Towards An India That's Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise!

India, a country that has often come to the headlines as a place where malnutrition is a common issue in every city, where children starve and die in hunger. While a large part of the children never get to know what going to school and enjoying good health feels like, another big part finish their schooling and leave their country in search of better opportunities. While a poor kid desperately asks you for a few rupees with the only Bollywood song she has learned, there are kids who don't mind wasting vegetables just because they are not in a mood to eat. You will find it all in India. We easily blame the system of the country, curse our government, and politicians without doing anything about the issues.

We hope that one day Mr. ChangeAlot will visit this country with his magic wand and change everything we dislike. It doesn't work that way! Change should begin in our mind, and a mind is capable of adapting good habits only when the body is healthy.

If we want to see India as a developed country, let's start with the children first. We, the adults of this country are full of different agendas, beliefs, and ideals. It's difficult to erase all these beliefs that have been there for generations. But it's easy reap the seeds of healthy habits in the minds of our children who do not have any dogmatic ideals in their minds. First, we need a healthy body, then we need a healthy mind. Then, we accumulate all the healthy bodies and healthy minds of this nation to form a healthy country!

Let's start from the scratch!

It's all in the food we eat (and the food we waste)! If we can count the total number of kids wasting their food daily and can give those wasted food to poor children, more than half of the malnourished and starved children of our country will get something to eat. Despite millions of children going to bed on a hungry stomach, we still pour that extra daal and rice in dustbin everyday.

It's true that veggies don't taste good and burgers are awesome! But let's not give them the choice to select an option. Parents should teach their kids that if they are not going to eat veggies, there is nothing in home they can eat. If they want to starve, let them starve for a few hours. No one dies without eating for a few hours. Open YouTube and show them videos of kids living on roads without food and shelter. Let them see the bitter truth, don't just tell them what the world is like. A visual teaching is a lot more helpful! And most importantly, be the example you want your kids to be!

Germs and viruses are everywhere. We cannot escape them! But we can certainly prevent them and create a shield of protection in our immune system that can do an excellent job of fending off the harmful microbes. I remember, as a child we had only Chyawanprash in our home. We didn't even know why we had to eat it daily, but we loved the taste so much! Today as an adult, when I look back to those times I see that the decision of not consuming tablets and capsules every now and then was one of the best gifts I had from my parents. Be it a cold, cough, or any other day to day infection, parents should try to give natural medications to their children. While it is a common belief that tablets, capsules, and cough syrups from drug stores can cure us very fast, they also come with a lot of harmful side effects. Nature has everything we need! Age old herbs and plants like Amla, Aloe Vera, Giloy, Ginger, Garlic are full of antioxidants and immuno-modulatory properties that can cure a lot of our ailments. The children of India should learn to honor herbal medicine that is well rooted in our ancient medical practice. A healthy India is comprised of healthy kids who value their food, eat healthy, and knows how to treat common ailments. India is geographically and socially diverse country, the initiatives from our governments may not reach us all the time, but it's our responsibility to build a strong nation, that is healthy, wealthy, and wise!