State’s child undernutrition rate alarming

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 2

India’s latest health statistics paint a grim picture of child under nutrition, revealing a rise in the number under-five children suffering from acute under nutrition called wasting.

The National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16) says that the number of wasted children, with low weight in accordance with to their height, increased from 19.8 per cent in 2005-06 to 21 per cent in 2015-16.

This means one in every five children below five years has a lower weight for his or her height.

The increase in the number of wasted children has been one of the highest for Punjab, where the percentage of such kids has increased dramatically from 9.2 per cent in 2005 to 15.6 per cent in 2015.

Severe wasting (much lower weight for height) rose from 6.4 per cent to 7.5 per cent over the decade under study, indicating a massive overlay of diseases among children and the health sector’s inability to prevent illnesses known to exacerbate wasting, such as measles, diarrhoea, severe pneumonia and even HIV.

The rise in severe wasting has also been high in Punjab. As against 2.1 per cent under-5 children, who were severely wasted in the state in 2005-06, today 5.6 per cent are in this category.

On the other two indicators of child under nutrition —underweight children and stunted children — the NFHS-4 reports marginal gains but not enough. For instance, the percentage of underweight children below 5 years of age decreased about 10 percentage points in a decade from 48 per cent to 38.4 per cent. Today, almost two in five Indian children below five years have low weight for their age.

The number of stunted children (kids with lower height for their age) fell only seven percentage points from 42.5 per cent to 35.7 per cent between 2005 and 2015.

Public health experts are worried about India’s child under nutrition burden. Speaking to The Tribune, Dr Vinod Paul, Head, Paediatrics, AIIMS, said, “Lack of progress against wasting, which indicates acute under nutrition, is worrisome. It presents a challenge to India’s health sector because wasting mainly occurs from the burden of underlying disease among children. The health systems must gear up to tackle simple illnesses which can convert under nutrition into acute under nutrition, which wasting marks.”

Dr Paul said wasting could also happen from unavailability of food, but wondered over the rise in the number of wasted children in Punjab, a state considered prosperous at least from the nutrition point of view.

“The wasting data from Punjab is a case for study,” he added.