would throw light on how things could be done right.
In Assam, we tapped into the troubles of the tea garden laborers near Dibrugarh, as well as the Muslim population of the villages near Kharupetia, and the tribals living inside the Bodoland Territorial Council area in the district of Darrang. In Chhattisgarh, we visited villages across the tribal areas in Dongergaon, close to Rajnandgaon and the more far-flung Naxal neighborhoods of Manpur and Kanker. We worked closely with the Ho tribals in Jharkhand's Chakradharpur to understand how their customs impact their children's lives. In Maharashtra, we visited Thane and Palghar to see how the people of the Warli tribe are battling malnutrition. In Odisha's Kalahandi region, the Mazis and Koundhs also opened their homes and lives to us so that we could tell their story.
Not surprisingly, we found that the incidences of stunting, wasting, and malnourishment were high in these populations, with a high number of children falling under the Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) category, which is the most extreme and visible form of undernutrition. We talked to the families of these children; we visited the district nutrition rehabilitation centers; we watched the women who have made it their life's work to bring about change as they went about their daily duties … just to understand where it's all going wrong. We found that, apart from poverty, which is the most obvious, many other factors contribute to the dismal conditions in the homes of the tribal community and other marginalized sections of society. Unavailability of education, hygiene and access to medical treatment, early marriage, multiple pregnancies, lack of nutrition from earlier generations, superstitious beliefs and faith in dubious local healers instead of doctors, and many other reasons compounded the problem. The sheer lack of awareness amongst parents about what constitutes a nutritious meal was one of the most startling findings. In many cases, the failure of the system to provide aid to the beneficiaries, as well as to the people who are working in the field, also added an extra pall of gloom to the already dire realities.
