{"id":37427,"date":"2025-02-15T18:51:47","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T13:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=37427"},"modified":"2025-02-15T18:51:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T13:21:49","slug":"rural-indians-suffer-hidden-hunger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/15-02-2025\/rural-indians-suffer-hidden-hunger","title":{"rendered":"Rural Indians Suffer from a \u2018Hidden Hunger\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Health<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A new study by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) shows that many Indians in rural areas<strong> suffer from protein deficiency<\/strong> in spite of producing sufficient protein-rich foods or being able to afford them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Major Findings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>More than two-thirds of households <\/strong>surveyed across India\u2019s semi-arid tropics consume less protein than recommended despite sufficient availability of protein sources.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Consumptions of Staples: <\/strong>Regions rely heavily on staple grains like rice and wheat, which contribute 60\u201375% of daily protein intake.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Underutilization of Protein-rich foods<\/strong>: Foods such as pulses, dairy, eggs, and meat remain underutilized, not necessarily because they are scarce, but due to a mix of cultural food preferences, limited nutritional awareness, and financial constraints.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Deficiency in Wealthier Families:<\/strong> Even wealthier families, who can afford diverse diets, often fail to meet recommended protein intake levels.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Households where women had higher levels of education<\/strong> were more likely to consume a balanced diet.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>PDS System: <\/strong>India&#8217;s Public Distribution System (PDS), has been successful in improving calorie intake.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>However, it has inadvertently reinforced a diet dominated by cereals while failing to provide sufficient protein-rich options.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reasons for the Dietary Habits:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>deeply ingrained dietary habits,\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>lack of understanding about the importance of protein-rich foods,\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>financial constraints.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recommendations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Increasing the inclusion of pulses, millets, and other protein-dense foods in government food programs to significantly improve nutritional outcomes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Region-specific strategies would be needed to promote balanced nutritional intake.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Integrating nutrition education into public health programmes and school curricula.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Encouraging farmers to grow a wider variety of nutrient-dense crops.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)<\/strong><br>&#8211; ICRISAT stands as the premier drylands agricultural research institute, dedicated to uplifting smallholder farmers and ensuring food security in semi-arid tropics.\u00a0<br>&#8211; It was established under a Memorandum of Agreement between the Government of India and the CGIAR in 1972.<br>&#8211; ICRISAT&#8217;s headquarters are located in Asia (India), and the organization maintains offices across Eastern and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/food\/rural-indians-suffer-from-a-hidden-hunger-despite-availability-and-affordability-their-diets-are-protein-poor-icrisat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>DTE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) shows that many Indians in rural areas suffer from protein deficiency in spite of producing sufficient protein-rich foods or being able to afford them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37428,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37427\/revisions\/37428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}