India at Par with Africa on Nutrition, 50 Pct Children Malnourished

Bangalore: India is in the bottom of the world's nutrition barometer together with countries like Angola, Cameroon, Congo and Yemen. A study by Save the Children analyzed the governments' commitments and outcomes in improving nutrition in 36 countries, which are home to 90 percent of undernourished children. The study compared the governments' performance in tackling under nutrition and child mortality. India's performance in the barometer indicated both "frail commitments and outcomes," reported Kounteya Sinha for Times of India.  

The data revealed that almost 50 percent of Indian children are underweight and stunted, and more than 70 percent of women and kids have serious nutritional deficiencies such as anemia.

The report also said that children in poor homes are more than twice as likely to be stunted as those in affluent ones. But, one child in five is undernourished even in the wealthiest 20 percent of the population.

India's neighbours like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal are also part of the report, but fared better than India in dealing with malnutrition.

Further, the number of children dying before their fifth birthday dropped from 12 million in 1990 to 6.9 million in 2011 worldwide. Contrastingly, progress in reducing childhood under nutrition has been delayed. It continues to be the underlying cause of more than a third of all child deaths globally at around 2.3 million in 2011.