NEW DELHI, Dec 17: India can make a significant contribution to the global fight against malnourishment and hunger if it shows political will and makes its food distribution system more effective, the UN’s World Food Programme said.

India is home to more than 230 million undernourished people, more than any other country. While the proportion of malnourished has fallen, the absolute numbers are rising with the population.

“So one thing I have been saying to India’s many political parties is that, when it comes to malnourished children, there should only be one party and it’s got to be led from the top,” said Josette Sheeran, WFP’s executive director.

“That is why I very much welcome the prime minister’s declaration that this will be a top priority for India,” she said in an interview late on Tuesday.

“With that will, it can be done.”

Sheeran said India had made major progress in food production and breaking the cycle of famines, but still needed to make its state-run public distribution system (PDS) more effective to deliver food to the poor and end malnourishment.

“This isn’t like cancer, which requires some new scientific discovery, the tools are there to do it,” Sheeran said.

“And we are partnering with the government to make that PDS system more effective,” she said.

More than 27 per cent of the undernourished population globally live in India.

A survey by the Indian health ministry, backed by Unicef, found almost 46 per cent of children under the age of three were undernourished, much higher than the sub-Saharan African figure of 28 per cent.

“I think one of the challenges is of scalability and ensuring that all efforts are as effective and efficient as possible because of the vast need,” Sheeran said.

Indian authorities acknowledge there is corruption and inefficiency in the PDS. In the past year, villagers in rural areas have clashed with police and government officials, complaining they are not getting free food.

“This is why the WFP is very focused on public distribution systems and their effectiveness, we are working with Iraq to Egypt to Ghana and here in India to look at the effectiveness,” Sheeran said, adding this could help the world move closer to its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “This is one of the biggest of the world, if you get this one right, you move those MDG numbers, just by getting this one right,” she said.—Reuters