Malnourishment among children in India: a regional analysis

In spite of recent economic growth, India maintains one of the highest proportions of undernourished children in the world, partly owing to the highly uneven nature of its development. This paper provides a detailed analysis of inter-state differentials in malnourishment among children in India on the basis of the National Family Health Survey, 1992-93, 1998-99 and 2005-06. It brings out the prevalence of widespread disparities and indicates that these differentials are increasing over time.

Specifically, the paper considers the following:

• the extent of inter-regional disparities and manner in which these are changing over time
• possible factors, which can help explain these observed inter-regional differences
• policy inferences for reducing child malnutrition in India

One of the study’s key findings is that differentials in child malnourishment do not always vary with the extent of poverty prevalent among the people of the state.This, it is argued, challenges the assumption that more inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction would in themselves ensure the lessening of the prevalence of malnourishment among children.

Other findings include:

• the higher the age at which women have their first child and the earlier the start of the less is the prevalence of child malnourishment
• early breast feeding of new born children has a clear negative impact on the extent of child malnourishment
• in later years, the lack of exposure of women to media is emerging as the more important variable that increases the extent of child malnourishment

In light of these findings, the author concludes that measures to increase the age of women at the time of their first child birth, promote early breast feeding and improve awareness among women about factors affecting health could have a significant impact on child malnourishment in India. Given that the problem is concentrated in a few districts, it is argued that scarce resources and energy do not have to be spread too thinly over the entire nation for achieving results. The paper concludes that the Integrated Child Development Services are suited to tackle these aspects and makes a plea to extend these services and make them more oriented towards reducing child malnourishment