Skip to main content

Gujarat's lag in under-five nutrition suggests economic progress alone can't reduce undernutrition: Study

By Rajiv Shah
A high-profile study, “India Health Report: Nutrition 2015”, released last month, has found that “developed” Gujarat lags behind most major Indian states in child nutrition status. Quoting latest Government of India figures, the study says that 33.5 per cent of under-five children are underweight, which is the seventh worst among 20 major Indian states.
The study, which has been carried out by the Public Health Foundation of India, and jointly sponsored by Transform Nutrition and UK Aid, further says that 41.6 per cent under five children in Gujarat suffer from stunting, which is the fifth worst among 20 major states; and 18.7 per cent suffer from wasting gujarat(or low weight for height), which is the third worst among 20 major states.
Basing its analysis on the latest data (for 2014) provided by the Rapid Survey on Children (RSoC), Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, the study’s example of Gujarat goes a long way to suggest that, to quote from the report, “economic growth cannot, by itself, reduce undernutrition.”
Pointing towards “massive variables across states”, which mask recent progress in overcoming the problem of undernutrition, the study reports, in India, “38.7 per cent children under five are stunted, 19.8 per cent are wasted, and 42.5 per cent are underweight.”
Giving the example of well-to-do states in this context, the study says, in Punjab, “which best represents the national average per capita income at Rs 49,529 (2013-14), the prevalence of stunting among children under five is 30.5 percent (lower than the national average of 39 percent).” And, interestingly, “although Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have similar levels of income, Tamil Nadu has a much lower stunting rate of 23.3 percent, while it is 41.8 percent in Gujarat.”
“These disparities”, the study says, “indicate that levels of income do not automatically translate to lower stunting, and warrants a closer look at other known developmental drivers of stunting.” It adds, “Most analyses of stunting declines confirm that economic progress alone is not sufficient to achieve significant nutritional gains.”
Thus, “from 1998–99 to 2005–2006, GDP per capita in India expanded by 40 percent in real terms. Despite the rising levels of prosperity and 18 reduced levels of poverty among millions of Indians, the proportion of stunted children under age three declined by only 6.1 percentage points in that seven-year period, from 51 to 44.9 percent.”
Citing a study of 63 countries, including India, the study says, it shows that “increases in per capita national income translated into improvements in child nutritional status only if the economic gains facilitated public and private investments that could improve conditions related to diet and disease.” 
The study says, India’s “child nutrition rates have been declining, first at a slow rate between 1992 and 2006, and at an accelerated rate since 2006.” However, it underlines, “these developments are below the rate needed to meet the World Health Assembly’s targets to which India is signatory to.”
“Between 2006 and 2014, India’s stunting rate of children below five years declined from 48 per cent to 39 per cent. This decline in stunting in India is translated to 14 million fewer children and decline in wasting is translated to seven million fewer wasted children. Despite this, child under-nutrition rates in India are among the highest in the world. India is still home to over 40 million stunted children and 17 million wasted children under five”, the study adds.
---
Click HERE to download the study

Comments

TRENDING

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor*  This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

From triple centurion to master coach: Bob Simpson’s enduring legacy

By Harsh Thakor*  Former Australia cricket captain and coach Bob Simpson has died in Sydney aged 89. He leaves behind an indelible legacy, having shaped Australian cricket for more than four decades as a player, captain and coach. Beyond the field, he also served the game as a law-maker, referee and commentator, carving a permanent niche among the all-time greats of Australian cricket.

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857  By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi*  This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk  The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).