Malnutrition in India

The World Bank estimates that India is ranked 2nd in the world of the number of children suffering from Malnutrition, after Bangladesh(in 1998), where 47% of the children exhibit a degree of malnutrition

Malnutrition refers to the situation where there is an unbalanced diet in which some nutrients are in excess, lacking or wrong proportion.Simply put, we can categorise it to be under-nutrition and over-nutrition

One of the major causes for malnutrition in India is gender inequality. Due to the low social status of Indian women, their diet often lacks in both quality and quantity

According to the National Family Health Service survey (NFHS-3) which came out in 2006, the proportion of women who are too thin—underweight and malnourished—is particularly high in Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand (all 40-45 %)

The survey used 3 indicators to gauge nutritional levels in children -

• height for age
• weight for height
• weight for age

Of children under five years, 48 % were stunted (short for their age); 20 %were wasted (below weight for their height); and 43% were underweight for their age

A general survey by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau in 2009 sampled over 1.15 lakh individuals from 40,359 households in 1,032 villages of nine states. Among the  infants sampled, 36 % were underweight, 35 % stunted and 24 % wasted

The 2011 Global Hunger Index (GHI) Report ranked India 15th, amongst leading countries withHunger situation. It also places India amongst the three countries where the GHI between 1996 and 2011 went up from 22.9 to 23.7, while 78 out of the 81 developing countries studied, including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Kenya, Nigeria, Myanmar, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Malawi, succeeded in improving hunger condition