Like mother, like child

Shared here is my latest article published in World Pulse -the global women's media group that earlier selected me as a 'Voices of Our Future' Correspondent 2012. You can read the original article here

Last week, Kamala, my 65 year old neighbor, was hospitalized after she had sudden dizziness and showed signs of amnesia. An MRI scan revealed that Kamala had 4 blood clots on the left side of her brain. This surprised everyone around Kamala; nobody could recall her having a fall or a collision – the normal cause of a head injury. The doctors however had a different explanation: Kamala had acute anemia. A widow with no land or other valuable assets, Kamala was earlier a daily wage earner in a village for 20 years. For those twenty years, her daily diet was just a plate of rice and a spoon of yoghurt. With extremely low nutrition level, Kamala soon developed anemia and has been suffering from it since then. 

Kamala represents the vast population of Indian women - over 53% to be precise, who are malnourished and suffer from related ailments such as low blood pressure and anemia.

 India must eradicate malnutrition in its vast female population to save its vast population of malnourished children

This shocking fact was revealed when the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released the India Human Development Report 2011, 3 months ago. According to the report, 55.3% of women aged 15-49 years suffer from anemia. In some northern Indian states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the percentage is nearly 60%. As feared by many, there are more malnourished and anemic women in marginalized communities than in other groups.

Poor nutrition and health in women has resulted in poor health in infants. The Human Development Report states, ‘A staggering 21.5% of babies in India are born with low birth weight, a problem that begins in the womb.’ Little wonder that India now has the largest number of malnourished children in the world.