Increasing Rates of Child Malnutrition in India

INTRODUCTION

Malnutrition is a critical issue that affects children worldwide. Given that, the social determinants of health are defined as "the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including the health system"(World Health Organization, 2009). These conditions are ''shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels"( World Health Organization, 2009). More generally, when dealing with the issue of child malnutrition, there are many leading factors that contribute to the issue. A basic definition of malnutrition is "lack of the minimum amount of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients essential for health and proper growth"(San Francisco Aids Foundation, 2009). Some social determinants of health factors that lead to child malnutrition can be a lack of nutrition, socio economic status, poor housing, food security, immunity and employment. The social determinants of health framework that will be examined to understand the issue of poverty is nutrition and socioeconomic status. A lack of nutrition can affect the child in its inability to grow to their full potential. Also, socioeconomic status is a very significant factor as one of the leading causes of malnutrition. Living in a third world country, like India, it is difficult to have a high socioeconomic status due little income, as well as people are not really educated to have good employment opportunities. In saying this, Henry Chu's Los Angeles Times article "India's gnawing pain; Almost hair the children are malnourished in a nation that touts its economic growth and sees itself as a rising power" discusses the socioeconomic factors, as well as the factor of nutrition whic...

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..., because it would also benefit the economy in the future. Since the economy is rising in India, policies such as better health care and nutritional programmes should be in place. Acting on this issue immediately will result in a lower health costs for the children’s future. From a global perspective people are deprived from certain rights due to poverty. Children face many challenges to transition from a child to a young adult because their health is not taken into consideration. Later in life, children can have many complications that affect their mental health that will stay with them forever. Treatment needs to be done earlier in a child’s life so it does not affect their mental health in the future. In saying this, Chu's article elaborates on the effect of nutrition in children, but more policies are needed to ensure that children will be set for their futures.