Wild animals may hold the answer.

A report on child malnutrition makes dismal reading. Although rates of severe malnutrition have fallen large numbers of children are underweight which means that they are still not getting sufficient nutrition. To grow into a functioning adult a child needs to grow her bones, her muscles and her brain. Just calories are not enough. She needs protein, vitamins, minerals and a certain amount of fat for all round growth. Protein foods, especially of animal origin, are expensive and rural people get most of their proteins from dals, or pulses. The government pays a minimum support price, which is higher than the market price, for 24 agricultural products: 7 types of cereals, 5 types of pulses, 8 types of oilseeds, copra, jute, raw cotton and virginia flu cured tobacco. Why does the government pay for tobacco while enforcing large warnings on packets, movies and television programs? Because it can tax cigarettes, to improve health. Let people die of lung cancer as long as we collect our filthy blood money while protecting our ' vote bank ' farmers. Production of pulses has fallen, resulting in rising prices. The government should take advantage of the fall in the price of sugar to encourage cultivation of pulses. Perhaps all our experts who get paid for writing long reports should look at wild animals. There are 3 things that wild animals never put in their mouths. They do not smoke, they have no access to sugar and they never drink the milk of another species. In fact, once an animal is weaned by its mother it never drinks milk in its entire life. In India, 31% of people are vegetarians who supplement their diets by eating milk products. So, milk cannot be touched but the government can, and should, discourage the cultivation of tobacco and sugarcane and encourage the cultivation of pulses and vegetables. Why are children so malnourished despite trillions being spent on social schemes, like the NREGA? Maybe because there are too many of them. The population of India has grown to 1.27 billion, 17.5% of global population. The US is 4 times the size of India with one-fourth of the population. Vast numbers of people means vast numbers of slums, less land for agriculture, cutting down of forests, leading to soil erosion, and more diseases. The enormous density of population maybe gaged by the fact that lightning, which strikes a tiny area, kills over 2,000 people in India every year. The report shows a clear correlation of malnutrition with open defecation and poor social status of women. The only way is to link all social schemes to those who do not produce children, pay villagers from NREGA to build bathrooms adjoining their homes and give midday meals to women along with school children. Not to men. If malnutrition is a disease it will not improve by treating its symptoms. We must treat the cause.