[Reader-list] Right To Food Article's - 9

[Aashish Gupta]

Continuing with Rakesh's endeavour. Shukriya dost.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=RSSFeed-India&id=3f60f0e2-2817-4943-8f08-f93fbe59b453&Headline=Why+MP+is+India%e2%80%99s+Ethiopia


Human development indicators suggest that Madhya Pradesh (MP) has descended
to a state similar to that of Ethiopia, the global yardstick for hunger and
deprivation.

The  state’s annual plan document, cleared by the Planning Commission on
Friday, reveals  that the nutritional levels of women and children in MP
have been steadily sliding over the past 10 years. MP Chief Minister Shivraj
Singh Chouhan attributed poor health indicators to low industrialisation of
the state.

At a meeting with plan panel officials, he sought a special package from the
Centre for industrial development in tribal  areas, which he thinks will
improve the per capita income of the population.

The percentage of under-weight children less than three years old has
increased from 53.5 per cent in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2)
report concluded in 1996 to 60.3 per cent in the latest NFHS-3.

The latest survey on health indicators was conducted between 1996 and 2006.

MP’s record stands in stark  contrast to the national average that has
fallen from 47 per cent to 45.90 per cent over decade ending in 2006.

Similarly, the percentage of anaemic children has increased from 71.3 per
cent to 82.6 per cent between the two surveys.  The percentage of anaemic
pregnant children, too, has increased from 49.9 per cent to 57.9 per cent.

The infant mortality rate has, however, witnessed a fall from 88 per cent to
57 per cent. But it is much higher than the national average of 55 per cent.

A senior Planning  Comm-ission official, requesting anonymity, attributed
poor  nutritional standards to increasing hunger in the state.

“It may be because of leakages in the public distribution system,” he
remarked.

Madhya Pradesh was one of the first states in India to distribute foodgrains
to 32.4 per cent of its poor population at Rs 3 per kilo.

According to the Indian  State Hunger Index released in 2008, however,
Madhya  Pradesh, with a score of 30.9, had the largest number of hungry
people in the country. The  state was put in the “extremely alarming”
bracket.

In the International Hunger  Index chart the same year, Ethiopia scored
31.06. Both indices are prepared on the basis of similar parameters by the
International Food  Policy Research Institute. A higher score on the chart
indicates more hunger.

The  planners are worried  to find that MP’s hunger record has worsened
between 1994 and 2008, the years of two hunger indices for India.

The per capita income of the state has increased slightly from Rs 12,384 in
1999-2000 to Rs 15,346 in 2007-08. In comparison, the national average has
almost doubled from Rs 16,258 to Rs 33,000 in the same period.