The majority of the 40,000 deaths every day, or 6 million a year, among the developing world's infants and children are caused by infection as a result of malnutrition. A typical three-year-old in a developing country has one illness every three weeks. Between 1975 and 1990, the number of malnourished children aged four or younger declined in Southeast Asia and Latin America. However in sub-Saharan Africa the number rose from 18 to 30 million, and in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal) the number increased from 90 to 101 million. In 1993, an estimated 120 million of the 190 million underweight children in the world live in four countries: China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Probably as many as 60% of the children in India and Bangladesh are malnourished, a rate twice as high as in sub-Saharan Africa.
Projections to the year 2000 suggest that while the prevalence of malnutrition will probably go down overall, the number of children who are underweight for their age will increase, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia; in these latter two regions, a satisfactory nutrition situation is not currently in sight.
Most child malnutrition is invisible. Most malnourished children are not hungry. The most common cause of malnutrition is not lack of food but a combination of low birth weight, frequent illness and poor feeding practices.
It is a scandal that the figures on something as important as malnutrition are so weak. It is a vital indicator of the mental and physical development of the rising generation, the world's future.