Malnutrition declining at 1% per year, but obesity on the rise in India, finds study

Malnutrition has improved in India but is still the underlying risk factor behind the deaths of children below the age of five. Sixty-eight per cent children of the aforementioned age die of malnutrition, revealed India State-Level Disease Burden report published by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

As per the report, malnutrition has declined at the rate of 1% per year. However, there has been a two-third decline in the rate of mortality due to malnutrition from 1990 to 2017. As many as 68% children die because of malnutrition even today.

Twenty-one per cent of the babies are born underweight. However, cases like these are decreasing now.

But there has been steep rise in obese children. Around 12% of the babies are overweight and the numbers are increasing in every state with a rate of 5%. Madhya Pradesh leads with regard to increasing obesity.

Thirty-nine per cent of children in India have low growth. The maximum cases are reported from Uttar Pradesh - 49%. India has 33% of underweight children, with Jharkhand alone having 42%. Sixty-percent of anaemic children are India. Delhi has highest cases of anaemia.

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