Wasting Away

Book excerpt: "India no longer faces the famine and epidemics which kept life expectancy barely over 30 years at Independence. Despite progress in food production, disease control, and economic and social development, India accounts for 40 percent of the world's malnourished children, with less than 20 percent of the global child population." India has taken the problem of malnutrition seriously since its Independence in 1947, more so than many other countries, and has developed appropriate policies and mounted major programs to address it. This report forms part of the Government of India-World Bank collaboration in nutrition, which began in 1980. Its aim is to review the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of public spending on nutrition in India, and to suggest how these might be enhanced. It identifies the programs that are working and the areas where action is needed. It also projects the possible cost of the suggested programs.