India may miss nutrition targets

News:The Global Nutrition Report 2020 has been released.

Facts:

• The Global Nutrition Report was conceived following the first Nutrition for Growth Initiative Summit (N4G) in 2013.The first report was published in 2014.
• It is a multi-stakeholder initiative, consisting of a Stakeholder Group, Independent Expert Group and Report Secretariat.
• It acts as a report card on the world’s nutrition—globally, regionally, and country by country and on efforts to improve it.

Key Takeaways:

• India is among the 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025.
• Stunting and wasting among children: 37.9% of children under 5 years are stunted and 20.8% are wasted compared to the Asia average of 22.7% and 9.4% respectively.
• Overweight and Obesity: Rate of overweight and obesity continues to rise affecting almost a fifth of the adults at 21.6% of women and 17.8% of men.
• Anaemia: One in two women of reproductive age is anaemic.
• Underweight children: Between 2000 and 2016, rates of underweight have decreased from 66.0% to 58.1% for boys and 54.2% to 50.1% in girls.However, it is still high compared to the average of 35.6% for boys and 31.8% for girls in Asia.

Additional Facts:

Global Nutrition Targets:

• In 2012, the World Health Assembly identified six nu­trition targets for maternal, infant and young child nutri­tion to be met by 2025.These are:
  • Reduce stunting by 40% in children under 5.
  • Reduce the prevalence of anaemia by 50% among women in the age group of 19-49 years.
  • Ensure 30% reduction in low-birth weight.
  • Ensure no increase in childhood overweight.
  • Increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months up to at least 50%
  • Reduce and maintain childhood wasting to less than 5%.

Note:Stunting- low height for age, Wasting- low weight compared to height, Underweight- low weight for age, Malnutrition includes both under and over nutrition and Anaemia-Lack of Healthy Red blood cells.