In the arid area of Koppal in Karnataka, the land has long been dry, the summers harsh, and the children thinner than they should be. For decades, this district quietly carried a grim label — one of the worst-hit regions for poverty and malnutrition, not just in India, but globally.

But for Basaiah Hiremath, this wasn’t just another news report. It was home.

Working a well-paying job in the United States, Basaiah stumbled upon a global survey that named Koppal as one of the poorest-performing districts for child nutrition. It shook him. “It wasn’t just data. It was my childhood, my neighbours, my roots,” he would later say.

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