[pronut-hiv] BBC: Food warning for Indian children

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Food warning for Indian children 

By Damian Grammaticas 
BBC News, Delhi

More than 1.5m children in Indiaare at risk of becoming malnourished
because of rising global food prices, the UN children's charity, Unicef,
says. 
It warns that food inflation could be devastating for vulnerable women
and children right across South Asia. 
The region already has the largest number of malnourished children in
the world and levels could get even worse. 
Even before the current crisis almost half of all Indian children
showed signs of stunted growth, Unicef says. 

'Huge numbers' 
"It is a perfect storm, we have increasing malnutrition in an area that
already has the majority of malnutrition in the world," Daniel Toole,
Unicef's regional director for South Asia, said in the Indian capital,
Delhi, on Tuesday. 
"We have huge numbers of people living in poverty and a doubling of
food prices. Those factors combined mean that we're going to just create
tremendous vulnerability." 
According to Unicef's latest State of the World's Children's report,
Indiahas the worst indicators of child malnutrition in South Asia:
48% of under fives in Indiaare stunted, compared to 43% in Bangladeshand
37% in Pakistan. 
Meanwhile 30% of babies in Indiaare born underweight, compared to 22%
in Bangladeshand 19% in Pakistan. Unicef calculates that 40% of all
underweight babies in the world are Indian. 
Put all that in hard numbers and the figures are stark. Fifty million
Indian under fives are affected by malnutrition. Rising food prices,
Unicef says mean 1.5 to 1.8 million more children in Indiaalone could
end up malnourished.
 
Cutting down on meals 
And already Unicef says more expensive food is having an impact. 
 "People are changing the way they eat," says Mr Toole. 
"Households that have three meals a day are going back to two. Or if
they have two they are going back to one. That has a dramatic impact on
child nutrition because children need to be fed frequently." 
Elsewhere it's not the number of meals, but the quality of the food
they're eating that is changing, he says. 
"Meat is very expensive and they have dropped that. So they are losing
their protein source. So that will have an impact on health and
nutrition too." 

In Bangladeshand Nepalpeople are using less oil, an important source of
calories
Three hundred million Indians live on less than $1 a day, according to
the UN. 
Poor families who cannot afford rising food prices are having to save
money where they can, and that also means spending less on healthcare
and education. 

"We are starting to see that families are pulling girls out of school
as they need to send them to work," Mr Toole said. 
"So our concern is we will start to see more incidences of child
labour, and less frequenting of school, which has a long-term
developmental impact on children and societies as a whole." 
Food prices, he believes, will remain high for at least the next two
years, and in that time it is children who will bear the brunt. 

Strategic stocks 
So what needs to be done to tackle this crisis? 
First the priority must be to feed the hungry across South Asia, Unicef
says. 

In Afghanistanthat means additional food aid. In India, Bangladesh and
Nepalit means expanding school feeding programmes and middaymeal
schemes as well as more cash payments to the most vulnerable. 
Then countries will have to build up their strategic stocks of food. 
Bangladeshhas already bought 400,000 metric tonnes of rice from Indiato
do this, but wants to triple that amount. It's obviously expecting the
numbers of poor and hungry to grow. 
But to tackle the root of the problem there needs to be a significant
investment in agriculture, especially small-scale farming, in seeds,
fertilisers, and infrastructure. Countries need to change, says Unicef.

It says Indiahas focused on industrialisation and outsourcing of
services, while just 2.2% of the national budget is invested in
agriculture. 
In Nepalit says there has been an almost complete neglect of irrigation
systems. The crisis may force governments to face up to years of
under-investment. 
And if action isn't taken, Unicef is warning there could be social
unrest in South Asia. 
"This is already a region of vast disparities," Mr Toole warns. 
"My gut says at some point people will say enough is enough. If they
can't feed themselves and their children it could be too much."