Understanding malnutrition in India

Malnutrition is one of the largest factors supressing India's spectacular growth. In a country of lunar missions, billionaires, and nuclear power, a staggering 46% of all India children under 5 years old are still underweight. In India, where everything is on a large scale, malnutrition is daunting - an estimated 200 million children are underweight at any given time, with more than 6 million of those children suffering from the worst form of malnutrition, severe acute malnutrition. Experts estimate that malnutrition constitutes over 22% of India's disease burden, making malnutrition one of the nation's largest health threats.

The causes of malnutrition and therefore the solutions to the problem vary as much as the Indian people. To understand and solve malnutrition requires patience, nuance, flexibility, and above all determination.

Follow me as I set out to understand malnutrition in the subcontinent and begin to tackle it

Monday, October 19, 2009

Talk at Columbia University Tuesday October 20th

If you're in the New York area, please come by and listen to my talk tomorrow, Tuesday October 20th at Columbia University:

Title: Childhood Malnutrition in India- on the ground and on the horizon in Madhya Pradesh

Speaker: Caitlin McQuilling, Program Director the Real Medicine Foundation's Malnutrition Eradication Initiative in Madhya Pradesh, India.

Time: 1:00pm to 2:00pm, Tuesday, 20th October, 2009

Venue: 306 Russell Hall, 3rd Floor Library, Teachers College, Columbia University

Organizer: Development in South Asia (DISHA)

India is currently facing its worst drought in 37 years, a drought that is just beginning to have its detrimental effects on those living in rural areas across the country. While the national average for malnutrition in children under 5 is 47%, the rate gets as high as 90% in tribal pockets in MP. Malnutrition has been a chronic problem for years but is now only exacerbated by drought and economic depression. I'd like to talk about the stark ground realities, but also offer some solutions and examples of actions that groups like ours can take and how individuals, even in the US, can help out.
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