India has made no progress on anaemia, childhood wasting: Global Nutrition Report

What is the News?

The Global Nutrition Report, 2021 has been released.

What is the Global Nutrition Report 2021?

The Global Nutrition Report was conceived following the first Nutrition for Growth Initiative Summit (N4G) in 2013. 

Released by: ​​ It is a multi-stakeholder initiative, consisting of a Stakeholder Group, Independent Expert Group and Report Secretariat.

Purpose: The report is the world’s leading independent assessment of the state of global nutrition. It provides a concise data-focused update on the state of diets and nutrition in the world.

What are the key findings of the report related to India?

Anaemia: ​​Over half of Indian women in the age group 15-49 years are anaemic. There has also been a rise in anaemic Indian women since 2016. In 2016, 52.6% of Indian women were anaemic. But in 2020, 53% were found to be anaemic.

Childhood Wasting: India has made no progress or is worsening on reducing ‘childhood wasting’. Over 17% of Indian children under 5 years of age are affected by wasting. This figure is much higher than the average for Asia, where close to 9% of children are affected. Wasting refers to children whose weight is low-for-their height.

Stunting: India is ‘on course’ to meet the target for stunting. But over 34%  of children under 5 years of age are still affected. This figure is higher than average for Asia, where close to 22% are affected by stunting. Stunting is when a child has a low height for their age.

Global Nutrition Targets: India is ‘off-course’ in meeting 7 of the 13 global nutrition targets. These include sodium intake, raised blood pressure (both men and women), obesity (both men and women) and diabetes (both men and women).

Obesity: Some 6.2% of adult (aged 18 years and over) women and 3.5% of adult men are living with obesity in the country. In fact, no country in the world was ‘on course’ to achieve the target for obesity.

Breastfeeding: India is ‘on course’ to meet the target for ‘exclusive breastfeeding’. Some 58% of infants in the age group 0-5 months are exclusively breastfed in India.

Source: This post is based on the article “India has made no progress on anaemia, childhood wasting: Global Nutrition Report” published in Down To Earth on 23rd Nov 2021.