WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO BE TRULY HUNGRY?
India, with a population of over 1.3 billion, has seen tremendous growth within the past 20 years. GDP has increased 4.5 times and per capita consumption has increased 3 times. Similarly, grain production has increased almost 2 times. However, despite phenomenal industrial and process and while India produces sufficient food to feed its population, it's unable to provide access to food to an outsized number of people, especially women and children.
STATE OF HUNGER IN INDIA: According to FAO estimates in ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition within the World, 2019' report, 194.4 million people are undernourished in India. According to this measure 14.5% of the population is undernourished in India. Also, 51.4% of girls in reproductive age between 15 to 49 years are anaemic. Further consistent with the report 37.9% of the youngsters aged under five in India are stunted (too short for his or her age), while 20.8% suffer from wasting, meaning their weight is too low for their height. Malnourished children have a better risk of death from common childhood illnesses like diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. The Global Hunger Index 2018 ranks India at 103 out of 119 countries on the idea of three leading indicators -- prevalence of wasting and stunting in children under 5 years, under 5 child death rate, and therefore the proportion of undernourished within the population.
On the opposite hand, it's estimated that almost one third of the food produced within the world for human consumption per annum gets lost or wasted. 40 percent of the fruits and vegetables, and 30 percent of cereals that are produced are lost thanks to inefficient supply chain management and don't reach the buyer markets. While considerable amount of food losses occurs largely, at harvest and thru post-harvest handling, many food is wasted during the distribution and consumption stages. Some food is additionally wasted on the shelves and within the warehouses of food businesses either thanks to excess production, introduction of latest products, labeling errors, or due to shorter remaining shelf life. Such food might be saved by timely withdrawing it from the distribution network, aggregating it then redirecting it to the people in need.
