Malnutrition is a major problem in India, with over 1/3 of the world's malnourished children living in India despite a 50% increase in GDP since 1991. Undernutrition is more prevalent in rural areas and among lower socioeconomic classes. Multiple factors contribute to malnutrition, including poverty, inadequate nutrition, gender inequalities, and inefficient government programs. Addressing this issue requires improving access to nutrition, healthcare, education, and economic opportunities.

1. “Nourish to Flourish”
A National Shame - Malnutrition in India
TEAM MEMBERS -
SHAURY MAHESHWARI
SUVESH CHANDRA
NIKHIL KHANDELWAL
AKHIL GUPTA
TUSHAR VERMA

2. The World Bank estimates that India is one of the
highest ranking countries in the world for the number
of children suffering from malnutrition.
The prevalence of underweight children in India is
among the highest in the world, and is nearly double
that of Sub-Saharan.
ABSTRACT
Malnutrition refers to the situation where there is an
unbalanced diet in which some nutrients are in excess, lacking
or wrong proportion.
After 66 years of Independence there's hunger and surely
malnutrition

3. Despite India's 50% increase in GDP since 1991,more than one
third of the world's malnourished children live in India.
Among these, half of them under 3 are underweight and a third of
wealthiest children are over-nutriented.
Under-nutrition is more prevalent in rural areas, again mainly due to
low socio-economic status.
Anemia for both men and women is only slightly higher in rural
areas than in urban areas.

4. In India 59 per cent of pregnant women
are anemic, in Nepal 75 per cent and in
Sri Lanka 30 per cent.
Astonishing truths…
Since 1991 GDP has more than
doubled, while malnutrition has
decreased by only a few percentage
points.
According to the report of the National
Commission for enterprises in the
unorganized sector(NCEUS) about 77% of
India’s population continues to live on less
than Rs20 per capita per diem on average.

5. As per ‘The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012’, India remains home to
the largest number of undernourished people in the world: 217 million (17.5% of
its population) as of 2012.
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2010 ranks India at 67 out of 122 countries;
whereas the ‘2012 Global Hunger Index’ (IFPRI) ranks it at 65 among 79
countries.

6. CAUSES
Inadequate or
Unbalanced diet
Problem with digestion
or absorption
Social and gender
injustice and inequalities
Inefficient and Ineffective
implementation of
government’s schemes
Poverty
Problem with digestion
or absorption
Status of women
Improper and unsafe
infant feeding practices
The main causes of the largest number of hungry people in India despite
considerable stocks of food grains available are

7. EFFECTS
• In pregnant women, under
nutrition increases the chances of
dying due to pregnancy
complications and of delivering an
underweight baby.
• Children who are born
underweight are at risk of
suffering from acute infectious
diseases
The result is a vicious cycle in which succeeding generations of poor people are
vulnerable to death, disease, cognitive impairment, reduced productivity due to under
nutrition, and continuing poverty

8. REMEDIES
Proper Education of
Housewives
Regular Medical Check up
Healthy Environment
Proper Infant feeding
practices

9. Government measures to overcome hunger and malnutrition include
National Food Security Mission, National Nutrition Mission, National Policy On
Farmers,
National Horticulture Mission, National Mission on Pulses and Oilseeds, National
Rural
Livelihoods Mission
Ensuring balanced diet to mother as well as child

10. Resources
• HUNGAMA, New Delhi, ‘Fighting Hunger and Malnutrition – Survey
Report 2011’
• Report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised
sector (NCEUS), headed by Arjun Sengupta, Government of India, New
Delhi (2009).
• Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, New Delhi, ‘Agricultural
Census.
• Several other sources/references used/tapped, but not listed herein