Stunting
It is defined as the percentage of children, aged 0 to 59 months, whose height for age is below minus two standard deviations (moderate and severe stunting) and minus three standard deviations (severe stunting) from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards. In India, almost half (48 per cent) of children younger than five years of age are stunted, a manifestation of chronic undernutrition. Stunting and other forms of under-nutrition are thought to be responsible for nearly half of all child deaths globally.
Stunting is associated with an under developed brain, with long-lasting harmful consequences, including diminished mental ability and learning capacity, poor school performance in childhood, reduced earnings and increased risks of nutrition related chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in future.
While India’s economy has been growing at impressive rate, the country still has the highest number of stunted children in the world, (61 million children) representing one third of the global total of stunted children under the age of five.
Stunting starts from pre-conception when an adolescent girl and who later becomes mother is undernourished and anaemic; it worsens when infants’ diets are poor, and when sanitation and hygiene is inadequate. It is irreversible by the age of two. Child survival and health is inseparably connected to reproductive and, maternal health.
As high as 70 per cent of adolescent girls in India are anaemic and half of adolescents are below the normal body mass index, which has an impact on the health of their future pregnancies and children. Preventing stunting is critical to survival in the immediate term, and in the longer-term, to ensure healthy, well-educated and productive adults.
Causes
A lack of adequate food is a primary cause of death, under-nutrition and stunting; but the story of child mortality and malnutrition in India is not just one of poor diets. The lack of water, sanitation and hygiene practices – which leads to illnesses and life threatening diseases like diarrhoea – is thought to cause of up to 50 per cent of all child malnourishment. 2.5 billion cases of diarrhoea in children under-five are recorded worldwide every year.
With every episode of diarrhoea vital nutrients are lost from the body. Repeat episodes of diarrhoea are increasingly also thought to be connected to chronic malnutrition, stunting and death.
With 595 million people in India defecating in the open, without toilets and without adequate facilities, there is elevated risk of bacterial infection. With mothers, birth attendants and extended family member’s all potentially handling children with infected hands, the chances of child sickness and death are high.
Statistics
• 48 per cent or 54 million children under-five years in India are stunted . India accounts for 33 per cent of stunted children in the world.
• Stunting (inadequate length/height for age) reflects cumulative effects of intergenerational poverty, poor maternal and early childhood nutrition, and repeated episodes of illness in childhood.
• Stunting is the most prevalent form of under-nutrition, yet it goes largely unrecognized.
• Stunting prevalence varies across states. The levels of stunting in children is above the national average in Uttar Pradesh (56.8%), Bihar (55.6%), Chhattisgarh (52.9%), Gujarat (51.7%), Meghalaya (55.1%), Madhya Pradesh (50%) and Jharkhand (49.8%). Prevalence of wasting is highest in Madhya Pradesh (35%) followed by Jharkhand (32.3%), Meghalaya (30.7%) and Bihar (27.1%) .
• The lifelong effects of stunting are said to result in at least 10 per cent decrease in future income over the lifetime of stunted adults.
Source : http://unicef.in/Whatwedo/10/Stunting
