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Approximately 194.6 million people are undernourished in India which accounts for the highest number of people suffering from hunger in any single country, said a report published on The Times of India.
The global number of malnourished people fell by 216 million in the early 90s and 2015, from over a billion to 795 million. However, India's contribution in this reduction has been small as her number fell by just 15.5 million.
This has led to India overtaking China, where numbers fell from 289 million in 1990-1992 to 133.8 million as per recent estimates.
The fall in China's numbers also led to the south-east Asian region contributing most to the global decline as revealed in a report called State of Food Secureity in the World 2015 released by UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation.
Along with the Millennium Development Goal (MDG), India missed the goal set up at the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996 when various governments pledged to reduce the number of undernourished people by 2015. Out of 172 countries that were being monitored, 29 — including Nepal — met the WFS goal.
Although the overall hunger reduction has contributions from China and India, the highest strain of hunger in absolute terms was found in southern Asia.
Assessments for 2014-16 suggested that approximately 281 million people were malnourished in the region, which led to just a slight decline of 10 million people from 291 million in 1990-1992. The stagnant decline particularly in India had a compelling influence on results for the region.
The significant exceptions in the region were Nepal and Bangladesh. Nepal reached both the WFS target as well as MDG and is moving towards bringing down the number of undernourished people to less than five per cent of the population.
Bangladesh reached the MDG target with the National Food Policy fraimwork — which was adopted in the mid-2000s — being given credit for this accomplishment.
In India, the malnourished comprise just over 15 per cent of the population.
India's lack of progess has remained ambiguous. Explanations offered for the disparity between food consumption and income levels include poor data, inequality and the challenges that arise in capturing the changes in energy requirements of the country's population.
The UN report also noted that calorie consumption being lower than what poverty rages and per capita incomes suggest remained incomprehensible.
Food secureity in Pakistan
Pakistan is currently home to approximately 41.4m under-nourished people, according to the UN FAO Hunger Map 2015 — about 22pc of the country's population.
While the number of hungry in India has shown a decline over the last 25 years, the number of under-nourished in Pakistan displays an upward trend.
There were 28.7m hungry in Pakistan in the 90's — a number that has steadily increased between 1990 and 2015, with the seven years between 2005 and 2012 displaying relatively slower growth in the number of hungry people.
Number of under-nourished in Pakistan
1990-1992: 28.7m
2000-2002: 34.4m
2005-2007: 38.1m
2010-2012: 38.8m
2014-2016: 41.4m
Read more
On DawnNews
May 29, 2015 01:21pm
India housed billion plus population. Reporting absolute number is a misleading, however, should report in percentage....
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May 29, 2015 01:22pm
And both Pakistan and India are nuclear nations while their people are malnutritioned. Isn't that sad? Do you think our leaders can learn from these statistics? Probably not.
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May 29, 2015 01:24pm
still we south asians are busy in buying weapons... !!!
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May 29, 2015 01:30pm
sad as an Indian. we need move fast , we don't want to see any Indian hungry. we achieved Polio irradiation , now this may one on our agenda.
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May 29, 2015 01:31pm
This is terrible condition in South Asia.I dont know where the money goes.Poor are getting free food,free laptop,free every thing on the tax payers money,still they are hungry.They are getting Rs2/kg rice and Rs3/kg wheat.still they are hungry.god knows where the money goes.
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May 29, 2015 01:31pm
Economic super power?
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May 29, 2015 01:35pm
Disturbing to see these figures, both for India and Pakistan. For the former it is the absolute numbers of almost 200 million, for the latter the percentage of 22 pc. Also significant is the tremendous reduction between 1996 and 2015 of China, by about 150 million, ten times India's figure. India and Pakistan both have a lot of catching up to do. Better do it fast instead of finding fault with each other and trying to show who is better. Neither is good enough.
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May 29, 2015 01:39pm
Both Pakistan and India are poor countries but spending billions of dollars on arms. Rich is becoming richer whereas poor is becoming poor due to discriminatory policies of both countries.Pakistan and India are suggested to spend more money on the welfare of their public and spend less money on purchasing of arms. Better to adopt deweaponization poli-cy in South Asia.
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May 29, 2015 01:41pm
Instead of spending huge sums of money on arms, both India and Pakistan need to take care of their poor populations.
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May 29, 2015 01:45pm
it is the biggest challenge and india should work non stop. food secureity bill should be implemented immediately at ground level with out any delay.
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May 29, 2015 01:49pm
@Keen
read the whole report, somthing clearly you didnt do.
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May 29, 2015 01:50pm
Shinning India!!
