India’s child malnutrition figure down: Report

Bhubaneswar: The Global Nutrition Report, which tracks worldwide progress for all 193 UN countries in improving their nutrition status, has said India is vulnerable on sanitation and other underlying determinants for under-nutrition.

However, the report highlights the progress the country seems to be making on reducing child under-nutrition. Preliminary data from the country show a faster improvement in the reduction of malnutrition than anticipated as stunting for kids under five may have declined by over 10 million.

Member of Independent Expert Group for the Global Nutrition Report and Odisha Health & Family Welfare secretary Arti Ahuja said, “Reduction of under-nutrition requires concerted action across the board. Many States in India have made significant interventions in this regard and the positive results are becoming visible now.”

Co-author of the report and a senior research fellow at International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Lawrence Haddad said, “The report aims to contribute to country-led efforts to strengthen accountability, share learning about what is working, and highlight bottlenecks to progress and how they may be overcome.”