Millions of adolescent girls in India face the risk of nutritional problems, says the 2011 State of the World’s Children report. Home to more than 243 million adolescents (the largest teenage population in the world), India accounts for almost 20 per cent of the world’s population yet has some concerning health statistics.
Despite the country’s rapid economic growth over the past two decades, many challenges remain for India, particularly for the girls that live within its borders. Malnutrition is common, especially for those belonging to socially excluded castes and tribes. Almost 47 per cent of girls aged 11 to 19 are underweight in India, figures that, according to the report, are the highest in the world.
Also worrying is the finding that more than half of girls aged 15 to 19 in India are anaemic. This has serious implications on maternal health, with many young women in India marrying before the age of 20: girls who are anaemic or underweight have an increased risk of death during pregnancy. Nutritional deprivations are often passed on to the next generation.
Minati, one of Opportunity International Australia’s clients in India, knows too well what it is like to go without food. “Before, we’d eat one day and go hungry the next,” she says. “We could only afford cheap rice and green vegetables.” It wasn’t until she took out a microfinance loan with one of Opportunity’s partner organisations in India that she was able to start a business and increase her income – giving her the income she needed to afford meat, fish and regular meals.
Without interventions like microfinance, many people in India would be on their own, facing alarming statistics like these. If you would like to support people in poverty so they start their own business, please click here.
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