Indian premier calls malnutrition a national shame

Jan 10, 2012, 9:38 GMT

New Delhi - Indian Premier Manmohan Singh Tuesday called malnutrition a 'national shame' as he released a survey that found 42 per cent of children under the age of five were underweight.

The hunger and malnutrition survey of 73,000 households across nine states found that 59 per cent of children under the age of five years were stunted.

The survey also found that 92 per cent of mothers were unaware of nutrition standards.

'I repeat that the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame,' Singh said in New Delhi.

'Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high. We have also not succeeded in reducing this rate fast enough,' he said.

Singh said the findings of the survey by a network of non-governmental organizations were both 'worrying and encouraging.'

'Almost one out of every two Indian children is malnourished. We have more malnourishment in eight worst-affected states than in sub-Saharan Africa,' lawmaker Jay Panda told the NDTV broadcaster.

'We needed to take this very seriously, so we formed the Citizen's Alliance against Malnutrition to work on it as a national objective.'