Growth doesn’t guarantee nutrition

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.