The less we divide the more we will have.

"India 100th on global hunger index, trails North Korea, Bangladesh," informed a recent headline. The photograph at the top of the article shows a child, in tattered clothes, eating white rice with a tiny morsel of something yellow, presumably a little dal or vegetable. This is as bad as can be imagined. It has calories in the form of carbohydrates but no protein, fat, minerals or vitamins. No wonder that child wasting rate is 21% and stunting rate is 38.4%. The reason is simple. We have a huge population in a relatively small area which means less land per head. In terms of total population the top 6 nations are China, India, the USA, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan, but India has the highest population density at 394 per sq km, Pakistan 244 per sq km, China 145 per sq km, Indonesia 125 per sq km and the US has 90.6 per sq km. According to the Untied Nations, India will become the most populous country in the world by 2030, but according to a Chinese in the US, India has already surpassed China as a result of China's one child policy. How does population increase poverty? Because national wealth gets divided among a larger number of people. The nominal GDP of China is $11.8 trillion and per capita GDP is $8,481. India's GDP is $2.454 trillion but per capita GDP is only $1,850. With lower nominal GDP Brazil's per capita GDP is  $10,309, Indonesia's is $3,895, only Pakistan's is lower at $1,629. If we factor in the fact that the richest 1% of Indians own 58.4% of the total wealth of the nation, and the top 10% own 68.8%, we are left with 31.2% of wealth to be divided among 90% of the huge population. Not much for those at the bottom. Poverty and population density results in families cramped into tiny homes. Average living space per person in the lower 80% of the rural population is 94 sq ft, while average living space for the lower 60% of people in urban areas is 93 sq ft, the recommended space for a prisoner in our jails is 96 sq ft. Of course, the poorer the family the lesser the space. This overcrowding, along with poor nutrition, provides fantastic opportunities for the spread of the tuberculosis bacillus, resulting in 2,70,000 deaths per year. The only way to reduce malnutrition, hunger and Tb is to provide paying jobs but most of the growth in population is happening in states with poor education levels and poor job prospects. As the global economy, including developing countries, starts to grow India is lagging behind. Why is poverty so difficult to cure? Children, born deaf were given cochlear implants, but are still speechless because parents cannot afford speech therapy. The only way to reduce hunger is to reduce hungry mouths. We owe it to our children.