Gujarat grows, not all its children

The state has earned the dubious distinction of being the only rich state to figure in the top 10 states that have the highest percentage of stunting in children.

The figure was revealed in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) India report that was published recently. Gujarat ranks eighth in the country as far as percentage of stunting in children is concerned. The state has 39% of the children in the age group of 0-59 months who are stunted. It should be noted that the NFHS does not carry out a survey of the entire population of the state but just a sample, but it is often a good reflection of the overall state.

In fact, Gujarat has a higher percentage of stunted children than the Indian average of 38%.

Bihar tops the list with 48% and Kerala and Goa have the lowest percentage of stunted children at 20%. Gujarat has also gained some as far its battle against malnutrition in children is concerned. The survey found that, overall, the stunting among children under five years of age decreased from 52% to 39% in the 10 years between NFHS-3 and NFHS-4.

The prevalence of underweight children decreased from 45 percent to 39 percent.  Although the prevalence of wasting increased from 19 percent to 26 percent.

The survey concluded that despite the gains in stunting and underweight, child malnutrition remained a major problem in Gujarat. Smita Bajpai, Project Director with CHETNA, a non-profit that has worked in the field of nutrition and health for more than three decades said Gujarat’s  focus on child nutrition in the mission mode has been a recent one.

She also warned that malnutrition and stunting should not be seen in isolation. “Food and nutrition is one aspect of the problem. Access to clean and safe drinking water, timely access to quality health services including vaccination, sanitation are other important but often less emphasised factors when one talks about malnutrition and children’s health,” she said.

She added that a child can be provided with nutrition but the gains will soon be lost if the child was to constantly fall ill because s/he does not have access to clean drinking water and does not live in hygienic conditions. For most parents, there is a need to provide for full-time quality creche services so that the child can be taken care of while the parents are at work.

She said that there is a need for nutrition awareness and appropriate infant and young child feeding practices to be adopted universally.

Determinants of stunting
The survey found that children’s nutritional status does not vary by sex of the child, although differences are more pronounced by several other characteristics. Undernutrition is higher in rural than urban areas. It also found that undernutrition in children is inversely proportional to mother’s schooling. The more educated the mother, the less likely her child is to be undernourished. Undernutrition is also directly related to mother’s better nutritional status.