The winter months in India are replete with frequent festive celebrations. Dussehra, Deepavali, Christmas, New Year …the list is long. We just about got a break with the celebration of Lohri and Makar Sakrant a couple of days back. So for some time now calorie cautions have been thrown to the winds, what with the most mouth-watering of fares on offer. It was in this context that the recent report of a shocking 42 percent of Indian children being malnourished made me rather morose. Here were we, the privileged, partying our way into 2012 and wishing upon ourselves joys by the scores and dozens, even as most among us fail to fix even one full meal for their little ones. As the Prime Minister rightly said, it was indeed a national shame.

The report named ‘Hunger and Malnutrition’ (poignantly abbreviated as HUNGaMA) reveals how even after 2 decades of economic reforms, India fails to ensure enough nutritional care for its kids. That there is a decrease in the measure of malnutrition among the under-fives in the last seven years is hardly anything to be smug about. The disgusting disparity between the rich and poor is nauseating. As the few fortunate ones feast, the many moneyless famish.

The link between poverty, education and health is a well established one. Even among the low-income groups, it is the backward classes: the scheduled castes, tribes and Muslims, that fare the worst in almost all developmental indicators. This study yet again points to education as the most potent of weapons against poverty.

Amidst this sickening scenario, the news of the nation not reporting any case of the wild polio virus in the last one year was like a silver lining in a depressingly dark cloud. It went on to prove that where there is a will, there is a way. All that we need is a commitment to the highest ideals of equality enshrined in our preamble to fight our way out of poverty.