India's government is spending billions of dollars on welfare schemes and plans even more this year, but that has not gone far enough to remove the stain on India's growth story - Malnutrition. Following are some facts on India's hunger levels: 43.5 percent of Indian children under the age of five are underweight for their age, compared to 7 percent in China. India ranked 65 out of 84 countries in the Global Hunger Index of 2009, in the ‘alarming' category, below countries including North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe. China was 60 places higher than India, in 5th place. India's Global Hunger Index score (23.9) -- measured on the proportion of people who are undernourished, the prevalence of child malnutrition and child mortality rates -- was worse than that of South Asia (23.0) and Sub-Saharan Africa (22.1). 37.2 percent of Indians, or 410 million people, live below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day. Only 57 percent of Indian men and 52 percent of women are at a healthy weight for their height. 48 percent of Indian children under the age of five are stunted for their age. 28 percent of Indian infants have a low birth weight. __
