Without proteins, vitamins and minerals it's not food.

"India's healthiest children live in its north-eastern states and Kerala, an analysis of a new national survey conducted by the government shows, but children in these states are also at greater risk of 'lifestyle diseases'," wrote Rukmini S. "However, some of the most affluent states -- particularly Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana -- perform the worst on both sides of the spectrum; Gujarat is the country's unhealthiest state for children." Gujarat is Prime Minister Narandra Modi's home state. "India was ranked 102nd on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), an index of 117 countries." "The report said only 9.6% of children between 6-23 months in India were fed a minimum acceptable diet (a recent Union health ministry survey had in fact put the figure at an even lower 6.4%)." "On the various parameters that go into the GHI, we have not done all that appallingly on the proportion of children who are too short for their age, and of those who die before their fifth birthday. But this year's GHI findings on children who weigh too little for their height are particularly grim." There is no shortage of food. "In 2013, we had the Food Security Bill, which was designed to assure cheap food to target groups such as pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under 14, as also the destitute, homeless and disaster struck. Under this scheme rice was made available at Rs 3 per kg, wheat at Rs 2 per kg and coarse grain at Rs 1 per kg." "The latest budget pegged its food subsidy bill for 2019-20 at Rs 1.84 trillion, up 7.5% over the previous year." Why the surprise and anguish? Protein calorie malnutrition has been known for a century at least. Uneducated peasants in Africa gave the name 'Kwashiorkor', which means 'the deposed one'. This was a swollen child with red hair whose mother stopped breast-feeding him because she had another baby. While the poor get cheap grains from the government they cannot afford proteins and fats which are expensive. "Spending on bread, protein-rich items fell in 2017-18," so we can expect malnutrition to increase further. In some parts of rural India mother's are giving rotis and fried chillies for lunch to their children. Rural demand is shrinking the most, wrote A Padmanabhan, "and, this, despite the nearly Rs 1.5 trillion sugar high stoked in the rural economy through a combination of the income support scheme PM-Kisan and rural employment guarantee program". Clearly, either the sugar did not reach intended beneficiaries or got so diluted by the massive population that it fell flat. Our children are suffering. Perhaps, we should call time out for a couple of years on having children.