An estimated 9,27,606 severely acute malnourished children from six months to six years were identified across the country till November last year. On Children's Day, a look at where India stands in terms of child nutritional health in the 75th year of its independence.
Children's바카라 웹사이트Day is a day to spread awareness about the welfare, education바카라 웹사이트and rights of children in India. It is also a day to reflect on the progress the country바카라 웹사이트has made in the last 75 years in terms of safeguarding바카라 웹사이트children and adolescents who are the future of the nation. Some of the바카라 웹사이트first metrics to be considered include바카라 웹사이트child health, nutrition and mortality.바카라 웹사이트
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines severe acute malnutrition' (SAM) by very low weight-for-height or a mid-upper arm circumference less than 115 mm, or by the presence of nutritional oedema. Children suffering from SAM have very low weight for their height, and are nine times more likely to die in case of diseases due to their weakened immune system.
The Covid-19 pandemic left바카라 웹사이트9.2 lakh children in India바카라 웹사이트severely impacted by acute malnourishment.바카라 웹사이트Uttar Pradesh topped the list with the highest cases while바카라 웹사이트Bihar came second. The바카라 웹사이트government data which was revealed last year in response to an RTI query바카라 웹사이트underscored바카라 웹사이트concerns that the Covid pandemic could exacerbate the health and nutrition crisis among the poorest of the poor.바카라 웹사이트
The data had been collected by the Women and Child Development Ministry which had in 2020바카라 웹사이트asked all states and union territories to identify SAM children for their early referral to hospitals.바카라 웹사이트
But even before the Covid-19 pandemic, The Global Nutrition Index 2018 revealed that India has one-third of world's stunted children.바카라 웹사이트
While data is not updated year on year,바카라 웹사이트NFHS-4 (National Family Health Survey) in 2015-16 showed바카라 웹사이트prevalence of severe acute malnutrition among 7.4 per cent of children바카라 웹사이트from 601,509 households, 699,686 women, and 112,122 men. The survey was based on Information from바카라 웹사이트265,653 children below age 5 had바카라 웹사이트been collected in the survey.
The subsequent NFHS-5바카라 웹사이트which was바카라 웹사이트conducted acrossd바카라 웹사이트6.1 lakh sample households바카라 웹사이트and gave figures for 22 states and UTs, also presented a grim scenario. It said malnutrition increased among children in 2019-20 from 2015-16 in 22 states and UTs. While the malnutrition data had improved from NFHS-4, the new reports found that at least 35.5 per cent of India's children were stunted.
Around 13 states and UTs out of the 22 surveyed recorded a rise in percentage of children under five years who are stunted in comparison to 2015-16; 12 states and UTs recorded a rise in percentage of children under five years who are wasted; 16 states and UTs recorded a rise in the percentage of children under five years who are severely wasted and underweight in 2019-20.바카라 웹사이트
Wasting refers to바카라 웹사이트low weight in children in proportion to바카라 웹사이트their height and is an indicator of acute undernutrition. It is a strong predictor of mortality among children under five years of age.
India already scores low on the Global Hunger Index, ranking just above 13 countries out of a total of 107, including North Korea, Haiti, Afghanistan and others.바카라 웹사이트
The NFHS-5 data is바카라 웹사이트concerning as it reflects how several states like바카라 웹사이트Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh바카라 웹사이트which in the previous decade had managed to lower바카라 웹사이트their rates of stunting saw a바카라 웹사이트reversal of바카라 웹사이트the trend.바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트
To tackle high persistence of malnutrition in the country, the Centre launched the Poshan Abhiyan programme in 2018 to reduce low birth weight, stunting,바카라 웹사이트undernutrition and anaemia among children, adolescent girls and women.
NFHS 6, which is set to be conducted in the next year, would evaluate the impact and outcomes of the health schemes implemented by the BJP government such as Ayushman Bharat and Poshan Abhiyan on this population. It might be interesting to know how much impact these schemes have had on the health and nutrition of children.
Seven years since India's independence, indicators바카라 웹사이트of child and maternal바카라 웹사이트health have improved drastically. With바카라 웹사이트mortality now reduced to 30 per 1,000 live births.바카라 웹사이트The infant mortality rate (IMR) was 145.6/1000 live births in 1947.바카라 웹사이트
However, inequitable resource distribution and benefits of the government's healthcare policies have바카라 웹사이트led to discrepancies and social gaps. Social and economic inequality overlap with health and nutritional metrics, meaning the most malnourished or undernourished children belong to socially or economically backward sections of바카라 웹사이트the population.바카라 웹사이트
In 2019, UNICEF noted that globally about 165 million children under the age of 5 years were바카라 웹사이트stunted (low height for age), 101 million were underweight (low weight for age), and 52 million children were바카라 웹사이트wasted. Further, from the estimates from United Nations (UN), about 6.3 million under age-five mortality occurred in India, of which 45 per cent바카라 웹사이트died due to malnutrition.
A 2019 study on socioeconomic inequality found an바카라 웹사이트inverse relationship between a district라이브 바카라 economic development with childhood stunting and underweight, meaning that economically developed districts have a lower prevalence of childhood malnutrition than less developed districts.
Socially depressed sections such as children belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Schedules Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) households report higher levels of malnutrition indicators.바카라 웹사이트
NFHS-4 found바카라 웹사이트43.8 percent of ST children under the age of five were바카라 웹사이트stunted, 27.4 were바카라 웹사이트wasted and 45.3 are underweight. This is the highest percentage share among all the three categories. Among children belonging to the SC category, 42.8 percent are stunted, 21.2 percent are wasted and 39.1 percent are underweight.바카라 웹사이트The prevalence of Anaemia was also higher among children belonging to바카라 웹사이트SC and ST categories.바카라 웹사이트
A 2019 study titled Pathways to Inequalities In Child Health highlighted how바카라 웹사이트disadvantaged SECs바카라 웹사이트suffer from worse health than their more advantaged peers as the바카라 웹사이트pathways through which SECs influence children라이브 바카라 health are complex and interrelated. In general, they바카라 웹사이트are "driven by differences in the distribution of power and resources that determine the economic, material and psychosocial conditions in which children grow up", the authors of the study noted.
UNICEF's World Children's Day 2022 theme was "Inclusion: For Every Child". The theme reflected the need to commit to striving for a more inclusive healthcare policy. This holds especially true for developing nations battling economic and social inequalities like India where social stigma and discrimination are key impediments to healthcare access.바카라 웹사이트
India is one of the 193 countries that are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which includes promoting healthy lives (addressing survival, nutrition, health care services, etc.) as its first goal.
Any interventions in child healthcare, however, can only succeed in an inclusive sense by creating pathways바카라 웹사이트to cross-sectional development in healthcare infrastructure and바카라 웹사이트access that benefits the바카라 웹사이트weakest section of India's population.
(With inputs from PTI)