Blind about malnutrition
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who stands a fair
chance –more than fair, really—of becoming the prime minister of India if he gets lucky,has created a storm by
attributing malnutrition in his state to middle class women’s desire to look slim—call it a Kareena Kapoor
kind of Size Zero.
Like many, he has shown total lack of understanding of
malnutrition , whether in Gujarat, India or anywhere in Africa. Statistics of
malnutrition, by and large, pertain to nutrition levels of children under 3, at
most 6.
I don’t even mind the fact that he could, inadvertently or ignorantly ,
called female children in that group “women”.
Before the sms and fw era of the internet, a “joke” that was intended to target feminists
went thus: Sheela was a smart professional
who hated to be addressed “Hey Girl” by
her male colleagues. When she had a daughter, the colleagues inquired about
the baby. “Hmmm…how’s the woman doing?”.
Have no idea if anyone then found it funny, but it indicates
a male perspective.
I don’t know whether the leader seen as the Bharatiya Janata
Party’s best bet for Loksabha elections next time around, thinks that these “women under 6” are smitten by Size
Zero ! A conservative view is that most people would not buy that line from
that leader, however popular.
Luckily for Mr Modi, he is not alone when it comes to an
indigestible view on malnutrition, perhaps an incorrect view too. At the height
of a food crisis, agencies in the western world, possibly not being able to
import food, attributed the shortage to Indians and Asians eating a lot more.
And they sited nutrition levels of a section of people as evidence!
To starve to shed weight and inches is not easy at all. If
the predominantly middle class women of
Gujarat are doing that, hats off to the very strongwilled and positively
determined ladies of that state. They
are highly enterprising, be it in the countryside or in the cities.They are
smart. And they are sensible.
A few years ago on a visit to Ahmedabad, a friend’s
father-in-law proudly showed me his new BPO, where scores and scores of young
girls were seated at work. He shared with me what their educational
qualifications, work hours and wages were. Pleasantly surprised, I remarked ,
“So much of money, at such a young age. Won’t it spoil them unless families
controlled that salary?”. He immediately said, no, they won’t be spoilt by the money, and their parents don’t
control the salary.”In Gujarat, most youngsters are into investing..shares,
mutual funds, starting small businesses with their friends, using it to go
abroad to study..Luckily, the children in this state are a little different…”
he elaborated, not caring to specify, different from whom. For that hardly
matters. Well this description of the Gujarati woman is what sticks in my mind.
And one more thing. They are beautiful, and naturally so.
Perhaps without dieting to the point of ending up as cases of malnutrition. I
remember Tina Munim, now Tina Ambani, on the cover of Femina, long before she
became Dev Anand’s heroine in “Des Pardes”. She was Femina’s Teen Princess,
International.
Since then I’ve seen lovely looking Gujju girls on the
skating rinks….gorgeous, flowing…fit.
Mr Modi perhaps needs to set aside his “status” and give the
young ladies in his state a fresh look. With a totally paternal perspective.Or even look at the most famous Gujarati woman. The world calls her Ba aka Kasturba Gandhi
