Clinton says U.S. will work with India to address health challenges, hunger

Jul 20 2009

The U.S. will work to address the health challenges facing India among other countries and will aim to improve maternal and child health care services through comprehensive dialogue, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday after visiting a Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) trade outlet in Mumbai, India, PTI/Yahoo! News reports.

Clinton said, "Our government is already spending a lot of money on HIV/AIDS but we wanted to add maternal and child health to that commitment as it is important for India."  She added that the funding will be used to combat tuberculosis and polio, "which are also problems in India" (7/18). 

During her visit to the country, Clinton also gave a "clear indication of the U.S. administration's approval of deploying 'cutting-edge technology' to raise crop yields," the Times of India reports. At the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Clinton "was vocal about the need to address the 'root' of the problem of world hunger: crop productivity," the newspaper writes. "India has 3 percent of the world's crop land but feeds 17 percent of the world's population. Its leadership in agriculture is crucial... we are looking at ways to accelerate in a short period of time the growth of productivity," she said (Banerjee, 7/20).

According to Clinton, "The problem of chronic hunger and malnutrition is a huge issue… one billion people are hungry in the world. It can undermine peace and instability can follow. [President Obama and I] believe that world has the resources to feed all people," IANS/Hindu reports (7/19).