Updated: December 14, 2020 7:26:08 am
Child wasting reflects acute malnutrition and refers to children who are underweight for their height. (Archive)
Several states across the country have changed course and seen levels of child malnutrition worsening despite dramatic improvements in sanitation and better access to fuel and clean water.
This is one of the surprising revelations in the data from the first phase of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-20, released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on December 12, and marks a change from the last NFHS in 2015. -16.
The most recent data pertains to 17 states, including Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal, and five Union Territories (including J&K) and crucially captures the state of health in these states prior to the Covid pandemic. Phase 2 of the survey, which will cover other states such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, was delayed due to the pandemic and its results are expected to be available in May 2021.
The data from the first phase show that several states have witnessed little sustained improvement or setbacks in the parameters of child malnutrition (under 5 years of age) such as childhood growth retardation; childhood emaciation; Percentage of underweight children and infant mortality rate.
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These four are key metrics and their data is used in various global indices, such as the Global Hunger Index.
Child wasting reflects acute malnutrition and refers to children who are underweight for their height. India has always had a high level of childhood wasting, but instead of reducing it, several states such as Telangana, Kerala, Bihar and Assam, as well as the UT of J&K, have seen an increase.
Others, like Maharashtra and West Bengal, have stalled on this.
When it comes to the proportion of underweight children, again, several large states – Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana, Assam and Kerala – have seen an increase.
But the most striking changes have been in childhood stunting, which reflects chronic malnutrition and refers to the percentage of children who are short for their age.
Growth retardation, more than any other factor, is likely to have long-lasting adverse effects on a child’s cognitive and physical development.
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Telangana, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal all saw an increase in levels of child stunting.
According to Purnima Menon, senior researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute, changes in childhood stunting are “tremendously worrisome.”
“You haven’t seen an increase in stunting in most of the world,” he said. “Normally, we don’t see stunting levels going up because all the things that affect child growth tend to get better as democracies and stable economies advance.”
The infant mortality rate, that is, the number of deaths per 1000 live births of children under 1 year of age, and the data on the mortality rate of children under 5 years of age are also practically stagnant.
Aashish Gupta, a researcher affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, said that between NFHS-3 (2005-05) and 4 (2015-16), there was progress in reducing mortality.
“Under-5 mortality was found to be 74 deaths per 1,000 births in NFHS-3 and 50 deaths per 1,000 births in NFHS-4, a decrease of about 33% in 10 years. NFHS-5 and NFHS-4 are about five years apart, but we are seeing very little progress in many states. In Maharashtra, the under-5 mortality rate is basically the same in NFHS-4 and 5, and in Bihar, it fell by just 3% in five years, ”he said.
Menon said that more than 60 percent of infant mortality is explained by poor nutrition. In other words, child malnutrition is the central problem.
The NFHS-5 data captures data for the first five years of the Modi government. Menon said the researchers would have to look at more granular data to figure out why such reversals have occurred. There are several factors at play. For example, if income levels decline, malnutrition can worsen.
According to the Ministry, the contents of NFHS-5 are similar to NFHS-4 to allow comparisons over time. However, the NFHS-5 includes some new topics, such as preschool education, disability, access to a bathroom, death registration, menstruation toilet practices, and methods and reasons for abortion.
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