Indian govt. has been sitting on the report since October 2014 stating the validity of the data is incorrect but Unicef is confident on the study done. Perhaps the main reason for government push back on this data is cause Gujarat, the state formerly ruled by the present India PM for more than a decade and which is claimed by the present govt. to be relatively prosperous has performed much poorly.
Some facts
a) the National Family Health Survey(NFHS) has previously conducted a survey in 2005 and 2006
b) Unicef and the govt of India had agreed to do a Rapid Survey of Children(RSOC).
c) 210,000 interviews were conducted across 29 States and Union Territories in 2013-14. More than 90,000 children were measured and weighed and also 28,000 teenage girls.
d) A Decade ago 42.5% of all children under five were under-weighed. Now the reports says its below 30%
e) Madhya Pradesh cut the proportion of the kids who go hungry from 60% to 36%. Bihar from 56% to 37%. Maharashtra's underweight children fell from 37% to 25%.
f) Maharashtra's example of dealing with malnutrition was relatively a better example. better and more frequent feeding of infants, more care for pregnant woman, higher household incomes, and the rise in age by which women have babies.
g) More than half of the kids in UP are below normal height. Even among wealthiest 1/5th of India homes more than a quarter are stunted. The reason the mothers and girls get less food, healthcare and education than the males. Half of all the girls between 15-18 had low body mass index meaning they would give birth to undernourished babies.
h) India's habit of letting out in the open(lack of loos) has come down from 55% to 45% But that is enough to help spread diseases, worms, other parasites that make difficult to absorb nutrients even when food is in abundance.
i) Clear correlation between Open defecation and hunger.
j) The BJP ruled states are unfortunately lagging behind their rivals in this.
k) Nearly two-fifths of Gujarat's population defecate outdoors.
Political reasons and interference:Mr. Modi says that "Middle Class is more beauty conscious than health concious. If a mother tells her daughter to drink milk they will fight. The girl will tell her mother that 'I will get fat".
Amartya Sen says, Mr Modi does not provide strong leadership on the health policy. The spending on health budget fell this year with barely a 1% of GDP far behind China.
Our leaders have strong views on food. The home minster has called for a nation wide ban on cow slaughter which for a hindu is holy! Some of our leaders even say beef eaters should be moved to Pakistan!The CM of MP has recently banned eggs in school saying its a non vegetarian.
Eggs are hard to adulterate unlike milk which may be mixed with glucose, cooking oil and perhaps detergent.
If our politicians really care then they should be adding and not cutting from the menu. Especially women and children who are worse fed than their brothers and husbands!
Africa's underweight is 21% much lower than India.
Should the leaders suppress data just for face saving or should they better inform people? Perhaps the govt. should atleast learn from the Maharashtra govt. model and replicate that.
When can our political representatives give women and children get the food, medicine and the toilets they need?
** Data taken from The Economist
