Disha Gupta, Pune
Recent data presented by the women and child development minister highlights India’s struggle with child malnutrition. As of June, a significant portion of children under six face nutritional challenges such as 17% underweight, 36% stunted, and 6% wasted. The situation varies from country to country, with Uttar Pradesh declaring the highest rates of stunting, while Lakshadweep grapples with the most severe cases of wasting. States, such as Goa, have low malnutrition rates. These statistics highlight the complex and regionally diverse nature of India’s nutritional landscape, letting us know about the need for targeted interventions to address this critical health issue affecting the youngest population of India.
More than 50% of children under five face chronic malnutrition, a critical health crisis. Answering the query in Lok Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Annapurna Devi presented data from the Poshan Tracker for June. According to this data, around 8.57 crore children under the age of 6 were assessed. There were nutritional issues among these children in the results. 17% were found to be underweight, 36% showed signs of stunting, 6% of the children were categorized as wasted. These figures highlight the ongoing challenges in child nutrition and development in the country.
The Women and Child Development (WCD) minister provided state-wise data on India’s malnutrition crisis, concerning trends across several regions. Uttar Pradesh has the highest rate such as 46.36%, Lakshadweep 46.31%. It is also concerned equally in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, where the rates stand at 44.59% and 41.61% respectively. Wasting of malnutrition is most serious in Lakshadweep, Al is impacting 13.22 percent of children. Bihar and Gujarat also report high rates of 9.81 percent and 9.16 percent, respectively. All the percentages show the significant weight loss in children, which is caused by insufficient food intake or illnesses.
Madhya Pradesh also has 26.21 percentage in terms of underweight children in India and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu has 26.41 percent. Lakshadweep has seen a troubling rate of 23.25 percent. Goa shows the lowest stunting rate that is 5.84 percent, wasting of 0.85 percent, and underweight children of 2.18 percent.