India's malnourished children

[frogfish]

Spotlight on India's malnourished children

By Geeta Pandey

BBC News, Shivpuri

One and a half year old Barsa cries incessantly. Thrashing her frail limbs around in agony, she appears upset at all the attention she's getting.

Mother Rukma says she has little time to feed her daughter

Her mother Rukma, no more than a child herself, unsuccessfully tries to soothe her.

Barsa is severely malnourished. Doctors say her condition demands urgent medical attention.

She's been brought to a Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre in Shivpuri in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where health authorities are working hard to improve her condition.

Her emaciated arms and legs are no thicker than my thumb and under her stretched skin, her ribs are clearly visible.

Health officials say she's been on a saline drip for two days now.

Her mother says her condition has improved a lot in the four days since she's been here.

People have few concepts about breast-feeding or weaning

Manohar Agnani

local official

In her family of 14 everyone has to work in the field to earn their bread. And feeding the infant is obviously not a priority here.

"We have a small land-holding, but that's not enough to feed everyone. So I work from the morning till late evening as a farm labourer. I feed her when I get the time. But where is the time?" Rukma asks.

'Marginalised'

Barsa is among millions of children in India who are underweight.

A volunteer nurse administers vitamin A to a child

A report by the UN's children's agency, Unicef, on child nutrition found that out of 146 million children under the age of five who are underweight in the developing world, 57 million are in India, giving it by far the biggest share of the problem.

Doctors say every year almost eight million babies in India are born weighing less than 2,500gm (5.125 lbs) and that millions of underweight babies die in the country annually.

The dubious distinction of having the largest number of malnourished children in India goes to the state of Madhya Pradesh.

In the tribal district of Shivpuri alone, more than 4,500 children suffer from acute malnourishment.

Unicef officials say close to 1,000 have been classified into Grade 4 - which means they are critical.

Crippling poverty and illiteracy have joined hands in this backward region and children are falling prey to malnutrition like nine-pins.

Local official Manohar Agnani admits the situation is grim.

"Almost 50% of the zero to six-year population here is malnourished. People have few concepts about breast-feeding or weaning," he says.

Mr Agnani says the problem is not confined to his state, "but definitely the more remote you are, the more marginalised you are, you'll have less access to information, less access to supplies," he says.

To deal with the problem, the Madhya Pradesh government has set up detection and nutrition rehabilitation centres across the state, supported by Unicef.

At one such centre in Chandarpur village, dozens of children below the age of five are being checked.

Screaming babies are hung in a cloth sling and weighed on a scale. They are graded according to their age and weight.

The ones seriously underweight are recommended to the rehabilitation centres.

Lack of awareness

At the rehab centre in Shivpuri town, the dormitory is teeming with babies.

Doctor Gupta (right) says there are simple solutions to malnutrition

The four-month-old Goswami twins - Prince and Ansh, have arrived here just an hour ago and their mother Jyoti is bewildered.

"I had no idea that I wasn't feeding them properly. Everyone said dilute the milk with water so I mixed them half and half and fed the babies with a bottle."

Jyoti looks on with concern at Ansh who weighs only 1.8kg (4 lbs), the normal weight for his age is 6kg.

Doctor Ram Sarup Gupta is the paediatrician at the rehabilitation centre and it's his job to nurse Ansh and Barsa back to health.

Today alone, his clinic has received 10 underweight babies and Dr Gupta is rushing from bed to bed, checking them, ordering drips for some, prescribing medicines or a special diet for another.

"A little bit of awareness on the parent's part could have prevented these babies from getting so grossly underweight," he says. "This is preventable by simple measures."

At these centres, the children are kept anywhere from seven to 14 days.

And to ensure that there are no relapses once they are discharged, Unicef is also holding training classes for mothers - they are told what to feed their babies, when to feed them and how much to feed them.

Unicef officials say that the biggest reason for malnutrition is not a lack of food.

They say the main reasons are social - like the low social status of women, early marriage and little gap between birth of children.

"We are trying our level best," says Unicef's Vandana Agarwal, "but the number of affected children is very high. It will take us five years to deal with the problem."

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This problem is all too common in India..We need to make this better.

[Purplos]

""They say the main reasons are social - like the low social status of women, early marriage and little gap between birth of children. ""

That's pretty awful, but I can't help being amazed at the lack of common sense or motherly instinct. How can you not understand that babies need to be fed? These people don't even know that you need some sort of nourishment to grow and be healthy? Wow.

