Hunger remains the No.1 cause of death in the world. There are 820 million chronically hungry people in the world. Over 20 crore Indians sleep hungry every night. 10 million people die every year of chronic hunger and hunger-related diseases. 30% of newborn are of low birth weight, 56% of married women are anemic and 79% of children age 6-35 months are anemic. Despite substantial improvement in health since independence and a growth rate of 8 percent in recent years, under-nutrition remains a silent emergency in India, with almost 50 percent of Indian children underweight and more than 70 percent of the women and children with serious nutritional deficiencies as anemia.
Securing affordable and healthy meal is an everyday struggle for most of the homeless. Mission Heal is organizing free food distribution from various shelters run by them. Our programme focuses on generating awareness about malnutrition, precautions, methods of serving food, and the importance of washing hands.
Sources :
- UN World Food Programme
- UN World Health Organization: Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, 2006
- UN Food and Agriculture Organization: SOFI 2006 Report
- National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (India)
- National Family Health Survey 2005 – 06 (NFHS-3) (India)
- Centre for Environment and Food Security (India)
Rural 21 (India)
“The most startling aspect of the nutrition situation in India is that it is not much of an issue in public debates and electoral politics.”
– Jean Dreze, economist
