World Children’s Day – 20 November 2020
By Sandra Coyle and Basanta Kumar Kar
Do you remember when you were five years old?
I do. My days as a young girl were filled with playing with friends, running through forests, riding my bike, and swimming with my sisters. I had so much energy that it was hard for my mother to call me in for mealtimes. When I arrived, I would try to eat as fast as possible to rejoin my friends outside as soon as I could. On my happiest days, I enjoyed lunch with my friends together outside on the picnic table when it was sunny and warm or inside when it was cold or rainy where my mother would recreate the picnic atmosphere with a blanket on the living room floor.
Many children under five years of age worldwide do not have enough energy to run around and play with their friends. They do not have the proper food, or nutrition, to enable them to explore the world around them. They are malnourished, and 25% of them are stunted.
I do. As a young boy, I was invisible and unknown and unheard. My village was my life.
The blue sky, the stars twinkling in the moonlight, and the ray of the sun announcing the day. The narrow, stretched muddy lane surrounded by wild jasmine, weeds, and water bodies, a graveyard with stories of ghosts and spirits, and taking umbrage in grandmother’s lap defined each element of life. I used to swim, swing, play hide and seek in nature’s bounty.
Green pastures full of nuts and fruits, bees, and butterflies were decorating life—the aesthetics, emotions, and healing touch of near and dear ones used to be incredible moments.
Food was medicine. The tiny habitat rich with flora and fauna was full of tempting multi-variety cuisine linked to festivity, prayers, and worship. The selfless devotion and the serving by my mother, grandmothers, near and dear ones was a panacea, satisfying my body, mind, and spirit. It was a divine gift—I long for—and wish to go back to my childhood to taste the charm of that life one more time!
Today, in retrospect, malnutrition is a shame; to ignore the plight of these children is a crime against humanity.
What does it mean for a child to be malnourished?
According to the 2020 Global Nutrition Report, it means a lack of proper nutrition, caused by not having enough food or not eating enough food containing essential minerals and vitamins necessary for growth and health. These deficiencies result in low productivity, poor cognitive and physical development, which has a severe impact on the quality of life of millions of children worldwide.
Access to good nutrition equals access to quality of life and to live a life with dignity. Malnutrition, invisible and shattering many childhoods, with many unable to sit on their mother’s lap to celebrate their first birthday. How many future Albert Einstein’s, Marie Curie’s, Barack Obama’s, Alice Walker’s, Nelson Mandela’s, Rabindranath Tagore’s, and Mahatma Gandhi’s did we all miss out on and their contributions to improving life here on earth?
Access to good nutrition for every child in their first 1,000 days can unleash human potential to its fullest. This global problem requires global solutions. The novel pandemic infection has reminded us of the importance of good nutrition to thrive and live a productive life.
Let us all pledge today to a fair and nourished world for every child to survive and thrive, as we did, and most likely, you did as well when you were five years old.
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Mr. Basanta Kumar Kar is an international development professional recipient of the Global Nutrition Leadership and Transform Nutrition Champion Award. He was recognized as a Hero of the Decade in India.
He is from India and resides in New Delhi. Follow Basanta @basantak
Ms. Sandra Coyle is the Founder of Coyle Communications and the former Head of Global Communications for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.
Originally from the US, she currently resides in East Africa. Follow Sandra @coylecomms