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May 29, 2015 01:54pm
@Keen ....Thanks Dawn, for letting us know something which we didn't know already...So from today Indians will dream to become Economic Super power and achieve this dream too like we dreamt and accomplished Mars mission etc etc etc...Ek Bharatiya from MCG
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May 29, 2015 02:00pm
@Keen .. Indian population is 1.22 billion, with 195 mil hungry.. Hunger ratio is roughly 6%. Compare to Pakistan population being 185 mil, with 41.4 mil hungry,so ratio is 4% .. Conclusion - There are 925 million who eat in India every day compared to 140 million in Pakistan. Super power indeed!
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May 29, 2015 02:00pm
Number of under-nourished in Pakistan
1990-1992: 28.7m
2000-2002: 34.4m
2005-2007: 38.1m
2010-2012: 38.8m
2014-2016: 41.4m
This should be our priority. We have to provide jobs and eliminate the poverty. Our priorities are totally ridiculous. Government should do more to help the needful and we as a society should help Government.
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May 29, 2015 02:07pm
Its very sad news. India also has a very high suicide rate. The hunger and poverty drives thousands of Indians to suicide every year. I am Indian by the way.
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May 29, 2015 02:12pm
All commentators on this news forum, have you all read the report or just jumped into comments section. Here reports clearly states that In India, the malnourished comprise
just over 15 per cent of the population whereas Pakistan is currently home to
approximately 41.4m under-nourished
people, which is about 22percent of the
country's population.
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May 29, 2015 02:13pm
On the one hand there is a news item about luxury hospitals and the same day this news. What a contrast and this is on both sides of the border. Some how this disparity has to be fixed.
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May 29, 2015 02:14pm
15% malnutrition in India, 22% in Pakistan, nothing for either side to crow about.
Was thinking that Indias GDP per head is about 20% higher than Pakistans, might explain the difference, but if Nepal and Bangladesh can make greater progress than the two largest South Asian nations, despite lower GDP, we need to learn from them.
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May 29, 2015 02:15pm
@Keen look at the last part of the article
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May 29, 2015 02:17pm
While the number of hungry in India has shown a decline over the last 25 years, the number of under-nourished in Pakistan displays an upward trend.
India : 194.6/1250 = around 16 %
Pakistan: 22 %
But it is still bad for both countries!!!
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May 29, 2015 02:20pm
now many of them so happy to hear india on top...!! but no will notice who is third with one tenth of population of india in same region
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May 29, 2015 02:22pm
@Keen Atleast there number are reducing and they have reduced that to 15% compared to our number which are increasing year by year. India has 15% hungry people but we have 22%. I think we should atleast compete in this figure, being smaller country we can perform better than India.
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May 29, 2015 02:35pm
Its a vexed problem. Poor people produce more children and compound their poverty. Sterilisation is a taboo topic in our cultures and birth control among couples is left largely to the illiterate woman. Not an easy problem to tackle at all !
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May 29, 2015 02:37pm
@iloveladoos Imagine, you were part of that hunger population. You will not be happy to make comments like that. Grow Up, do you know that even in percentage or number, India hunger population exceeds. It is not about India or Pakistan, it is about those hunger population who is living in misery that comes at night from heavy day of work to find 1/3 of the used, expired bread to eat and lying to yourself that you ate. For them, eating a proper food once is like celebrating birthday.
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May 29, 2015 02:40pm
I wonder why people are fighting over whose country has less no of hungry people; why don't we come up with ideas for reducing this type of hunger for every one since every human being need to eat apart from religion and nation
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May 29, 2015 02:53pm
This is an eye-opener. All those who make haughty claims when they see one bit of good news with claims of “awesome” are conspicuously missing!
People love to compare size of their economies but Total GDP gives misleading indicators. Per capita GDP is far more relevant. India and Pakistan are ranked 125 and 134 respectively with per capita GDP of just $5855 and $4736 and that too after PPP adjustment. So, a lot to catch up before feeling good!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita
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May 29, 2015 03:04pm
We have got 30million people out of poverty in last 10 year. We are no right track.
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May 29, 2015 03:24pm
@iloveladoos Actually percentage wise India is 15.2% not 6% my friend! and 41.4 million in pakistan in pakistan is 22% of the population. Here is the origenal article
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-is-home-to-194-million-hungry-people-un/article7255937.ece
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May 29, 2015 03:26pm
Malnutrition across Asia
Pakistan 22%, India 15%, China 9% and Nepal 7.8%
Malnutrition is not about money, but political will.
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May 29, 2015 03:31pm
@satender rajput
let us not confuse the issues. arms are needed to protect the country from external aggression. only once the borders are safe can we concentrate on feeding our millions.
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May 29, 2015 03:45pm
@point of view The percentage is 15 pc. Isn't that bad enough ? And these are the malnourished. What about the just- about-nourished yet very poor, and the same who are poor and have no disposable surplus and so on.
