State of Nutrition in India
India has improved its performance on nutrition tremendously during the last 10 years. Yet it is far from reaching the target set by the World Health Assembly (WHA). Some states like Kerala, Goa, Manipur and Tamil Nadu are doing exceedingly well. But states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand are big laggards. For instance, while only 2% kids defecate in the open in Kerala, in Odisha the figures is close to 80%. Similarly, Food provided under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) reaches 90% children in Odisha, but only to one among five children in Uttar Pradesh. In Nagaland, merely a third of the children are fully immunized, but in Goa, over 90% children are covered by the immunization programme. Here are some statistics that throw light on the state of Nutritional Status of children and status of women:
Children Under 5 Years : 38.7% Stunted, 15.1% 1 Wasted
64.5% Infants 0-5 years are exclusive breastfed.
18.6% children under 3 years have low birth weight, i.e., less than 2.5 kg.
55.3% women in 15-49 years of age have anemia. 50.5% children 6 to 8 months old receive solid, semi-solid or soft food
19.9% Infants and young children 6-23 months old who achieve minimal diet diversity in 1 complementary feeding
69.5% Children 6-59 months old with anemia
6.5% Children 6-59 months old who had diarrhea in 15 days prior to survey
21.3% Children 6-35 months old who received supplementary food under ICDS for 21 days 1 in the month prior to survey
63.4% Mothers of children under 36 months old who received three or more antenatal checkups
65.3% Children 12-23 months old who are fully immunized
44.7% Adolescent girls 15-18 years old with low BMI (Body Mass Index)
30.3% Women aged 20-24 years who were married before the age of 18
21.4% Currently married women with 10 or more years of schooling
45.5% Households practicing open defecation
21.9% Population below state-specific poverty line
(‘Stunted’ means being too short for their age. ‘Wasted’ means not having adequate weight for one’s height.)
(Source: http://www.transformnutrition.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/12/India-Fast-Facts.pdf)
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