Inside the drab district hospital, where dogs patter down the corridors, sniffing for food, Ratan Bhuria\u2019s children are curled together in the malnutrition ward, hovering at the edge of starvation. His daughter, Nani, is 4 and weighs 20 pounds. His son, Jogdiya, is 2 and weighs only eight.<\/p>\n
Landless and illiterate, drowned by debt, Mr. Bhuria and his ailing children have staggered into the hospital ward after falling through India\u2019s social safety net. They should receive subsidized government food and cooking fuel. They do not. The older children should be enrolled in school and receiving a free daily lunch. They are not. And they are hardly alone: India\u2019s eight poorest states have more people in poverty \u201d\u201d an estimated 421 million \u201d\u201d than Africa\u2019s 26 poorest nations, one study recently reported.<\/p>\n