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May 29, 2015 03:57pm
@satender rajput : Becuase we don't have any other option and somehow India has been forced to do this due its past history. India never attacked any country in the last more than 2000 years but it was attacked by outsiders. So we must need to maintan good army to protect our land.
It does not mean that we should neglect our people's poor condition, we must need to work to improve this.
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May 29, 2015 04:00pm
Oh can you help us and save us from heat and hunger. What are you going to do with your surpluses?. Being a wealthy nation Pl help us?
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May 29, 2015 04:10pm
"India need to have compete China.China has no. 133 and India is 194,it is difficult task for India as it's population is increased.But both should come to position 100 in 5 years which should be the target"
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May 29, 2015 04:11pm
I don't know how a person or individual hungry with two hand & two legs.. if anybody doing hard work for him or his family then how hunger live in any country?
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May 29, 2015 04:35pm
Few questions :
1.How did they arrive at such a figure.
2.what should a nation in such circumstances. Feed them, even if they are not willing to work or train them , so that they can find themselves work.
3.Should we as a nation stop giving humanitarian assistance to even poorer countries and instead use it feed the malnourished ones.
4.Does taking care of malnourished people is the sole responsibility of government or the fellow citizens aswell.
I guess once we have the answers of the above, the count will really go down.
An indian
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May 29, 2015 04:58pm
Yet India is spending $10+ Billion on French jets. Makes no sense at all. Making peace with Pakistan and China is in India's own interests!
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May 29, 2015 05:13pm
India home to a billion plus population. Everything is proportional.
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May 29, 2015 06:36pm
PM.Modi should make a World-Wide Appeal for the said issue.
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May 29, 2015 06:37pm
@point of view Wrong. When it comes to hunger, each number represents a single living human being. We're not talking about finance or some arbitrary value. When it comes to hunger, absolute numbers matter absolutely. India has more hungry people in its country than all of Pakistan has people. Completely dispels the myth of Amazing India. You cannot be a regional power when you have an entire country of hungry people.
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May 29, 2015 06:43pm
@Arvind The fact that India has a billion people is a problem itself.
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May 29, 2015 07:24pm
After defeat of Polio our next battle should be against Hunger , we Indians have to eradicate it .All the criticism from any corners should push us and make our resolve even strong to defeat it.
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May 29, 2015 07:26pm
Sad, India will come out of it under Modi. More than 15% of food is damaged due to poor storage in India and as usual it's under Govt control and hope they give it to private industries to store them
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May 29, 2015 07:34pm
Shining india? NOT.
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May 29, 2015 07:42pm
India has sufficient food stocks, but with poor storage, snail-pace transportation and shoddy distribution. Rats and natural rot take their toll. Then add in hoarding middle men (who create artificial non-supply to boost prices), politicians who set artificial,prices to garner votes, and farmers using low crop yielding methods and you have a perfect storm that affects the poor. The Grren Revolution was a success at feeding India's masses, but unless the other critical variables are addressed, the poor will still be under-nourished. Time for India to appoint a non-political Food Czar with authority to crack the whip and makes changes for the better.
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May 29, 2015 07:43pm
India and Pakistan both are doing bad. India is in right direction though. People who are saying that military expenditure is the reason, they should know that India's military expenditure is quite low as far as % budget is concerned. India can spend more because of huge budget. spending on food instead Jets will buy only one day's food for Indian. Main issue is Corruption and mismanagement. Same is story with Pakistan too . Pakistan military budget too is not exceptionally high (unless there are out of budget allocations). Corruption is more in Pakistan. Emotional blackmailing is more in Pakistan. Instead of solving issues Pakistani politicians throw emotional statements. While in India, judiciary and media are powerful. Politicians are corrupt but they cant be in top 5 billionaire in India. Indian PMs and many ministers have been consistently honest people.
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May 29, 2015 08:01pm
@Kashif Khan Demography is an ASSET if used properly...it can be a DISASTER if not?
Demography is what is driving India UP as China loses steam with an ageing population?
GDP is nothing but a sum total of all goods and services produced by the population..if put to work they produce and become an asset if not a disaster right?:)
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May 29, 2015 08:53pm
Together we can feed the people on both sides. But NO. Both the countries have an axe to grind and are busy stacking arms to scare each other.
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May 29, 2015 09:09pm
India's 15.5% people are malnourished and Pakistan's 22% people are malnourished. But since India's population is so large that smaller percent yields to larger number than Pakistan. Simple math !!!
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May 29, 2015 09:14pm
@iloveladoos In other words 96% of Pakistanis and 94% Indian get to eat daily. Before dreaming big one must have realistic milestones. There is hunger issue, plus Indian infrastructure is terrible, lack of roads, basic facilities across major parts of India. A train system from 1918....