[Avinash_Tyagi]

""They say the main reasons are social - like the low social status of women, early marriage and little gap between birth of children. ""

That's pretty awful, but I can't help being amazed at the lack of common sense or motherly instinct. How can you not understand that babies need to be fed? These people don't even know that you need some sort of nourishment to grow and be healthy? Wow.

happens when you have so many uneducated people India has one of the highest populations of uneducated people in the world, and actually they know that the kids need the food, they just don't know proper methods of feeding.

Edited May 8, 2006 by Avinash_Tyagi

[frogfish]

That's pretty awful, but I can't help being amazed at the lack of common sense or motherly instinct. How can you not understand that babies need to be fed? These people don't even know that you need some sort of nourishment to grow and be healthy? Wow

They know...They just don't have the money...I have been to India many times (I myself am Indian) and they are in need for money...Just like the poor in every country in the world..

happens when you have so many uneducated people India has one of the highest populations of uneducated people in the world, and actually they know that the kids need the food, they just don't know proper methods of feeding

They are not uneducated, they are poor...Just like people in America, and all the other countries...The Caste system created this

[Avinash_Tyagi]

They are not uneducated, they are poor...Just like people in America, and all the other countries...The Caste system created this

Frog I'm Indian also and I can tell you there is a lot of uneducated people in India, and very high illiteracy rates, its improving but it'll take time.

[Dominik]

The population is too big.

The gov should do something about it.

My suggestion, Kill 90%.

[Avinash_Tyagi]

The population is too big.

The gov should do something about it.

My suggestion, Kill 90%.

Nah, you americans need people to take all your jobs overseas

[frogfish]

Nah, you americans need people to take all your jobs overseas

The population is too big.

The gov should do something about it.

My suggestion, Kill 90%.

Get a soul kid...or a hobby..

You have to agree that that caste system was to blame for the majority of this...

Edited May 9, 2006 by frogfish

[Purplos]

I understand they are poor, but I responded thus because of the line in the article --

"Unicef officials say that the biggest reason for malnutrition is not a lack of food. They say the main reasons are social - like the low social status of women, early marriage and little gap between birth of children.""

[frogfish]

...Caste system

[Krypto75]

I feel sorry for those children.

I have a simple solution to there problem...STOP HAVING BABIES!!!!!!

If you know you can't feed the children then why have them.

[frogfish]

I have a simple solution to there problem...STOP HAVING BABIES!!!!!!

If you know you can't feed the children then why have them

Families are important there...You just can't tell them that.

[__Kratos__]

Families are important there...You just can't tell them that.

Families are so important that they'd rather have children to watch starve and suffer then not have children or have no more then enough to support fully?

I saw the caste system brought up earlier in this thread. That is the a major problem over there. Oh, sure it's illegal now but really nobody really cares about it. They still have people in higher castes going around picking on the lowers. Jobs are still harder for people born in the wrong caste or bloodline. Then to put the icing on the cake, if you don't play your role in your caste, you supposely get a bad reincarnation when you die. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

It probably doesn't help that it is a developing country with over a billion people and increasing. Some areas are better then most but really it's the big cities that have US interests with investments (out sourcing companies and such) that are really doing well.

[Bone_Collector]

Families are so important that they'd rather have children to watch starve and suffer then not have children or have no more then enough to support fully?

I wonder about this myself. Why do pople who do not have enough to feed themselves have babies? I guess when some people don't have much, their families tend to mean everything to them. Not smart thinking in my opinion though.

I saw the caste system brought up earlier in this thread. That is the a major problem over there. Oh, sure it's illegal now but really nobody really cares about it. They still have people in higher castes going around picking on the lowers. Jobs are still harder for people born in the wrong caste or bloodline. Then to put the icing on the cake, if you don't play your role in your caste, you supposely get a bad reincarnation when you die. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

It probably doesn't help that it is a developing country with over a billion people and increasing. Some areas are better then most but really it's the big cities that have US interests with investments (out sourcing companies and such) that are really doing well.

The caste system is a problem but that's mostly in the villages and underdeveloped places though. In the big cities, things are a lot different. There is great diversity in India.

There are reservations for people from backward classes in colleges, universities, government jobs, parliament, and even on the moon. No, not on the moon Reservations and more reservations everywhere. There are no reservations in the private sector, however, it's far easier for a candidate from a backward class to get a government job than a meritorious eligible candidate. Now, the problem is the other way round.

A great number of smart and qualified people are suffering because of these reservations. So, the cream of the society is now looking towards MNCs, where they are getting good value for their efforts and qualifications.

Edited May 12, 2006 by Bone_Collector

[frogfish]

true

Edited May 13, 2006 by frogfish