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Introduction:

The nation in the world with most hungry people is India. 
 
India is also one of the fastest growing countries in terms of population and 
economics, sitting at a population of 1,139.96 million (2009) that is growing at 1.5% 
annually (from 2001&ndash;2007). India&#39;s Gross Domestic Product growth was an 
impressive 9.0% from 2007 to 2008. Since its independence in 1947, India&rsquo;s 
economic status has been classified as a low-income country with the majority of the 
population at or below the poverty line. 
 
Though most of the population is still living below the National Poverty Line, its 
economic growth indicates new opportunities and a movement towards an increase 
in the prevalence of chronic diseases, which is also observed in at high rates in 
developed countries such as United States, Canada and Australia. The combination 
of people living in poverty and the recent economic growth of India has led to the 
co-emergence of two types of malnutrition: under nutrition and over nutrition. 
 
Malnutrition refers to the situation where there is an unbalanced diet in which some 
nutrients are in excess, lacking, or in the wrong proportion. Simplify put, we can 
categorize it to be under-nutrition and over-nutrition. Despite India&rsquo;s 50% increase 
in GDP since 1991, more than one third of the world&rsquo;s malnourished children live in 
India. Among these, half of them (who are under 3) are underweight, and a third of 
the wealthiest children are over-nutrient. 
 
One of the major causes for malnutrition in India is gender inequality. Due to the 
low social status of Indian women, their diet often lacks in both quality and quantity. 
Women who suffer malnutrition are less likely to have healthy babies. In India, 
mothers generally lack proper knowledge in feeding children. They sometimes do 
not breast-feed their children and feed them poorly. Consequently, new born infants 
are unable to get adequate amounts of nutrition from their mothers. 
 
Deficiencies in nutrition inflict long-term damage to both individuals and society. 
Compared with their better-fed peers, nutrition-deficient individuals are more likely 
to have infectious diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, which lead to a 
higher mortality rate. In addition, nutrition-deficient individuals are less productive 
at work. Low productivity not only gives them low pay that traps them in a vicious 
circle of under-nutrition, but also brings inefficiency to the society, especially in 
India where labor is a major input factor for economic production. On the other 
hand, over-nutrition also has severe consequences. In India national obesity rates in 
2010 were 14% for women and 18% for men with some urban areas having rates as 
high as 40%. Obesity causes several non-communicable diseases such as 
cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, and chronic respiratory diseases. 
 
Subodh Varma, writing in The Times of India, states that on the Global Hunger 
Index India is on place 67 among the 80 nations having the worst hunger situation 
which is worse than nations such as North Korea or Sudan. 25% of all hungry people 
worldwide live in India. Since 1990 there have been some improvements for 
children but the proportion of hungry in the population has increased. In India 44% 
of children under the age of 5 are underweight. 72% of infants and 52% of married 
women have anemia. Research has conclusively shown that malnutrition during 
pregnancy causes the child to have increased risk of future diseases, physical 
retardation, and reduced cognitive abilities. 
 
In this task you will learn more about the consequences of malnutrition, what to do 
in case of malnutrition and about malnutrition as a big issue of our time.

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