| ■ Rising Food Prices Increase Risk of Child Malnourishment | 2008.05.19 |
| Rising global food prices put 1.5 million more children in India at risk of becoming malnourished and could prove devastating for vulnerable women and children throughout South Asia, warns UNICEF. Currently, about five million Indian children are malnourished. The UN children's charity noted that South Asia already has the largest number of malnourished children in the world and that nearly half of all Indian children showed signs of stunted growth before the current food price crisis, BBC News reported. "It is a perfect storm; we have increasing malnutrition in an area that already has the majority of malnutrition in the world," said Daniel Toole, UNICEF's regional director for South Asia. "We have huge numbers of people living in poverty and a doubling of food prices. Those factors combined mean that we're going to just create tremendous vulnerability." UNICEF's latest State of the World's Children report found that 48 percent of children under age five in India have stunted growth, compared to 43 percent in Bangladesh and 37 percent in Pakistan. The report also said 30 percent of babies in India are born underweight, compared with 22 percent in Bangladesh and 19 percent in Pakistan, BBC News reported. |