India sees Brazil as a ‘role model’ in beating malnutrition

Rome: India has sent a mission to Mars, but maintains the "dubious distinction of being the world capital of malnutrition", a senior Indian official said Wednesday, adding that economic growth alone will not be enough to end hunger.

"The prevalence of underweight children in India is nearly double that of sub-Saharan Africa," Vimlendra Sharan, an Indian representative to the United Nations, told delegates at a nutrition summit in Rome.

One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India and the country of about 1.2 billion has more than 190 million undernourished people, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Even though the situation has improved over the past decade, malnutrition persists as higher economic growth rates are not translating into better nutrition rates across the board, he said.

To beat the problem, India recently embraced the "zero hunger" challenge, pioneered in Brazil.

Redistribution of wealth through taxation, subsidies directed at poor families and other policies as well as economic growth helped Brazil virtually eliminate malnutrition.

"Brazil is known as a role model for access to family agriculture and financing," Eduardo Nilson, an adviser to Brazil's ministry of health, told delegates.

Local schools provide subisidised or free meals to poor children, Nilson said, and the schools themselves buy the food from local farmers.

"We are trying to do that again with hospitals, to stimulate local production," said Nilson.

Growers and rural residents are, counter-intuitively, often the worst affected by food insecurity.

In its quest to end hunger, India has made access to food a legal right, and sees Brazil as a "role model", Sharan said.

"We have moved away from welfare schemes to a rights-based scheme… this is one thing that stands out."