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Tamil Nadu
Inflation deflates kids’ nutritional needs
| What with one kilogram of apple being sold around Rs.100, same quantity of seer fish at Rs.200 … |
TOUGH TIME: A maid serving tea to the inmates of a home for mentally challenged in the city.
Inflation hovering around 12 per cent, fluctuating Wholesale Price Index and increasing International Commodity Price pressures may sound Greek to tiny tots.
But these jargons do have an impact even on a foetus in a womb.
Doctors say that expectant mothers are expected to “eat for two.”
They have to take assorted fruits and vegetables daily.
Their suggested diet also includes meat, fish, eggs and nuts to ensure a right quantity of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.
It sounds good to the ears.
Definitely not to the pocket, what with one kilogram of apple being sold around Rs.100, same quantity of seer fish at Rs.200, a pair of eggs at Rs.4 and a kilogram of cashewnut at Rs.300… Bhew!
P. Pushpalatha residing at Mullai Nagar near Meenambalpuram asks: “People like me who live on paltry sum earned by serving as domestic helps cannot even afford to buy an egg a day, where is the question of meat and fish Sirrr?”
Her daughter recently gave birth to a girl baby at the Government Rajaji Hospital and underwent lot of complications in the delivery process as she was anaemic owing to iron deficiency and lack of folic acid.
If this was the plight of the lower strata of society, problems faced by the middle class are no different.
T. Kalpana Balakrishnan, a home maker whose spouse works in the Madras High Court Bench here, has her own tale to narrate.
She says: “My two children, aged 11 and four, take milk twice a day and our monthly milk bill has shot up from Rs. 450 to Rs. 600 putting a dent in the family budget. My elder son loves apples, but the irony is I can seldom afford them.”
To top it all, private homes for children in distress have a tough time managing with their finances.
Sister Selvi, administrator of Anbalaya, a home for mentally challenged children here, says that their monthly budget has multiplied in the last one year.
“We have been given a special ration card to purchase PDS rice at Rs. 2 per kg. Though the Government recently reduced the price to Rs.1 per kg, we are yet to be given the benefit. Vegetables alone cost us around Rs.2,500 per week,” she says.
The administrator also claims that Indane has stopped giving them domestic LPG cylinders and insists on buying commercial cylinders costing Rs.1,500 each.
“We are now using a firewood stove to the maximum to save gas,” she adds.
HardshipInmates of this home might not understand the economics behind their sustenance, but the administrators certainly feel the pinch of it.
They only hope a quick solution to bail out these children from falling victim to deflating nutritional requirements.
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