“When I was pregnant with her (her baby) my kidney was not working well. My hemoglobin level was very low. I went to the doctor, but they told me it would cost me $125. I couldn’t afford it,” she told CNA.
She now receives help from the Sukarya charity, which helps underprivileged women like her fight malnutrition. The charity runs monthly checkups at a free health camp.
Sukarya has worked with a community of ragpickers on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi for several years, providing them with free medicine, nutritional advice and healthy food packages.
His efforts are aimed at mitigating malnutrition, a national problem, which has raised concerns that it could cost the nation its next generation.
The recent National Family Health Survey of India reported that more than a third of children in the country are stunted.
Sukarya founder Meera Satpathy is also seeing it among children in the community her charity serves.
“(If) they don’t have a normal weight and height, they won’t have the required brain development. They will have concentration problems. Then what will happen? They can’t study properly and they can’t be full-fledged human beings, citizens,” he said.
Lack of understanding about what to eat seems to be at the heart of India’s double trouble.
In 2017, India launched an initiative to combat malnutrition by providing free nutritional supplements and more nutritious school meals.
It’s a step to help people in India eat well, which experts say, along with informing the masses, could help India combat both malnutrition and diabetes in its population.
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