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HUNGRY REPUBLIC OF INDIA

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As booming India goes crazy over slimming centres, weight loss gadgets and obesity-curing wonders ... the future of the country stays hungry and malnourished, helplessly looking at the present for help as it dies everyday...

One-year-old Harinder, who is suffering from severe malnutrition cries in his mother's lap. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation


Finally, I get down to updating my blog, which has been lying stale for a few weeks now…This is a very special story to me…

A few weeks back I packed my bags again and traveled into the interiors of the country with my Chief Photographer Reinhard Krause. The intention was to look for stories that stay neglected by the media; stories that don’t get the ‘numbers’ because the audiences responsible for the latter, are too busy with their own lives to bother about such matters. These stories, however, give me the strength and confidence to pursue many more such subjects relentlessly.

For our latest excursion, Reinhard and I traveled to remote villages in the state of Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur and Shivpuri districts and Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region. The subject was the pathetic condition of children suffering from extreme malnutrition.

Our first stop was Sheopur. All four villages that we visited here had one thing in common - hungry and malnourished children in almost every household. It was shocking to see the state that these children were living in.

Our second day’s visit to Shivpuri was no less dreadful. The district’s child malnutrition levels have been compared to that of countries like Ethiopia and Chad by international agencies.

In this district, we met Harinder --- just one year old and weighing only 3 kilos (6.6 pounds). But what was disturbing was that Harinder had cure lying at his doorstep but with no access to it. Tonnes of grains lay outside the toddler’s hut but he couldn’t eat it, as it belonged to the upper caste. Harinder’s family is from the lower caste and work as laborers on the fields owned by the upper caste.


One-year-old Harinder, who is suffering from severe malnutrition lies on the food grains 'owned' by the upper caste. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation

20 months old Rinku, who weighs just 4 kg and suffers from severe malnutrition, lies in his mother's lap while his another malnourished brother sleeps in the background. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation

Rinku is weighed by his mother as the local health worker looks. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation
18-month-old Urmila, who is suffering from severe malnutrition, in Bundelkhand region cries in her mother's arms. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation





26-month-old Ranbir, who weighs just 5 kgs and suffers from severe malnutrition, with his mother Munni in the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation

A rare smile. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation

 A malnourished child waits for food in Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation

A mother feeds her malnourished child in the centre. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation


A severely malnourished child sits in his mother's lap in the state of Madhya Pradesh. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation





The ‘caste factor’ plays a major role in the deteriorating health of these children. A health worker who was from the upper caste was not willing to attend to Harinder because the boy was from a lower caste. We went to the village where this health worker lived and took her to Hirender’s house so that she can weigh him and give him some nutritional supplement. This was the least we could do.

  A malnourished child in one of the villages in Bundelkhand region. © Danish Siddiqui Foundation

Before landing in Madhya Pradesh, we’d thought of malnutrition as a simplistic problem with an obvious solution – sufficient food. But we soon learnt otherwise; the problem, we realized, has socio-economic dimensions too.

What seems to be suffering in the bargain is India’s future ... as it grows weaker everyday, crawling helplessly towards a slow but persistent death. 


 A severely malnourished child lies on a bed in the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre.

© Danish Siddiqui Foundation. All Rights Reserved

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 1, 2010 at 2:19 AM

    Dan,
    This is an amazingly sad investigation. Never thought that the situation in India is as bad as that, or even that the distinction between upper/lower castes can reach that extent (I thought that it is only present in novels). Keep writing those kinds of stories, hoping that someone with the slightest bit of heart would do something about it. Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Abbas Shamael RizviMay 1, 2010 at 2:57 PM

    Brilliant Danish..I like this one of yours a lot..a true journalistic approach..very touching..

    ReplyDelete
  3. sadiq naqviMay 1, 2010 at 10:37 PM

    great pictures that speak of the grim realities beyond the sexy sensex...

