Three cheers for India.

Three cheers for us. The first is for the highest level of malnutrition in the world despite the fact that India exports food grains. Globally under-nutrition falls by half the rate of GDP growth but in India an average GDP growth of 4.2% between 1990 and 2005 has resulted in malnutrition falling by only 0.65%. Experts are unable to explain this enigma. The reason is that successive governments have concentrated on increasing production of grains, such as wheat and rice, by a device called the Minimum Support Price which pays farmers more than the market price encouraging them to produce even more. Since we do not have adequate storage space vast quantities are left to rot in the open or be eaten by vermin. As a result grains become more expensive, land is diverted from producing fruits and vegetables to producing grains, which is why vegetables have become so expensive fueling food inflation, and the government incurs a huge expense, raising the fiscal deficit. Food inflation rose to 18.4% in September from 18.18% in August. Many experts recommend genetically modified foods. Which is nonsense. Adding genes to plants to produce bacterial proteins which are toxic to insects, such as BT Brinjal, could have unknown harmful effects if taken long term. Also foreign companies would come to control India's food production which would be dangerous for our security. The second cheer is for being the country with the highest number of slaves in the world. There are an estimated 29.8 million slaves in 162 countries in the world of which India has 14 million. China is a distant second with 2.9 million, Pakistan has 2.1 million and Nigeria is fourth with 701,000. Bonded labor, child labor, children sold by parents to gangs who chop off limbs to turn them into beggars and women trafficking for prostitution, we are first in every form of inhuman monstrosity that one can think of. But why do we get such headlines? This brings us to the third cheer which is that condom use has dropped by 40% in 5 years. Population has grown by 1.43% from 2005 to 2010 and is set to surpass that of China by 2025. China has prevented 400 million births since 1979 with its one child policy which is one of the reasons for its phenomenal growth. To reduce malnutrition, slavery or crime we must reduce poverty and to reduce poverty we must reduce the numbers of the poor. But then there will be no " vote bank " to bribe.