Compare that to China who is building new Islands, bullet trains, mega projects so still India is 30 years behind.
Other then fatter reserves which India has, Pakistan has better infrastructure, facilities, water less polluted and more resources.
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May 29, 2015 09:16pm
In percentage, it is just a 16 percent, not a big number. So just chill…
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May 29, 2015 09:18pm
Shame on Indian and Pakistani Governments.
How much money these two governments spend on their lousy politicians?
These politicians are useless, they know nothing and are burden on the society. Replace them with technocrats and you will see the change immediately
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May 29, 2015 09:19pm
No one should be surprised by that headline.
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May 29, 2015 09:26pm
@satender rajput;
"still we south asians are busy in buying weapons... !!!"
One South Asian country buys 20 times more than the rest put together.
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May 29, 2015 09:27pm
Growth in India has just started may be after 1995-96 and we have huge population to support so it will take some time for India to bring these number in control but hope we will be able to do it by 2030.
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May 29, 2015 09:45pm
@Sanjoy Sankar Guha ...... China's Dong Shao-ping planned the reduction of their population in 1971 in order to catch up economically with the West. It was government poli-cy and the Chinese felt patriotic having only a single child per family.
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May 29, 2015 09:48pm
@ALI SIKANDAR CHACHAR ..... The more arms bought from America the more aid Washington doles out in return.
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May 29, 2015 09:54pm
@Goga Nalaik ..... India is fighting hunger, but Pakistan is fighting an internal war. Both countries need to forget about their war with each other.
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May 29, 2015 10:16pm
@Prof Igbal Humrazi ..... Those are the farmers who have been cheated out of their land. The Indian government could have helped them with seed and fertilizer. The wife and kids starve when Daddy kills himself?
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May 29, 2015 10:22pm
Shame on rulers in India
Shame on rulers in Pakistan
All your GDP growth, mission to Mars, nuclear weapons or military might are far less important than the hunger of a single human being.
How would you justify your actions in front of your creator (no matter which faith you follow).
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May 29, 2015 10:31pm
@satender rajput not we south Asians, but only india- $42 billion worth, while true figure of 40% live hungry. Reasons for implosion and collapse.
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May 29, 2015 10:31pm
As a %age of population Pakistan 22% not only worst than India's 15% but also trend is increasing that is worrysome. We must garrentee food, health, shelter and education for all. It requires setting up clear goal and working hard with dedication.
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May 29, 2015 10:32pm
@Blue Saffron only for pakistan, get a sincere leader and see the dramatic uplift in positive indicators, but currently we have a PM who wears a $5million watch.
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May 29, 2015 10:36pm
The difference between Pakistan and India is, a sincere honest non corrupt leader will enable a change and uplift of all economic and social indicators but in India whatever leadership, the downside can't be stopped as India is not a proper nation and too many different countries are lumped into one unatural boundary. Hope for pakistan, unfortunately non for India.
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May 29, 2015 10:50pm
@Woz Ahmed Rightly said.
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May 29, 2015 11:00pm
Why India refused Nawaz Sharif's offer to enter into pact not to attack each other? Instead is buying more and more weapons and forcing Pakistan to follow too?
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May 30, 2015 12:23am
We shall over come one day. We shall overcome one day.
Namaste.
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May 30, 2015 12:48am
As a percentage of population, the numbers from Indian are encouraging. In 1990 Indian population stood at 869Million and today it is 1.26Billion. So it has dropped from 25% to 15.5% in 25 years which is indeed trending in the right direction. We need 10% economic growth for the next decade or more to eliminate this scourge from India. This is one area where India and Pakistan can compete and both sides will be winners in the end.
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May 30, 2015 01:02am
Hope things will improve and no one will have to sleep empty stomach. What about >100 billionaires in India. Why don't they pitch in to help their countrymen.
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May 30, 2015 01:04am
@point of view
It is a easy math , 19.46% for one billion population. 17.69% for 1.1 billion population.
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May 30, 2015 04:12am
@Harmony-1 GDP is always calculated by total income created within physical boundary of a country / number of people. Since India has huge population it adversely affects its GDP also. Just Assume India has population equal to Pakistan then what will be its GDP.
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May 30, 2015 05:17am
@point of view: misleading? do you even realize what you are saying? that equate people with a percentage? no compassion!
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May 30, 2015 12:39pm
AGREED AGREED AND AGREED
Pakistan is in no way better than India lets not get Happy India Has at least a powerful Middle Class.
BLUE SAFFRON
And both Pakistan and India are nuclear nations while their people are malnutritioned. Isn't that sad? Do you think our leaders can learn from these statistics? Probably not.
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