    ReplyDelete
  4. crookedlinesMay 2, 2010 at 3:52 AM

    It is heartening to note that you chose to do something about it --- even if it meant a small gesture. It is usually unfortunate that with matters like these, which mostly lie within our reach, we still await that someone else will make the compassionate move while we lament the tragedy of it all.

    Things could only change if the wails of these toddlers echo in the corridors of our supreme house of democracy, where those that have been 'chosen' to represent us cry hoarse over 'price rise' without little sense of familiarity with what it means to go hungry to bed every night.

    You have achieved a touching portrayal. Bravo.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 2, 2010 at 5:30 PM

    Don't know what to say. Have no words.... I know only one thing that this is in each and every part of India where Education is not accessible. People don't know about rights and thus become prey to these class clashes and worse waiting for them. I hope some responsible person sees the pity condition of India...The Real Hungry INDIA...

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMay 2, 2010 at 11:34 PM

    Keep it up Danish. Making us all aware of the bitter realities scattered around, which we often fail to see due to our abominable self centered and selfish attitude and myopic vision of the world around, in itself is a good human service. May this move us to feel the pain of the sufferers and the deprived and makes us visibly contribute in mitigating the same, while sincerely thanking the Almighty for everything He has bestowed on us.

    ReplyDelete
  7. chrmyersMay 3, 2010 at 4:53 AM

    hey brother, my heart is broken as i see that something that should be the right of every human being is unreachable by some. this article has brought many questions to my mind as i see that this is not just a food issue, malnutrition has much to do with the water quality, as these children get bad water they are more susceptible to dysentery, giardia, and many other waterborne diseases, which combined with a lack of nutritious food can lead to death. Isa al Masih said that if we are going to receive the blessings from God we must feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked and invite in the untouchable. So what am i going to do? i believe that this is what each one of us has to ask. i believe that if we wait till government steps in to do something, my and your life will pass by without a change. so danish, the question is how can each of us as individuals make a difference that will impact humanity in each one of these little ones.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pearl May 4, 2010 at 10:38 AM

    You know just the other day I was reading the essence of Vipassna which states that every sensation, craving ,hunger, passes away. Nothing stays forever.

    But when its about hunger of little children (fuck their karma of what they must have done to deserve this!) really brings everything to grinding halt.

    I really felt disempowered the first time I saw this post!Looked like a silly game we were out to playwith our big words and bigger cameras clicking hungary dying children!(Have you noticed how we wriggle out of unpleasant realities by not acknowledging their presence!?)

    Just the other day this illusion of having chosen the right livlihood broke. It would have been so much better to feed a hungary child than click him/her and put it up on the walls of virtual world. And yet thats what we have come to do!
    But what this post did for some time was to bring everything back into hard focus.
    We all know that this(hungary disempowered) world exists yet it is at looking at it that we shy away..for their are so many wonderful distractions.
    I shall look at it longer each time and know that its as much a part of me as of those who live it everyday. There has to be a more effective cure. There has to be a way out! I'll look for it with more determination each time I look at these faces! And like they say at the end. Thanks! Your sharing has been helpful( Just like the splash of cold water on my face!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Faisal AhmedMay 12, 2010 at 2:07 PM

    Technically brilliant photographs, but what stuck me was the way it reminded me off my newsx days...it reminded me of Mr. and Mrs. Kalra...will surely have a discussion if i meet you sometime...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Zubair DarziMay 17, 2010 at 5:02 PM

    nicely documented ...all the luck for ya furture...

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousAugust 16, 2010 at 11:49 AM

    these are the grim realities of rural India which hasnt moved forward even though India hits its 63rd year of Independence. but the plight of these children show just how caste has rotten the brains and blinded the eyes of those who think they are "privileged" by caste . your little gesture is very motivating n i hope it enlightens few of us atleast to do something about it . you have made an onest effort here .. well done

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousFebruary 17, 2011 at 6:55 PM

    very commendable...we all think abt these things but hardly get to do anything...please keep doing more...thanks for these

    ReplyDelete

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