India is a land of rich and hungry, says report
Points out country's inadequacy in providing decent living to majority
Though India will be able to meet the Millennium Development Goal in reducing poverty to half by 2015, it has to work hard to meet the goal of reducing hunger and unemployment.
The country has improved in providing good maternal health care and in reducing the infant mortality rate. The country has now more school going children.
However, the MDG report has pointed out country’s inadequacy in providing employment and a decent living to its majority.
According to the MDG report launched on Friday, “in Southern Asia, only India, where the poverty rate is projected to fall from 51 percent in 2015 to about 22 percent in 2015, is on track to cut poverty in half”.
However, according to the report, the proportion of people in developing world who went hungry in 2005-2007 remained stable at 16 per cent, despite significant reductions in extreme poverty.
Based on this trend, and in light of the economic crisis and inflation, it will be quite a task to tackle hunger.
“In developing regions the proportion of children under age five who are underweight declined from 30 per cent to 23 per cent between 1990 and 2009,” according to the MDG report.
“However, progress in the developing regions overall is insufficient to reach the target by 2015,” the report added further.
Releasing the report, economist Jayati Ghosh said in India the situation of under-nourishment has worsened due to food inflation.
The economic recovery has not resulted in increasing job opportunities even in developed regions. Analyzing the trend, Professor Ghosh said, “This is jobless growth. In India, the recently released data shows that situation has worsened.”
According to the report, in Southern Asia access to drinking water and use of flush toilets are remote dreams for the majority.
