India has many undernourished children.’ Justify the statement.
Answers
Answer:India is home to the largest number of malnourished children in the world, a report said on Wednesday, advocating that the country needs to frame policies with a focus on reducing health and social inequities.
“Over the decade (2005-15), there has been an overall reduction in the infant mortality rate and under-five mortality rate in India, yet the country is housing about 50 per cent of undernourished children of the world," said the joint study by Assocham and EY. The report found that towards the end of 2015, 40% of the Indian children were undernourished.
On the other hand, it pointed out that urban India is faced with the challenge of overnutrition. India is ranked as the third most obese nation in the world after the US and China and also the diabetes capital of the world, with about 69.2 million people living with it as per the 2015 data by World Health Organisation, said the report.
“About 37 per cent of our under-five children are underweight, 39 per cent are stunted (low height-for-age), 21 per cent are wasted (low weight-for-height) and 8 per cent are severely acutely malnourished," said the study. While the percentage of stunted children under five reduced from 48% in 2005-06 to 39% in 2015-16, the percentage of children who are wasted increased slightly from 19.8% to 21%, according to the report.
Moreover, the prevalence of underweight children was higher (38%) in rural areas compared to urban cities (29%). “Only about 10 per cent children under the age 6-23 months were reported to receive an adequate diet. This inequality in access is accentuated by the stark state level disparity in nutritional status," observed the study findings.
Answer:
the crisis of children malnutrition in India has often been attributed to historical antecedents such as puverty, inequality and food shortage. however, countries with similar historical and societal makeup and comparable per capita income have fared much better