237 million people in India underfed: United Nations

Though India's poverty rates fell from 51% to 37% between 1990 and 2008 it will still not reach the required Poverty Headcount Ratio (percentage of population below the national poverty line) of 23.9% by 2015 to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG). Now, the national HCR stands at 47.8% and India will achieve poverty HCR level of 26.72% by 2015.

The Millennium Development a goal, 2012, report, released by the United Nations says by 2015, 1 billion people will live on less than $1.25 a global poverty rate of 16%. A staggering 80% of the extremely poor will live in either Sub-Saharan Africa or Southern Asia (India is the biggest country there). India will also fail to halve between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. Undernourished children are a significant indicator of food insecurity. From an estimated 52% in 1990, the proportion of underweight children below three years is required to be reduced to 26% by 2015, according to the MDG.

But the proportion of underweight children has declined from 43% to about 40% during 1998-99 to 2005-06. At this rate of decline, the proportion of underweight children below three years is expected to come down to only about 33% by 2015.

Larger states have more underweight children which is above the national level of 40%. They include

• Madhya Pradesh
• Bihar 57.9%
• Jharkhand 54.6%
• Chattisgarh 47.8%
• Meghalaya 42.9%
• Uttar Pradesh 41.6%
• Gujarat - 41.1%

Only six states Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab are likely to achieve their own MDGs by 2015. Frederika Meijer, UN Resident Coordinator, said, "Hunger remains a global challenge. Around 850 million people live in hunger, 237 million in India the disparity is greatest in southern Asia."

India has the largest population of underfed and underweight children. In the developing regions, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 47% in 1990 to 24% in 2008. In 2008, about 110 million fewer people than in 2005 lived in extreme poverty. The number fell from 2 billion in 1990 to less than 1.4 billion in 2008.