A submarine made at the cost of taking bread from the mouths and life from the chests of Prime Minister Singh s fellow citizens.
Both the cost of building nuclear submarines, and the purchasing of others, are paid for with funds drawn on the treasury of a ˜democracy that does not feed its children.
Singh s India is a gigantic torture chamber for the 47% of its children under five who suffer malnutrition. [47% is a World Bank estimate]
Its also torture for the parents who watch in agony as 2.1 million of their kids die before their fifth birthday from malnutrition and preventable illnesses. [UN estimate from Malnutrition in India, Wikipedia]
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 As Indian Growth Soars, Child Hunger Persists
By Somini Sengupta, New York Times, 3/12/2009
"NEW DELHI Small, sick, listless children have long been India s scourge "a national shame, in the words of its prime minister, Manmohan Singh. after a decade of galloping economic growth, child malnutrition rates are worse ...
Seems by the Prime Minister s own admission, his wife breaking the bottle of champagne on the bow of this incredible investment last week becomes a hideous spectacle of death over life.
Akshay Mangla in Delhi complains that the pathetic state of child health and education in India should be seen as no less than a total failure of its democracy, public institutions and civil society.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7445570.stm
Malnutrition getting worse in India
By Damian Grammaticas, BBC News, Madhya Pradesh
"About 60% children in Madhya Pradesh state are malnourished
Lying on a bed is a tiny malnourished child. Her limbs wasted, her stomach bloated, her hair thinning and falling out. She stares, wide-eyed, blankly at the ceiling. Roshni is six months old. She should weigh 4.5kg. But when she is placed on a set of scales they settle at just 2.9kg.
Roshni is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, defined by the World Health Organization as weighing less than 60% of the ideal median weight for her height.
There are 40 beds in this center. On every one is a similar child. All are acutely malnourished. Wailing, painful, plaintive cries fill the air. This is the Nutrition Rehabilitation Center in the town of Shivpuri. ... This is the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh - modern India, a land of booming growth. "The situation in our village is very bad," says Roshni's mother, ˜Sometimes we get work, sometimes we don't. Together with our children we are dying from hunger. What can we poor people do? Nothing.
... Another mother is cradling her daughter, Kahal, trying to feed her. The girl is two-and-a-half years old and so weak she can hardly eat.
Her mother tries to spoon some milk into her mouth. It dribbles down her chin. Kajal barely even opens her eyes. Kajal's skin is pale. Her breath comes sharp, shallow and fast. She too is suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Her weight is 6.7kg.
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Children wait for a meal outside an Anganwadi centre in Chitori Khurda The nutrition centre here was set up by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Doctor Vandana Agarwal, UNICEF's nutrition specialist for Madhya Pradesh state, points to Kajal's swollen little feet. 'There is edema on both the feet, scaly skin on her legs, even her respiration rate is high,' Dr Agarwal says.
'The child is in a lethargic condition, her hair is thin, sparse, lustreless, easily-pluckable. These are the typical symptoms of protein energy malnutrition.' India has some of the highest rates of child malnutrition and mortality in under-fives in the world and Madhya Pradesh state has the highest levels in India. There are around 10 million children in the state. A decade ago 55% were malnourished. Two years ago the government's own National Family Health Survey put the figure for Madhya Pradesh at around 60%.
By the way, your author notes that the work of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEFf) enables leaders of India s capitalist system to to save money on feeding its children, and focus more on building and buying submarines.
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