Food for thought

Every time you or your child throws/wastes food, this news should come like one tight slap!

Mumbai is the financial capital of India where some of the richest Indians/Asians on earth live. Yet the state of Maharashtra continues to have some of the highest reported deaths of children due to malnutrition.

As per data available from Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), till end of August’16 (that is the ‘latest’), malnutrition claimed lives of 254 children in Palghar district of Maharashtra. In the state, 5.9 lakh children suffer from Moderate Acute Malnutrition, while 87,833 children from Severe Acute Malnutrition. The ICDS is a centrally-run scheme under which nutritious food is given to poor children who are under the danger of malnutrition.

Ironically, Palghar is a weekend getaway for the well-heeled Mumbaities, who own farmhouses or have ‘second-homes’ in this impoverished and malnourished region.

More somber data that too right from Mumbai itself - between 33% and 40% of Mumbai’s nearly 7.3 lakh slum children are malnourished. 3.5% of slum children die before they turn six because severe malnourishment does not allow them to recover from common illnesses. Every one in four children born in Mumbai’s slums has a lower than the mean birth weight.

So before you chuck that food out please rethink, give a thought to how lives could be saved if we the fortunate ones behaved responsibly.