A large number of Indians are becoming obese and women are also suffering from anemia.
By Vikas Parasram Meshram
Food is a basic need of our life, it is impossible to imagine life without it. As much as its availability in sufficient quantity is essential, it is equally important to include the nutrient in your diet. Due to the corona epidemic in the year 2019, the global system also faced severe economic recession at various levels and this had a distributed effect on our food availability.
The United Nations report ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2022’ states that the number of hungry people worldwide has increased rapidly since 2019. In 2019, 618 million people in the world were suffering from hunger, and in 2021, this number increased to 768 million. While the statistics of hunger have been increasing continuously for the last 15 years, an unprecedented increase was seen during the Corona period.
In this context, the report on the situation in India states that 22 crore Indians still do not have enough food. According to the report, in 2021, Indians accounted for 29 percent of the 768 million people suffering from hunger globally. This pace of hunger eradication may be lower than that of developed countries or better than neighboring countries, but the report shows that in 2021, a total of 224 million people in India were found to be undernourished. According to a published survey, 70.5% of Indians are undernourished.
A large number of Indians are becoming obese and women are also suffering from anemia. According to the report, 3.4 crore people in the age group of 15 to 49 have joined the overweight category. Four years ago this number was two and a half crores. In 2019, the number of female anemia patients was around 172 million, while in 2021, a total of 187 million Indian women in India were found to be anemic.
According to the ‘Global Hunger Index-2021’, India is the second largest food-producing country in the world. With milk, rice, fish, vegetables, and wheat leading the way in production and the world’s cheapest nutritious food available, there is no doubt that a quarter of the total population is undernourished. Where deficiencies in systematic management come to the fore, the traditional dietary regulation of Indian culture is also a factor.
In Indian culture, food is associated with divinity. Wasting food is strictly prohibited in our tradition, but based on the changed lifestyle, a large portion of the variety of food served in the grand celebrations is thrown into the dustbin more than our needs, that we can satisfy the hunger of many needy people.
It is a sad irony that even today the unsatisfactory and disorganized government system is the source of foodgrains for millions of people, while lakhs of tonnes of foodgrains are wasted every year due to malpractices. A huge gap is seen between nutrition and free food distribution schemes and reaching all the needy while quality assessment is a question mark. How is it possible to supply complete nutrients from junk food and complete nutrients from poor-quality, low-quality grains? This is a question.
The unbridled use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides also affects the natural quality of food, adversely affecting its nutrients. Inadequate information regarding a balanced diet, quantity, etc. is also a major reason for the abnormal increase in health-related problems like anemia. Lack of physical activity and the amount of ‘junk food is causing the problem of obesity among the youth. Following the tradition of ‘ready to eat may save time and effort, but its far-reaching consequences only lead to malnutrition and health-related problems. Due to the modern lifestyle, we are causing physical and mental diseases
Proper use, serving, and consumption of leftovers are prescribed in our traditional rites, neglecting them only leads to disorders and how and why can health and nutrition be expected from disorders? Serving as needed and sharing food is our cultural unity. The same system may be considered the best but due to the need for modernity, we have lost all this. A balanced diet can reach everyone’s plate only if we follow proper planning, distribution and proper storage of food.
(Vikas Parasram Meshram is a social development professional)
Views are personal.
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