42 pc underweight children, a national shame: PM

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Highlighting that 42 per cent children were underweight in a country witnessing high growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today described it as a national shame and said the government could not rely solely on ICDS to address the issue.

"...the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame. Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high," he said releasing a report on Hunger and Malnutrition (HUNGaMA) here.

And here are some more shocking figures:

Over 40 percent of children under five in 100 focus districts in India are underweight - double the average for sub-Saharan Africa - and 59 per cent stunted, reveals a survey report on hunger and malnutrition released by the Prime Minister.

The report says prevalence of malnutrition is significantly higher among children from low income families.

"Children from Muslim or scheduled caste or scheduled tribe households generally have worst nutrition indicators."

The report says that in the 100 focus districts, 51 per cent mothers did not give colostrum to newborns soon after birth and 58 per cent mothers fed water to their infants before six months.

The survey notes that girls seemed to have nutrition advantage over boys in the first months of life.

"However, this advantage seems to get reversed over time as girls and boys grow older, potentially indicating feeding and care neglect vis-a-vis girls in infancy and early childhood."

It says that in the 100 focus districts, 66 per cent mothers did not attend school and the ratio of underweight children was significantly higher among mothers with low levels of education.

"The prevalence of underweight children among mothers who cannot read is 45 per cent while that among mothers with 10 or more years of education is 27 per cent. The corresponding figures for child stunting are 63 and 43 per cent, respectively. It was also found that 92 per cent mothers had never heard the word malnutrition."

"Eleven per cent mothers said they used soap to wash hands before a meal and 19 per cent do so after a visit to the toilet in the 100 focus districts," the report adds.

The report points out that with nearly 43 per cent of children underweight (weight deficit for their age) proportion of underweight children in India was twice higher than the average figure in sub-Saharan Africa (22 per cent).

"The consequences of this nutrition crisis are enormous. In addition to being the attributable cause of one-third to one-half of child deaths, malnutrition causes stunted physical growth. The economic losses associated with malnutrition are estimated at 3 per cent of India's gross domestic product annually."

On the positive side, the report says there is reduction in prevalence of child malnutrition with proportion of underweight children decreasing by 20.3 per cent over a seven-year period (2004-11) with an average annual rate of reduction of 2.9 per cent.

The report says there is an anganwadi centre in 96 per cent of the villages in the 100 focus districts, 61 per cent of them in pucca buildings.

Rohini Mukherjee, team leader of the HUNGaMA survey report, said the survey was aimed at getting latest data on child nutrition in India.

She said that of the 112 districts surveyed in the report, 100 were selected from the bottom of child development district index developed for UNICEF-India in 2009. These 100 districts are spread over six states.

Mukherjee said the HUNGaMA survey was triggered as an idea by the Citizen's Alliance against Malnutrition, a group that includes MPs across party lines and many other prominent personalities.