17% Kids Underweight, 36% Stunted: Is India Seeing Its Biggest Malnutrition Crisis?

In a recent revelation, Women and Child Development Minister Annapurna Devi revealed that 50 percent of children under the age of five in India are suffering from chronic malnutrition. The minister revealed this data in the Lok Sabha. She said that out of 8.57 crore children under six years of age, 17 percent were underweight, 36 percent of them were stunted and six percent were wasted. Read on to learn more about this data. 

Stunted, wasted and underweight are crucial pointers for children facing chronic or acute malnutrition. Terminomologically, stunted growth means children being too short for their age. Wasted children are those who are much thinner than their age and underweight are both stunted and wasted as they have lesser weight than their age.

Rate of stunted growth among children 

As per the report by Minister Devi, Uttar Pradesh has the largest rate of stunted children with 46.36 percent. Lashwadeep follows it with 46.31 percent. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are not far behind with 44.59 percent and 41.61 percent. 

The rate of children who are wasted 

As far as wasting rates are concerned, Lakshadweep tops with 13.22 percent of children wasted. Following this is Bihar with 9.81 percent and Gujarat with 9.16 percent. 

The rate of underweight children 

In the case of underweight, Madhya Pradesh leads with 26.21 percent of children being underweight. Following MP is Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu at 26.41 percent. Lakshadweep once again comes on the radar with 23.25 percent of children being underweight. 

The states with lower malnutrition rate

On the other hand, Goa, Sikkim and Ladakh have relatively lower malnutrition rates among children. Goa has the lowest stunting rate at 5.84 percent with 0.85 per cent and 2.18 percent of children wasted and underweight respectively.   

The recent data show that weight loss is happening among children due to lower nutrition and illness. Goa, Sikkim and Ladakh have better nutritional value, policies and overall health reports.