ONLY 9.6% of children between 6 to 23 months in India were fed a minimum acceptable diet, according to the Global Hunger Index, an index that tracks child wasting rate in 117 countries. That means, a whopping 90.4% of children in the country is undernourished. India is ranked the lowest among the South Asian countries. Even Pakistan which used to be the only country in South Asia to rank below India has pulled ahead in the 2019 ranking to 94th place. The GHI has put India in the ‘serious hunger’ category.
INDIA has been in the news for the wrong reasons in the recent past. In September, two Dalit children aged 10 and 12 were beaten to death for defecating in public in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh. Discrimination on the basis of caste is still widespread in the country, especially in rural areas. In another similar incident, an 18-month-old baby was killed in a fight between two families over a child urinating in the open in Bhangarh village in Madhya Pradesh.
AFTER the manufacturing sector was hit badly by the economic slowdown, the Indian residential market is now in a crisis. Property developers in the country have been badly hit by demonetisatiion, implementation of GST, banks crises due to which non banking finance companies are prevented from lending to the real estate players. As a result the number of property developers who have been dragged to the bankruptcy court has more than doubled in less than a year. Till June this year, 20,421 realtors were under the corporate insolvency resolution process. Slow sales and a record unsold apartments have also hit the industry.
DENGUE cases in Tamil Nadu have gone up by nearly 50% prompting the health department to release an advisory to doctors and local administrators on prevention and early diagnosis of the disease. So far, close to 3,000 cases of dengue and one death due to it has been reported in Tamil Nadu this year. Dengue does not have any vaccine, and hence the treatment is largely based on supportive measures to control the symptoms an individual may have making recovery of affected children difficult. Since 2015, 96 dengue deaths have been reported in the state, according to the Tamil Nadu government. Chennai records the highest dengue cases in the state with as many as 543 cases reported in the city.
MORE than 365,000 auto industry workers’ jobs—350,000 at auto-parts manufacturers and dealers and 15,000 in vehicle assembly—have been destroyed in India since April this year in response to falling sales. In August, the industry slumped for the 10th straight month with sales of passenger vehicles dropping by 30 percent and car sales by 41 percent, the steepest fall in two decades. In terms of sales, India’s automotive sector is the fourth largest in the world and the most affected by the slowdown in the Indian economy. Many auto majors have made frequent layoffs and no production days in the recent past.
PRAY for the Prime Minister of India, a nation of 134 crore people who live in cities and 4,000 cities and towns and 6.40 lakh villages. There are 4,635 people groups who speak over 1,652 languages in this country. Pray that the PM and his cabinet ministers are able to administer an honest, transparent, efficient and secular governance in the country.
UPHOLD the people of north India in your prayers. Several hundreds of people have lost their lives in the previous years in cold waves that sweep across the country in October, November and December. Pray especially for the people who live in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Jammu-Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Pray that the winter does not put roadblocks in the path of evangelists, missionaries and NGOs who work tirelessly to reach the unreached.
ADULTERATION of food items seems to be on the increase in India. Recently, it was found out that nearly 60% of milk samples lifted from Chennai and its suburbs were found substandard. What was even more worrying was that one in 20 samples had cancer-causing ingredient aflatoxin M1. Aflatoxin finds its way to milk through feed and fodder of the cattle. Pasteurization and sterilization have little effect on it and it still remains in the milk. Pray.
TOTAL wealth in India has increased four-fold between 2000 and 2019, reaching $12.6 trillion this year. Now, India ranks fifth globally in terms of the number of ultra high net-worth individuals. However, there is considerable poverty in the country. Pray the super rich of the country use their wealth wisely in philanthropic activities to help their fellow poor countrymen.
PRAY for religious minorities in India who are persecuted for their faith. Christians and Muslims continue to suffer at the hands of religious fanatics. They are discriminated against, their worship centres are attacked and women and children of these faiths continue to be vulnerable targets of those who practice hate politics. Pray that God changes the mindset of the ruling dispensation in favor of the religious minorities.
