Data collated from a recent paper -studying the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 by Jean Dreze and Anmol Somanchi reflect the grim ...
Data collated from a recent paper -studying the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 by Jean Dreze and Anmol Somanchi reflect the grim condition of India’s looming malnutrition crisis.
In a co-authored essay around April 2020, we had argued how the “hidden costs of this pandemic” (and the administrative response to it) is likely to be most evident in a) the psycho-social costs emerging from the decline in incomes, rising unemployment for India’s most vulnerable population, and b) the nutritional distribution chart amongst the low social, economic groups (worst impacting women and children).
Dreze and Somanchi’s work, alongside other recent empirical findings, provide evidence for both these “hidden costs” now, more so for the latter.
A disturbing situation in India’s paradoxical nutritional landscape, where obesity ails India’s ultra-rich upper-class residents and malnutrition makes those at the bottom of the pyramid suffer, has been evident from the pre-pandemic period as well.
Undernourished mothers
Numbers from the 4th National Family Health Survey indicate how 53.1% of all women age 15-49 are anaemic. An alarmingly high rate of undernourished mothers results in low-weight, poorly nourished babies and infants, whose in-utero lack of nutrition can have lifelong consequences for them and their families. Twenty one percent of all children under 5 years remain unproductive or wasted (with...
