Introduction
According to Kul C. Gautam, former UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, "the 'hidden hunger' caused by micronutrient deficiency does not produce hunger as we know it." You may not feel it in your stomach, but it affects your overall health and vitality."
Our priority should be to ensure that everyone has enough food to eat. However, we must also address a type of hunger that goes unnoticed, known as hidden hunger, which, unlike the gnawing hunger of a lack of food, is often silent. Hidden hunger can have devastating consequences, resulting in mental impairment, poor health, low productivity, and even death.
The poor around the world have less varied and monotonous cereal-based diets that are deficient in essential minerals and vitamins. Food insecurity is caused by the inability to obtain food through sources such as self-production, purchase, social protection, or private charity. Rising food prices force the poor to cut back on non-essential purchases or reduce their food expenditure. Inadequate diets are linked to a 'dislocation of food supply' and food system disruptions as people lose access to farms, forests, and commons.
The gravity of the issue of nutritional security along with food security in India
According to FAO estimates in the report 'The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2020,' 189.2 million people in India are malnourished. According to this metric, 14 per cent of India's population is malnourished. In addition, 51.4 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 are anaemic. Furthermore, according to the report, 34.7 per cent of children under the age of five in India are stunted (too short for their age), while 20 per cent are wasted (their weight is too low for their height). Malnourished children are more likely to die from common childhood illnesses like diarrhoea, pneumonia, and malaria.
India accounts for a quarter of the global hunger burden, with nearly 195 million undernourished people. Because of chronic malnutrition or stunting, nearly 47 million children in India, or four out of every ten, are not reaching their full human potential. Stunting has ramifications such as reduced learning capacity, poor school performance, lower earnings, and an increased risk of chronic diseases. Malnourished girls and women frequently give birth to low-birth-weight infants, which has a multigenerational impact. In India, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents has also increased, with life-long consequences of noncommunicable diseases in adulthood.
The government has large food security and anti-poverty programmes but there are critical gaps in terms of inclusion and exclusion errors. Women and girls are particularly disadvantaged. Despite the achievement of national food self-sufficiency, new challenges have emerged: Slowing agriculture growth, climate change, land degradation and shrinking biodiversity. Large tracts of farmlands in India have become barren due to imbalanced fertiliser use and excessive use of a single fertiliser, urea.
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-21, the 5th in the series India has seen no significant improvement in health and nutritional status among her population. The latest data shows, that 7.7% of children are severely wasted, 19.3% are wasted and 35.5% are stunted. At the same time, 3.4% of children are overweight which was 2.1% in NFHS-4. Anemia among children under-5 has become significantly worse with the current prevalence as 67.1% compared to 58.6% according to NFHS-4. 57% of women of reproductive age are anaemic in the country.
The nutrition profile of Indian States/UTs presents wide variations among the different regions. Generally, data and literature reveal that the condition of poor families (children, women and men), with respect to the intake of calories, proteins, and micro-nutrients, is inferior in rural areas, poorer States, and city slums. On the other hand, the middle- and high-income populations, concentrated in Indian cities, are becoming more susceptible to so-called ‘lifestyle diseases’ and ‘binge-eating disorders’ caused by the increased availability of processed and sugary foods and drinks.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 has an ambitious aim to end all forms of malnutrition, including stunting and wasting in children under five years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, and pregnant and lactating women, and older persons. The NITI Aayog, on its part, has selected three out of the eight SDG targets under Zero Hunger to measure the country’s progress.
In the past two decades, India has made significant efforts to curb hunger and ensure food security for its people. The National Food Security Act was designed to cover the entire life cycle of food insecurity. The ambitious National Nutrition Mission(Poshan) aims at addressing stunting, anaemia, and low birth weight. Similarly, the ‘National Programme of Mid-Day Meal in Schools, as it is known today, was launched in 1995 by the Govt. of India to enhance enrolment, retention, and attendance while simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children. However, much remains to be done.
Coupling nutrition with social and economic growth
Stillbirths and infant mortality are caused by poor nutrition, whereas more biodiverse and resilient agricultural production systems can help foster improved food security and nutrition among rural populations. These interconnections can be realised by providing widespread and universal health coverage to individuals at a low cost, ensuring that no one is left behind as we move forward.
An inclusive approach centred on positioning expansive mobile healthcare service networks linked with primary health care centres as hubs, with a special emphasis on women, children, and the elderly, is critical to this approach. Businesses, regardless of their core purpose, have a clear imperative to redirect their capitals and capacities to the most underserved areas of the country; in specialised interventions with cohorts most at risk, as laid out in the SDG India Index 2020 and the SDG Investors Map 2020 published by NITI Aayog.
Hunger begins early in life when anaemic mothers are more likely to have underweight children, who continue to suffer from malnutrition due to their families' poverty. Reducing gender inequalities and social exclusion should thus be either a means to or a result of improved food security and nutrition.
And, just as a lack of trained teachers, insufficient learning materials, makeshift classrooms, and inadequate sanitation facilities make learning difficult for many children, others arrive at school too hungry, sick, or exhausted from work or household tasks to benefit from their lessons. Migration is another emerging cross-cutting factor that not only affects educational outcomes, access to health care, and acquiring market-relevant skills but also exacerbates these inequalities.
Rather than focusing solely on health, education, or employment, addressing all aspects of such multifaceted challenges is critical.