74.1% of Indians unable to afford a healthy diet: FAO Report
The Hindu
FAO report finds 74.1% of Indians unable to afford healthy diet; 16.6% of population undernourished; 31.7% of children under 5 stunted; 18.7% wasted; 2.8% overweight; 53% of women aged 15-49 anaemic; 1.6% adults obese; 63.7% infants 0-5 months exclusively breastfed; 27.4% low birthweight.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations launched the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2023: Statistics and Trends, a report on Tuesday which said 74.1% of Indians were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2021. In 2020, the percentage was 76.2. In Pakistan, the figure is 82.2% and in Bangladesh, 66.1% of the population faced difficulties in finding healthy food. Rising food costs, if not matched by rising income, will lead to more people unable to afford a healthy diet, the report warned.
“If food costs rise at the same time incomes fall, a compounding effect occurs that can result in even more people unable to afford healthy diets,” the report said. The FAO report is a glimpse on the progress in meeting Sustainable Development Goals and World Health Assembly (WHA) global nutrition targets.
The report said during the COVID-19 pandemic and the “5Fs” crisis – Food, Feed, Fuel, Fertilisers, and Finance – the region witnessed harrowing statistics.
“Even to date, the region is still suffering from some protracted effects. The latest statistics indicate that the region, with 370.7 million undernourished people, continues to represent half of the global total. Similarly, the Asia and the Pacific region accounts for half of the world’s severe food insecurity, with more women than men being food insecure. Prevalence rates on stunting, wasting, and overweight among children under 5 years of age, as well as anaemia among women of reproductive age, are still off the marks in terms of World Health Assembly global nutrition targets,” the report said.
The report said 16.6% of the country’s population is undernourished. “The impacts of undernourishment extend beyond health and nutritional well-being to include economic and social costs,” it said. The region, according to the report, had a lower prevalence for both moderate or severe and severe food insecurity when compared with the world prevalence since 2015.
“Southern Asia showed higher prevalence of severe food insecurity compared with the other subregions, and it is in Eastern Asia where the lowest prevalence of severe food insecurity was observed. Compared with the world, Southern Asia had higher percentages for both moderate or severe and severe food insecurity since 2015,” the report said.
Pakistan coach Gary Kirsten stated that “not so great decision making” contributed to his side’s defeat to India in the Group-A T20 World Cup clash here on Sunday. The batting unit came apart in the chase, after being well placed at 72 for two. With 48 runs needed from eight overs, Pakistan found a way to panic and lose. “Maybe not so great decision making,” Kirsten said at the post-match press conference, when asked to explain the loss.
“We are judges and therefore, cannot act like Mughals of a bygone era ... the writ courts in the guise of doing justice cannot transcend the barriers of law,” the High Court of Karnataka observed while setting aside an order of a single judge, who in 2016 had extended the lease of a public premises allotted to a physically challenged person to 20 years contrary to 12-year period stipulated in the law.