A recent study that used data from the Union Health Ministry’s national family health survey for 2019-2021, ranked India as having the third-highest percentage of children who had not eaten anything for a day. There are various contributing reasons that make India have the highest number of ‘zero-food children’ at more than 6 million.
Rapid Urbanisation:
Wondering how industrialisation and rapid urbanisation increase the number of children starving in the country? Here’s a case study.
Sunita Gautam, a 26-year-old domestic help, belongs to a Scheduled Caste (SC) community and works in Lucknow’s Vishal Khand area. She doubts whether she will be able to provide her 11-month-old infant boy with the nutrition he needs.
“My child is mainly dependent on breastmilk. At times, I give him porridge, but that’s not every day as he takes time to eat and is more habituated to breastmilk. My daily routine is very busy. If I don’t earn money, how I provide a better life to my child?” she said.
Her baby, named Babu, as is customary across the Hindi belt, is likely to be one of millions of ‘zero food’ children aged 6 months to 23 months in Uttar Pradesh. These are infants who have not eaten any food of substantial calorific content, that is, semi-solid, solid, soft, mushy foods, infant formula, or fresh milk, for 24 hours.
The researchers who conducted the study compared estimates of zero-food children across 92 low-income and middle-income countries. Across these 92 countries, over 99% of the zero-food children had been breastfed, showing that almost all the children had received some calories even during the 24-hour period in which they had been deprived of food.
However, breastfeeding cannot provide infants with the necessary nutrition after they are six months old. Thus, introducing semi-solid or solid foods alongside breastfeeding plays a key role in child growth and development.
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says that the share of other food contributing to calorific requirements must be 50% for children between 9 to 11 months while the share of breastmilk should be more than other food for 6-8 months of children.
“My husband is alcoholic. He spends most of his time at home but I cannot trust him to feed the child. He may harm the child as it takes time to feed him,” Gautam added. She received a plethora of spite from her in-laws and family after she first delivered two daughters.
Lack Of Knowledge:
A recently published study in the peer-reviewed JAMA Network Open journal found the prevalence of ‘zero-food children’ at an astonishing 19.3% drawing attention to extreme food deprivation among children. According to the study, India ranks third to have such children, after Guinea, at 21.8% and Mali, at 20.5%.
Another problem contributing to such extreme food deprivation among children is the lack of knowledge about welfare schemes such as the government’s flagship ‘Poshan Abhiyan’ that targets holistic development and adequate nutrition for children, pregnant women and mothers, mainly focused on children in the 0-6 years age group.
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Uma Chauhan, a cook, is another such woman who has not been able to consistently provide food for her 8-month-old daughter. “I try to provide semi-solid food or soft foods, but I am not able to do it regularly as I work in four houses,” she said.
The health surveys, conducted across 92 countries at different times between 2010 and 2021, report that South Asia has the highest counts of zero-food children, an estimated 8 million. The researchers say that more examination was needed to unravel “the underlying causes” of zero-food prevalence, the barriers to optimal adequate child-feeding practices, and the ways socioeconomic factors might influence child-feeding behaviour.
The Take Of Experts:
Shalini Singh, a public health specialist, with two decades of experience in nutrition programmes, says that along with poverty and marginalisation in economic backgrounds, it is rapid urbanisation and nuclearised families that have increased ‘zero-food children’ in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India. UP alone accounts for 28.4% of such kids in the country.
“Women from underprivileged backgrounds work to sustain their families, resulting in their having insufficient time to complement breastfeeding for children above 6 months of age.
With rapid industrialisation, nuclear families have grown in both urban and rural areas, so there is no one to invest the time and energy required to feed a child, apart from the mother,” she said. Adding on, she also said that lack of awareness about the nutritional needs of children and social misconceptions also contribute to the growing numbers.
According to the 2011 census, UP’s urban population has grown by approximately 25% in 2011 when compared with 2001, indicating a large number of poor shifting to urban regions in search of livelihood.
Therefore, a lot of policies and campaigns are needed to find sustainable solutions to the ongoing issue.
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: The Hindu, The Telegraph, The Quint
Find the blogger: Unusha Ahmad
This post is tagged under: zero-food children, Union Health Ministry, India, urbanisation, industrialization, Lucknow, SC, Scheduled Caste, Vishal Khand, Uttar Pradesh, infants, infant formula, nutrition, FAO, Food and Agricultural Organization, JAMA Network Open, Poshan Abhiyan, research, 2011 census, policies, poverty
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