Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Manifestations of income inequality in India


The researchers found that for every three percent widening in a state's income inequality between the most affluent and the most poor, the risk for being underweight increased by 19 percent and the risk for being obese increased by 21 percent.

See this report for more on the study by S. V. Subramanian and coworkers at the Harvard School of Public Health. Here's another key finding:

In an additional finding, higher per capita consumption expenditure at the state-level, which is a marker of economic development, was associated with an increased risk of obesity. Yet, no association was observed between higher state per capita consumption expenditure and reduced risk for undernutrition, suggesting that economic development does not have a guaranteed connection to alleviating disease among the impoverished, noted Subramanian.

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Here's what Amartya Sen had to say about "endemic undernourishment and hunger" in India (go to my old post for more):

... [It] is amazing to hear persistent repetition of the false belief that India has managed the challenge of hunger very well since independence. This is based on a profound confusion between famine prevention, which is a simple achievement, and the avoidance of endemic undernourishment and hunger, which is a much more complex task. India has done worse than nearly every country in the world in the latter respect. There are, of course, many different ways of shooting oneself in the foot, but smugness based on ignorance is among the most effective.

2 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    Dr. Sen, in this interview to Outlook, has well-outlined his views on achievements of the Indian state on different criteria.

    http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060821&fname=EAmartya+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=1

    Its infact the interviewer who gets on ones nerves by appearing to put words into Dr. Sen's mouth, while Dr. Sen continues to correct him.

  2. Wavefunction said...

    Did you read about the current massive Turkish plagiarism scandal in the physics world?

    http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=590