Author: Kobo-Daishi
Date: 02-16-12 09:09
Dear all,
Gordon G. Rushdie (Kobo's new pseudonym), wrote:
How many phone call center or outsourcing jobs does India have?
Enough to employ 550 million youths?
And how many of that number are really getting a high school education let alone a college education? ;-0
Could 550 million Indians younger than 35 turn out to be a bust rather than a boon?
Think 550 million unemployed uneducated Indian youths out on the street begging for a handout. ;-)
XXXXXX
Here are links to 2 interesting articles and one to a slideshow at the BBC News web site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17034134 A February 15, 2012 article titled "500m children 'at risk of effects of malnutrition'".
Snippets from the article:
Half a billion children could grow up physically and mentally stunted over the next 15 years because they do not have enough to eat, the charity Save the Children says in a new report.
It says much more needs to be done to tackle malnutrition in the world's poorest countries.
The charity found that many families could not afford meat, milk or vegetables.
The survey covered families in India, Bangladesh, Peru, Pakistan and Nigeria.
One parent in six said their children were abandoning school to help out by working for food.
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The survey was carried out in the five countries - where, the agency says, half the world's malnourished children live - by international polling agency Globescan.
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I skip meals so I can feed my [surviving] children. I borrow, I even lie to somehow get money to feed them. Poverty breaks you down but you should be hopeful and strong”
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Save the Children said that a year of record food prices had worsened child malnutrition and could hit progress reducing child deaths.
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In its report, Save the Children says that one in four of the world's children have stunted growth - meaning their body and brain have failed to develop properly due to malnutrition.
Eighty percent of stunted children live in just four countries, the charity says.
XXXXX
http://www.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9696000/9696493.stm A February 15, 2012 article titled "Hunger in the Delhi slums".
Snippets from the article:
Save the Children is warning that half a billion children around the world could be physically and mentally stunted unless more effort is made to fight malnutrition.
After conducting a survey across five developing countries it concluded that rising global food prices are largely to blame along with the failure of the international community to tackle the problem.
Many people questioned in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Peru said they were unable to afford nutritious foods like milk, meat and vegetables. Some revealed their children were skipping meals to help their families earn money for food and often went to bed hungry.
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India is home to a third of the world's malnourished children. Some 43% of them suffer from malnutrition and three out of four are anaemic.
More than half of adults there polled by Save the Children said food prices have become their biggest worry and one in four said their children often have to go without meals, sometimes for a whole day.
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There is little work in this area of Delhi and what there is pays a pittance. With her husband unable to work at the moment, Nasreen says getting food on the table is a permanent struggle.
"Prices have doubled of everything in the last one year. Everything is expensive the children eat only one meal a day. There is no assistance. We don't know what to feed our children," she explained.
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Not far away crowds of young children and their mothers squeeze into a small government run feeding centre, one of more than 10,000 in Delhi.
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"Their eyes stand out and their bones stand out and their legs are really thin. So you can see them and tell obviously that they are extremely seriously malnourished."
Malnutrition does not only leave children hungry. It also lowers the body's resistance to disease, leaving children open to contracting serious conditions like TB and pneumonia.
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"If a child is malnourished in the first two years he's likely to remain malnourished in later life," he said.
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"If poor parents are not able to give children a fully-balanced diet that has a great impact on their leaning ability," he told me.
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Childhood malnourishment takes a physical and mental toll
"In language some of them can read but not write. In mathematics for instance, I ask them to write 305 but instead of writing 305 they wrote 300 and five, as in three zero zero and five"
The result of all this, he says, is that few of these children will be able, when adults, to get jobs enabling them to escape the poverty that surrounds them and their families.
XXXXX
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17043198 A February 15, 2012 slideshow titled "In pictures: Child malnutrition in India and Bangladesh".
Caption for one of the pictures:
The survey suggests that in India, one of the world's biggest boom economies and where half of all children are stunted, more than a quarter of parents said their children went without food sometimes or often.
XXXXX
According to the articles, a third of the world's malnourished children live in India, some 43% of them suffer from malnutrition and three out of four are anaemic. Many of these children often have to go without meals, sometimes for a whole day. Half of these kids are stunted making it difficult for them to learn.
Again Gordon Rushdie asks, "Could 550 million Indians younger than 35 turn out to be a bust rather than a boon?".
Gordon G. Rushdie (Kobo's new pseudonym).
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