The health ministry is to provide therapeutic milk to children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in hospitals in the Wanni through the UNICEF on the recommendation made by the Consultative Committee on Humanitarian Assistance (CCHA), subcommittee on health. "For all moderately malnourished children, the Regional Director of Health Services would provide children with Thriposha in clinics, under the supplementary feeding programme,' the Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry said quoting Health Ministry Secretary Dr. Kahandaliyanage.

Poor communities in the hills and mountains of far and mid-western Nepal face a serious threat to food security due to this year's poor winter harvest, says a UN body. Along with bad crops resulting in a 20-40 percent fall in production, rising food prices in these areas where poverty and malnutrition are very high has triggered this painful situation, states the latest crop situation update prepared by the World Food Program-Nepal.

XUAN CANH, Vietnam: Truong Thi Nha stands just 4

With 30 crore poor people in India, the number of poor has barely changed over the last three decades. According to 11th Five year Plan, total number of poor people counted 32.13 crore in 1973, 32.29 crore in 1983, 32.03 crore in 1993-94 and 30.17 crore in 2004-05. This means the number of poor in the country has declined between 1993-94 and 2004-05 by roughly two crore. Even after sixty years of independence, over a quarter of our population still remains poor. However, the country has successfully reduced the share of the poor in the population from 54.8 in 1973 to 27.5 in 2004.

UN agencies and the World Bank pledged on Tuesday to set up a task force to tackle an unprecedented rise in global food prices that is threatening to spread social unrest. The international bodies called on countries not to restrict exports of food to secure supplies at home, warning that could make the problem worse.

Governments could take a big step towards ending world hunger by spending just $1.2 billion a year in developing nations on dietary supplements and education about the food needs of babies, a study showed. Such targeted spending to help a billion of the poorest people in Africa and Asia could save millions of lives and bring annual economic benefits of more than $15 billion in lower health bills and longer and more productive lives, it said.

Being beaten up at home could be making Indian women and children frail and undernourished. In an interesting research, a team of social scientists from Harvard School of Public Health has for the first time found a strong association between domestic violence and chronic malnutrition among Indian women and children.