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| image courtesy: who.int |
August 1-7: World Breastfeeding Week
Just as the 19th century was the century of the British Empire and the 20th, the century of the strongest superpower, the 21st century is spoken of as the Asian Century, the century when Asian politics and culture will be the dominant one.
In the last two decades, South Asia has seen unprecedented economic growth. The World Bank reports that during this time, the no of poor - those living with less than $1.25 a day – came down from 61% to 36%. Even with all this progress, South Asia has 571 million poor, which is 44% of the developing world’s poor.
As for India, since 2007, it is, as per World Bank standards, a middle-income country. Yet, in 2013, the same standards pronounce it home to a third of the world’s poorest people.
And so, in this country, the desperately poor are, still, everywhere.
People like me, the privileged lot, rarely come into contact with them - unless our profession or vocation demands it. We are, however, often in touch with those who are illiterate or inadequately educated; those who, as a result, can never aspire to what would be considered a decent job. And so, all along, I’ve been convinced that ‘the’ best, long-term investment you can make in a child’s future is education.
Until, I started reading up for this post about nutrition and found out that food is the need of the hour and that it comes way before education.
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