“Growth must not be treated as an end in itself, but as an instrument of spreading prosperity to all”
Global Hunger Index, 2012
India was ranked 65th Pakistan at 57th and Sri Lanka at 37th position, total out of 79 countries. Whereas there are 15 countries that have managed to reduce it by 50 percent or more.
1. Mid Day Meal - 11,937 crore rupees
2. Food Subsidy - 60, 573 crore rupees
3. ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) - 15,850 crore rupees
4. MNREGA - 33,000 crore rupees
In India 36 percent of women are underweight during their child bearing age and 43.5 percent of the children under age of 5 were underweight.
Now if we turn to the recently developed UNDP multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which more accurately measures income on the basis of health, education Etc., we will find situation even worse. According to this 65 crore people in India are poor and it amounts to 55% population of the country. Eight states of the India (Bihar, Jharkhand, chattisgarh, MP, UP, WB, Odisha and Rajasthan) account for more people than those present in the 26 poorest countries of Africa.
United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF)
India ranks better only than Ethiopia in the number of malnourished children (under five years of age). Ethiopia has 51% malnourished children and India has 48%.
India is now ranked among the 50 nations with highest under-five child mortality rate. It has been placed at number 46 in the list of 193 countries. India’s neighbors Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh protect their newborns much better and rank 52, 59 and 61 respectively. (2012 data of UNICEF)
According to right to food campaign two thirds of our women are anemic.
Around 23 lakh children, aged 1-59 months, died in India in 2005 alone. Of these, more than 60% were from five causes — pneumonia, prematurity and low birthweight, diarrhoeal diseases, neonatal infections and birth asphyxia and birth trauma.

National expenditure on healthcare is amongst the lowest in world. State government barely spends 0.5 percent of their GDP on healthcare and hygiene as compared to one percent in the 1970. Whereas average public spending of less-developed countries is 2.8 per cent of GDP. Only 17 per cent of all health expenditure in India is borne by the government, the rest being borne privately by the people, making it one of the most highly privatized healthcare systems of the world
The comparison of health expenditure with other countries suggests that India’s public health expenditure is only 17.9 per cent of total expenditure on health care while it is close to 90 per cent for smaller countries like Bhutan and Maldives.
Quality of death index
It is new study on the provision of end of life care, takes a look at the quality of life and care made available to the old and dying in developed and emerging economies of 40 countries.
In a scale of ten, the US was at 6.2 while India has 1.9. Even countries like south Africa which had got independence after India has an index that is double that of India’s .
Quality of water
According to the United Nations (UN), one lakh people die each year of waterborne diseases in India. A planning commission report adds that out of over 600 district, one third (203) have high fluoride content in drinking water that causes flourisis among 6.5 crore people. 35 districts have high arsenic content that results in 50 lakh people suffering from poisoning, 206 districts have high iron content and 109 districts have high nitrate content.
Per capita food consumption
Each Indian gets to eat about 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg. Compare this to 182 kilos recorded by the LDCs (Least Developed Countries) and 196 kilos in Africa. Milk consumption, in fluid form, is 78 kg per year for each person in the US, compared to 36 kg in India and 11 kg in China.

Such then is the horrific condition of the people of our country that too after 65 years of independence. This is surely matter of grave concern. Is it not time to discuss various alternative models to better the policies of governance?
For those serious about our country and its future, there is an urgent need for discussion of various models and policies being put forward like national advisory council, various commission reports and from civil societies.
We have to use our rights (RTI, Right to Vote Etc.) in order to curb this problem from our state and make it a better and prosperous nation.