By Yash Nanayakkara
Sri Lanka’s future – malnourished
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has now increased to a point where people are forced to go without food. This includes the young children of Sri Lanka, who are deprived of the nutrition they need at their age.
In the status quo of Sri Lanka, it is estimated by the UN that 2.3 million children are in need of healthcare and humanitarian assistance. How can we expect the future generation to be strong and healthy when they are starving?
The Sri Lankan food harvest has already decreased by more than 30%, and it has been predicted to further drop in the future by 40% – 50%. Considering how agriculture is one of our main sources of food, we can understand why children around the country have to go with only one meal a day, maybe even no food at all. Furthermore, Sri Lanka’s economy is far from self-sufficient. Our reliance on imports from other countries also led to this lack of food, as we now have no foreign reserve exchanges to import essential food. 70% of households have reported that they are reducing their consumption of food in order to save more for their family! We can see that people are being ridden of their necessary food, leading to high malnourishment.
People are also unable to afford meals, due to the high inflation rates. The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka stated that food inflation is predicted to rise to 70% from 50% in a few months. This signifies a huge change in the prices of food, putting the finances of families into dire states, as well as risking their ability to eat 3 meals a day.
Malnourishment in Sri Lanka was already high, at 1.0, in 2020, which is considerably high, taking into account world standards, and it is growing higher day by day. Sri Lankan children are suffering the most in terms of consequences, as they usually do not have the grit to stay hungry for a large period. This starvation is causing many nutrient deficiencies due to a lack of the essentials, such as proteins. 56,000 children under the age of five are not being provided with the necessary nutrition for them to grow, leading to poor immune systems and deficient bodies, which all lead to early deaths!
Child malnourishment diseases in Sri Lanka are now deadly due to the lack of medicine in the country. It has been confirmed that 25 life-saving medicines for children are facing a possible stockout in the coming months. Kids who have a disease and must be rushed to the hospital might not be able to get the medicines they need to be cured. This immediately puts the health of children at risk, making diseases caused due to malnourishment now deadly.
The government has been suggesting solutions to curb this rising problem. Growing fruits and vegetables in your backyard will save you from having to buy these from the market. Furthermore, rather than buying small quantities of expensive fish, you can buy large quantities of low-price fish for the same price, thus allowing you to eat more. However, many people who classify as the urban poor are unable to do this because most of them don’t have gardens, and sometimes, they can’t even afford to buy small quantities of cheap meat anyway.
UNICEF has stated that it requires US$25.3 million to attend to the perils of the most vulnerable and badly affected children and their families by ensuring continued access to essential services and support. Therefore, Sri Lanka’s only hope seems to be UNICEF and donations from other countries.
Another possible short-term solution seems to be helping each other out. As a humanitarian effort, privileged Sri Lankans should make it their duty to provide small quantities of food to their surrounding neighbours who are facing poverty and starvation. By rising together as one to help each other battle this malnourishment, we can curb this problem and come out of dark times.
Sri Lanka must try and curb this streak of starvation before our future generation becomes too malnourished to make a brighter future.
Commenti