Action on ground needed to tackle malnutrition: Experts on India’s poor showing at Global Hunger Index

A look at the last round of NFHS in 2015-2016 corroborates this as it shows that the country’s showing on parameters of ‘wasted’ and ‘severely wasted’ children had worsened. NEW DELHI: The recently released Global Hunger Index (GHI), which ranked India on the 94th spot among 107 countries, underlines that India’s commitment to eliminating hunger and malnutrition leaves much to be desired. A look at the last round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in 2015-2016 corroborates this as it shows that the country’s showing on parameters of ‘wasted’ and ‘severely wasted’ children had worsened compared to the previous survey in 2005-06. NFHS-4 was conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, as designated by the Ministry of Health and Family. As compared to NFHS-3, the percentage of wasted children under five years of age had increased from 19.8% to 21% in NFHS-4 (See GFX-1). The percentage of children under five who were ‘severely wasted’ increased from 6.4% in NFHS-3 to 7.5% in NFHS-4.

This was corroborated in the GHI report which said that among the 11 countries where the public health significance of child wasting rate was considered ‘high’ or ‘very high’, India was in the latter category at 17.3 per cent. This paints a dismal picture of India’s commitment to eliminating hunger and malnutrition as a part of achieving its sustainable development goals (SDGs), said activists working on food security. Deepa Bajaj, chief executive of the NGO Child Survival India, said budgetary allocation was an essential component of pushing the SDG agenda. The government has allocated Rs 35,600 crore for nutrition-related programmes in 2020-21 but action on the ground is needed, she said.

FOR MORE CONTENT DOWNLOAD PDF BELOW