India Profile
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| Map source: OCHA/ReliefWeb |
India is a federal constitutional republic with a parliamentary democracy consisting of 28 states and seven union territories, it is a pluralistic, mutilingual and multiethnic society.
India is a low-income, food-deficit country, and home to nearly 50 per cent of the world’s hungry.
Around 35 per cent of the population – approx. 355 million people – is considered food-insecure, consuming less than 80 per cent of minimum energy requirements.
Nutrition and health indicators are extremely low. Nearly nine out of 10 pregnant women aged between 15 and 49 years suffer from malnutrition and anemia. Anemia in pregnant women causes 20 per cent of infant mortality.
More than half of children under five in India are moderately or severely malnourished, or suffer from stunting. This compares with about 35 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa.
Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is the third largest metropolitan area in India, with an estimated population of 15 million. Roughly the same geographic size as Dublin, Kolkata is home to an estimated 300,000 street-dwelling children. These children suffer some of the worst forms of violation - physical harm, denial of basic needs and child labor.
For information about GOAL's work in India, click here.
India - Fact Box
| Average life expectancy: 62 (male), 64.9 (female) |
| Infant mortality rate: 52 per 1,000 live births (World Bank, 2009) |
| Children under five who are underweight for their age: 46 per cent |
| Probability at birth of not surviving to age of 40: 15.5 per cent |
| Population not using an improved water source: 11 per cent |
| People living below the poverty line of US$2 a day: 75.6 per cent |
| Internally Displaced People (IDPs): 500,000 |
| Gross National Income (GNI) per capita: US$1,040 (World Bank, 2009) |
| India is ranked 134th out of 182 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index (2009) |
Unless otherwise stated, all statistics in the Fact Box have been sourced from the United Nations' Development Report 2009.