NEW DELHI, Nov 4: India has largest number of malnourished children in the world and 50 per cent children in the country are undernourished, says a study.
”Over the decade, there has been an overall reduction in the infant mortality rates and under-five mortality rate in India, yet the country is housing about 50 per cent of undernourished children of the world,” the joint study undertaken by ASSOCHAM and EY said.
The study on ‘Bridging the gap: Tapping the agriculture potential for optimum nutrition’ jointly by ASSOCHAM and EY, has revealed that towards the end of 2015, 40 per cent of the Indian children were undernourished.
”About 37 per cent of our under-five children are underweight, 39 per cent are stunted, 21 per cent are wasted and eight per cent are severely acutely malnourished,” the joint study said.
While the percentage of stunted children under five reduced from 48 per cent in 2005-06 to 39 per cent in 2015-16, the percentage of children who are wasted increased slightly from 19.8 per cent to 21 per cent.
The prevalence of underweight children was higher (38 per cent) in rural areas compared to urban cities (29 per cent). Only about 10 per cent children under the age 6-23 months were reported to receive an adequate diet. This inequality in access is accentuated by the stark state level disparity in nutritional status.
For children 1-5 years of age, the prevalence of underweight children ranged from 42 per cent in the Jharkhand, followed by Bihar, MP and UP with 37 percent, 36 per cent and 34.1 per cent respectively, to 14.1 per cent in Manipur.
The prevalence of stunting ranged from 50.4 per cent in UP to 19.4 per cent in Kerala.
Arunachal Pradesh had the highest levels of wasting with 19 per cent and Sikkim had the lowest level with 5 per cent.
While various forms of under nutrition are predominant in rural India, urban India is faced with the challenge of over nutrition.
India is ranked as the third most obese nation of the world after US and China and is called the diabetes capital of the world, with about 69.2 million people living with it as per the 2015 data by WHO. (PTI)
During 2005-15, there was a considerable increase in the percentage of overweight/obese men from about 9 per cent to 19 per cent and overweight/obese from about 13 per cent to 21 per cent. While 50.4 per cent are in UP followed by Bihar 49.4 per cent, Jharkhand 47.4 per cent, Chattisgarh 43 per cent, Meghalaya 42.9 per cent,Gujarat 41.6 per cent, MP 41.5 per cent, Assam 40.6 per cent, India 38.7 per cent, Odisha 38.2 per cent, Haryana 36.5 per cent, Rajasthan 36.4 per cent, Maharashtra 35.4 per cent, AP 35.4 per cent, WB 34.7 per cent, Karnataka 34.2 per cent, HP 34.2 per cent, Uttarakhand 34 per cent, Manipur 33.2 per cent, JK 31.7 per cent, Tirpura 31 per cent, Punjab 30.5 per cent, Delhi 29.1 per cent, Nagaland 29.1 per cent, Arunachal Pradesh 28.4 per cent, Sikkim 28 per cent, Mizoram 26.9 per cent, Tamil Nadu 23.3 per cent, Goa 21.3 per cent, Kerala 19.4 per cent, mentioned the study. (UNI)
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