Malnutrition getting worse in India

By Damian Grammaticas
BBC News, Madhya Pradesh



Lying on a bed is a tiny malnourished child. Her limbs wasted, her stomach bloated, her hair thinning and falling out. Her name is Roshni.

She stares, wide-eyed, blankly at the ceiling. Roshni is six months old. She should weigh 4.5kg. But when she is placed on a set of scales they settle at just 2.9kg.

Roshni is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, defined by the World Health Organisation as weighing less than 60% of the ideal median weight for her height.

There are 40 beds in this centre. On every one is a similar child. All are acutely malnourished. Wailing, painful, plaintive cries fill the air. This is the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre in the town of Shivpuri.

You might think we are somewhere in Africa. But this is the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh - modern India, a land of booming growth.

"The situation in our village is very bad," says Roshni's mother, Kapuri.

"Sometimes we get work, sometimes we don't. Together with our children we are dying from hunger. What can we poor people do? Nothing."

FOR MORE....click: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7445570.stm

Indian has 56 dollar billionaires. These bastards should share some of their money. I think maybe they aren't paying enough tax.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... llionaires

You can't just insult or blame the billionaires. We are as guilty as them (if at all).

They didn't cause the problem. It's the system of governance in place that has failed the people. The role of politics is to take care of the affairs of the people. This is primarily a political problem. But of course, we as individuals, like the billionaires, should do all we can.

“We are as guilty as them”

That comment is completely stupid!

We live our lives most of the day without thinking of the poor - just like the billionaires.
We are all able to donate more to charity but fail to do so - just like the billionaires.
We are all able to raise awareness for the poor but continue to ignore them - just like the billionaires.

God won't ask us if we gave billions or millions. Most of us living in the UK continue to spend money on unnecessary luxuries and could do so much more. He'll be asking us what we donated in proportion to what we earned! And in that respect, we are very much like the billionaires (in relative terms).

And if you could qualify your comment about my post being "stupid" rather than making such a brash statement, then you might just earn abit of credit!

now now ladies......

We all have different levels of influence....some more than others, but everyone has their responsibilities, no-one is free from blame, hence we can all be all be classed as guilty up to some extent.

Rather than shift blame on to certain individuals, we should acknowledge that we all are partially guilty and need to do whatever's within our power to contribute towards rectifying the situation