Action on ground needed to tackle malnutrition: Experts on India showing poor at Global Hunger Index
Hunger: the distress associated with a lack of sufficient calories. FAO defines food deprivation, or undernourishment, as the consumption of too few calories to provide the minimum amount of dietary energy that each individual requires to live a healthy and productive life, given that person’s sex, age, stature, and physical activity level.
Undernutrition: goes beyond calories and signifies deficiencies in any or all of the following: energy, protein, and/or essential vitamins and minerals.
Malnutrition: both undernutrition (problems caused by deficiencies) and overnutrition (problems caused by unbalanced diets, such as consuming too many calories in relation to requirements with or without low intake of micronutrient-rich foods).
How are the GHI scores calculated?
GHI scores are calculated using a three-step process that draws on available data from various sources to capture the multidimensional nature of hunger.
Composition of the Global Hunger Index
First, for each country, values are determined for four indicators:
1.UNDERNOURISHMENT: the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
2.CHILD WASTING: the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition)
3.CHILD STUNTING: the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition)
4.CHILD MORTALITY: the mortality rate of children under the age of five (in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments)
Second, each of the four component indicators is given a standardized score on a 100-point scale based on the highest observed level for the indicator on a global scale in recent decades.
Third, standardized scores are aggregated to calculate the GHI score for each country, with each of the three dimensions (inadequate food supply; child mortality; and child undernutrition, which is composed equally of child stunting and child wasting)
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.
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.
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. The percentage of children under five who were ‘severely wasted’ increased from 6.4% in NFHS-3 to 7.5% in NFHS-4.
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.
Deepa Bajaj, chief executive of the NGO Child Survival India, said budgetary allocation was an essential component of pushing the Sustainable development Goals (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.
States where the percentage of under-five children who were stunted — an indicator of malnutrition — was significantly higher than the national average were Bihar, Uttar Pradesh Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya.
Bihar, Jharkhand, MP and UP also fared poorer than the already critical national average (35.8%) of children under-five who are underweight.
The state-specific indicators on all forms of malnutrition like stunting, wasting and underweight influence the aggregated data at national level, observed Arvind Singh, advisor, health and nutrition, at the NGO Matri Sudha.
Governments in high-burden states like Bihar, Jharkhand, UP, MP and Maharashtra must collaborate on various common parameters to address the issue.
Malnutrition can be controlled not only by intake of food but also by ensuring that infections like diarrhoea are prevented or treated at an early stage
Tribal areas & malnutrition States with significant tribal population like MP, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh fared poorly in terms of stunting, wasting, severely wasting and children being underweight.
With 40.6% of the Scheduled Tribe population living below the poverty line as compared to 20.5% of the non-tribal population, as documented by the 2011 Census data, malnutrition is worse among tribal children.
NGO’s working to combat malnutrition
1.Akshaya Patra—the world’s largest NGO-run mid-day meal programme
2.serving wholesome school lunch to over 1.76 million children in 15,668 schoolsacross 12 states in India.
3.Avantha Foundation Fighting malnutrition in Bihar
4.Nutrition CINI India
5.Salaam Baalak Trust Health and Nutrition
6.The Hunger Project India—The Hunger Project
7.Cry NGO in India to Support Child Rights
8.CARE India
How are the GHI scores calculated?
GHI scores are calculated using a three-step process that draws on available data from various sources to capture the multidimensional nature of hunger.
Composition of the Global Hunger Index
First, for each country, values are determined for four indicators:
1.UNDERNOURISHMENT: the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
2.CHILD WASTING: the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition)
3.CHILD STUNTING: the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition)
4.CHILD MORTALITY: the mortality rate of children under the age of five (in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments)
Second, each of the four component indicators is given a standardized score on a 100-point scale based on the highest observed level for the indicator on a global scale in recent decades.
Third, standardized scores are aggregated to calculate the GHI score for each country, with each of the three dimensions (inadequate food supply; child mortality; and child undernutrition, which is composed equally of child stunting and child wasting)
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.
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.
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. The percentage of children under five who were ‘severely wasted’ increased from 6.4% in NFHS-3 to 7.5% in NFHS-4.
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.
Deepa Bajaj, chief executive of the NGO Child Survival India, said budgetary allocation was an essential component of pushing the Sustainable development Goals (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.
States where the percentage of under-five children who were stunted — an indicator of malnutrition — was significantly higher than the national average were Bihar, Uttar Pradesh Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya.
Bihar, Jharkhand, MP and UP also fared poorer than the already critical national average (35.8%) of children under-five who are underweight.
The state-specific indicators on all forms of malnutrition like stunting, wasting and underweight influence the aggregated data at national level, observed Arvind Singh, advisor, health and nutrition, at the NGO Matri Sudha.
Governments in high-burden states like Bihar, Jharkhand, UP, MP and Maharashtra must collaborate on various common parameters to address the issue.
Malnutrition can be controlled not only by intake of food but also by ensuring that infections like diarrhoea are prevented or treated at an early stage
Tribal areas & malnutrition States with significant tribal population like MP, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh fared poorly in terms of stunting, wasting, severely wasting and children being underweight.
With 40.6% of the Scheduled Tribe population living below the poverty line as compared to 20.5% of the non-tribal population, as documented by the 2011 Census data, malnutrition is worse among tribal children.
NGO’s working to combat malnutrition
1.Akshaya Patra—the world’s largest NGO-run mid-day meal programme
2.serving wholesome school lunch to over 1.76 million children in 15,668 schoolsacross 12 states in India.
3.Avantha Foundation Fighting malnutrition in Bihar
4.Nutrition CINI India
5.Salaam Baalak Trust Health and Nutrition
6.The Hunger Project India—The Hunger Project
7.Cry NGO in India to Support Child Rights
8.CARE India
