Growth doesn’t guarantee nutrition

Livemint     22nd December 2020     Save    
QEP Pocket Notes

Context: Recently released National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) report suggests that gains in per capita incomes are not linked to improvement in stunting rates, while other factors hinder the development.

Rise in stunting and wasting (under NFHS-5): A majority of the 22 states and union territories covered saw the proportion of stunted children, wasted children, and underweight children rise compared t0 2015-16.

  • Rise in stunting is worrying as Indian children are already among the shortest in the world.
  • Impacts: Deeply affects cognitive and physical development as well as health outcomes well into adulthood, potentially lowering lifetime earnings for the stunted.

Factors leading to rising in wasting & stunting:

  • Inadequate nutrition: and repeated bouts of infection during the first 1000 days of a child’s life.
  • Role of open defecation: Germs from faeces cause Diarrhoea - harms nutritional wellness of mother and child; accounts for 35 to 55% of the difference in stunting between districts in 2011.
    • The difference in heights between Indian and sub-Saharan African children could be explained by the extent of exposure to open defecation.
  • Poor Social status of women: researchers found that
    • The younger daughters-in-law in rural joint families in India had shorter children on average.
    • First-born Indian boys are taller than their sub-Saharan counterparts.
    • First-born girls were shorter, and girls with elder female siblings were the worst off.
  • Economic status: Generally, women in richer states are healthier and have healthier pregnancies, sanitation coverage is more widespread, and family sizes are smaller.
    • NFHS-5 found that increases in per capita income over the last five years were not necessarily correlated with reductions in child stunting.

Way forward:

  • Along with focusing on increasing per capita incomes of citizens, the state should also allocate more resource in the healthcare of mothers and children.
  • Improving technology, or changing behaviour or culture can result in better health outcomes.

Conclusion: Economic growth should be achieved by investing in clean technologies, and in the health of mothers and children, it will be then translated into better health for the next generation.

QEP Pocket Notes