Severe malnourishment burden possibly lower than estimated

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 1

The proportion of severe acutely malnourished (SAM) children in India could be much lesser than previously estimated with the government in the process of getting the data validated by top paediatricians.

Highest percentage of stunted kids in Bihar

• Out of 1 crore under five kids mapped on WHO yardsticks of SAM in Feb, 2% were found to be severely acutely malnourished although the National Family Health Survey 5 estimates of burden was 19%
• The highest percentage of stunted children in India is still in Bihar (42.9%), followed by Gujarat (39%) & K’taka (35.4%)

Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani informed the Lok Sabha on Friday that out of one crore under five children mapped on WHO yardsticks of SAM in February, two per cent were found to be severely acutely malnourished although the National Family Health Survey 5 estimates of the burden was 19 per cent.

She said the ministry last week signed an MoU with the Indian Academy of Paediatrics under which 30,000 paediatricians would validate malnourishment data of kids on government’s POSHAN tracker, which hosts real time data of height and weight of under five children in the anganwari ICDS system.

“In February, one crore children on the POSHAN tracker were weighed and their height measured as per WHO malnutrition standards. Two per cent kids were found affected by SAM as against 19 per cent NFHS estimates. Even this number is high. The data is being validated by experts,” she said. India has been struggling with child under nutrition challenges with the percentage of underweight, stunted and wasted under five kids continuing to be high. The burden of child malnutrition rose across a majority of the states covered in the first phase of NFHS-5, signalling losses for supplementary nutrition schemes of the Union and state governments.

On an average, one in every three under-5 children in the 22 states was found to be stunted as of 2020, one in six wasted and one in four underweight.