India's Burning Issue

Global Hunger Index -2011
Hunger can be defined as an uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food, the want or scarcity of food in a country. World hunger refers to the aggregated to the world level. The target set at the 1996 World Food Summit was to halve the number of undernourished people by 2015 from their number in 1990-92.The estimated number of undernourished people in developing countries was 824 million in 1990-92.In 2009 the number had climbed to 1.02 billion.According to the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index 2011 India’s food security continues to be alarming. It ranks 67 of the 81 countries of the world with the worst food security status. This means that there are only 14 countries in the world whose citizens have worst nutritional status.The GHI is based on 3 indicators – the proportion of the population that is undernourished, the proportion of children who are under weight and under five child mortality.

India’s GHI for 2011 was 23.7 lower than it was 15 years ago giving it a rank of 67.Pakistan,Nepal,Rwanda and Sudan did better than India while Bangladesh, Haiti and Democratic Republic of Congo were countries which are worse than India.India is being among the countries with the least improvement in last 10 years. It has however moved from having an extremely alarming food security situation to alarming.China, Brazil and India are among the countries that have more than halved their GHI scores over the last decade.

The Indian government is not able to introduce a Food Security Bill in the monsoon session and there is little agreement over who qualifies as poor enough to receive subsidized food grain. There is growing volatility in global food markets which is due to three factors: increasing use of food crops for biofuels, extreme weather conditions and climate change and increased volume of trading in commodity future markets.The report says, ‘The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, to purchase enough food.’

Census of India- 2011: A Provisional Report
The population of the country as per the provisional figures of Census 2011 is 1210.19 million of which 623.7 million (51.54%) are males and 586.46 million (48.46%) are females. The population of India has increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001-2011. Percentage growth in 2001-2011 is 17.64; males 17.19 and females 18.12.2001-2011 is the first decade (with the exception of 1911-1921) which has actually added lesser population compared to the previous decade. Uttar Pradesh (199.5 million) is the most populous State in the country followed by Maharashtra with 112 million. The percentage decadal growth rates of the six most populous States have declined during 2001-2011 compared to 1991-2001:-Uttar Pradesh (25.85% to 20.09%) -Maharashtra (22.73% to 15.99%) -Bihar (28.62% to 25.07%) -West Bengal (17.77 % to 13.93%) -Andhra Pradesh (14.59% to 11.10%) -Madhya Pradesh (24.26% to 20.30%) During 2001-2011, as many as 25 States/UTs with a share of about 85% of the country's population registered an annual growth rate of less than 2% as compared to, 15 States/UTs with a share of about 42% during the period 1991-2001.15 States/UTs have grown by less than 1.5 per cent per annum during 2001-2011, while the number of such States/UTs was only 4 during the previous decade. The total number of children in the age-group 0-6 is 158.8 million (-5 million since 2001)Twenty States and Union Territories now have over one million children in the age group 0-6 years. On the other extreme, there are five States and Union Territories in the country that are yet to reach the one hundred thousand mark. Uttar Pradesh (29.7 million), Bihar (18.6 million), Maharashtra (12.8 million), Madhya Pradesh (10.5 million) and Rajasthan (10.5 million) constitute 52% children in the age group of 0-6 years.Population (0-6 years) 2001-2011 registered minus (-)3.08 percent growth with minus (-)2.42 for males and -3.80 for females. The proportion of Child Population in the age group of 0-6 years to total population is 13.1 percent while the corresponding figure in 2001 was 15.9 percent. The decline has been to the extent of 2.8 points. Overall sex ratio at the national level has increased by 7 points to reach 940 at Census 2011 as against 933 in Census 2001. This is the highest sex ratio recorded since Census 1971 and a shade lower than 1961. Increase in sex ratio is observed in 29 States/UTs. Three major States (J&K, Bihar & Gujarat) have shown decline in sex ratio as compared to Census 2001. Kerala with 1084 has the highest sex ratio followed by Puducherry with 1038; Daman & Diu has the lowest sex ratio of 618. Child sex ratio (0-6 years) is 914. Increasing trend in the child sex ratio (0-6) seen in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and A&N Islands. In all remaining 27 States/UTs, the child sex ratio show decline over Census 2001.*Mizoram has the highest child sex ratio (0-6 years) of 971 followed by Meghalaya with 970.Haryana is at the bottom with ratio of 830 followed by Punjab with 846. India’s effective literacy rate has recorded a 9.2 percent rise to reach 74.04 percent, according to provisional data of the 2011 census. Literacy rate improved sharply among females as compared to males. While the effective literacy rate for males rose from 75.26 to 82.14 percent marking a rise of 6.9 percent, it increased by 11.8 percent for females to go from 53.67 to 65.46 percent. According to provisional totals of the latest census, literates constitute 74 percent of total population aged seven and above. Out of total 217,700,941 literates added during the decade, females at 110,069.001 outnumbered males at 107,631,940. A significant milestone reached in 2011 census was the decline of illiterates by 31,196,847. Ten states and union territories, including Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Tripura, Goa, Daman and Diu, Pondicherry, Chandigarh, National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have attained literacy rate of above 85 percent. Kerala has the highest literacy rate at 93.91 percent followed by Lakshadweep at 92.28 percent. Bihar is at the bottom of the ladder with literacy rate of 63.82 followed by Arunachal Pradesh at 66.95.Credit: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Major-highlights-of-the-Census-2011/articleshow/7833854.cms