Another Kind of Hunger

Chinese troops still rumble along the Himalayan frontier, and occasional Pakistanis still talk of another round over disputed Kashmir. But for all that border belligerence, India faces a far more dangerous internal enemy. Famine is a perennial threat to the country's swiftly expanding population. This year only a record harvest augmented by huge shipments of American grain prevented mass starvation. But former Food Minister Chidambaram Subramaniam sees signs of hope. His country's agricultural skills are improving, he told the World Food Crisis Committee in Washington last week, and there is a real chance that by 1970 or 1971--the optimistic target date set by New Delhi planners --India may be able to feed itself.

But even then, Subramaniam added, the Indian food problem may be far from over. Indians, with their stomachs full of cereal grains, will still face the serious problem of protein starvation. For lack of protein, Subramaniam said, 35% to 40% of the 20 million babies born in India each year eventually suffer some degree of brain damage. Often those who are afflicted are so stunted physically and mentally that by the time they reach school age, they are "unable to concentrate sufficiently to absorb and retain knowledge. We are producing millions of subhumans annually."

Religious Taboos. Medical experts are not so certain as the Indian politician that protein deficiency always results in such dreadful and irreversible deterioration. But the problem remains acute. Perhaps a third of India's 510 million people do not get enough protein--a basic building block of life--and even an end to the food shortage will not fill this critical lack. Though India has one-fifth of the world's cattle, religious taboos keep its per capita consumption of beef, a chief source of protein, the lowest of any major country's. Poverty and scarcity, as well as traditional vegetarianism, prevent many Indians from eating such protein-rich foods as fish, poultry and eggs.

India's nutritionists have always found it far easier to develop protein supplements than to get Indians to eat them. The high-protein gruel, Balahar ("nutritious child's food" in Hindi), concocted of wheat, peanuts and powdered milk, has been widely distributed in drought-stricken Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh states. But mothers often withhold the protein-rich lentil dal from their babies because they believe it upsets young stomachs.

Fish & Peanuts. In an attempt to overcome such resistance, an energetic U.S. effort under former White House Aide Alan Berg, 35, is helping the government improve the Indian diet with such techniques as the addition of the protein-building amino acid lysine to wheat, tea and other staples of the Indian diet. A search for new foods is also under way. Only last week a U.S. Interior Department team arrived in India to discuss construction of a fish-protein-concentrate factory, and Dow Chemical is joining with a Bombay company to produce peanut flour.

Even as these American-assisted pro grams pick up momentum, billboards and newspapers hammer at the need for protein by constant repetition of the slogan: "Eat Better with Less Wheat and Rice." It is no easy selling job, for to peddle proteins in India involves a drastic change in Indian palates.

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