Our Stunted, Wasted and Underweight Future.

by Harsha Devulapalli

A large percentage of India's children are at risk of faltered growth, disease and impaired development. Data on height and weight from the recently released National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-2021 reveals the poor nutritional status of young children in India. The three primary indices - height for age, weight for height and weight for age were calculated in the survey to measure Stunting, Wasting and Underweight percentage of children below the age of 5.

• Stunting is defined as low height for age. Two out of every five children in India are stunted.
• Wasting is low weight for height. One out of every five children is wasted.
• Underweight is not just defined as low weight for age but is also a measure of acute and chronic undernutrition. Two out of every five children in India are underweight.

Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Assam have the highest rates of poorly nourished children among these indices.

Manipur, Sikkim, Punjab, Mizoram, and Kerala are among the better performing states, despite having miles to go.

To see how your state performs on these parameters, choose any of the buttons below.

Source: National Family Health Survey 2019-2021 (NFHS-5), National Family Health Survey 2015-2016 (NFHS-4)

Notes

• Children whose index (height-for-age, weight for height, weight for age) is below minus two standard deviations (-2 SD) from the median of the reference population are considered stunted, wasted or underweight as per this definition.
• Children whose indices were below minus three standard deviations (-3 SD) are considered severely stunted, wasted or undernourished.
• For weighing very young children, the weight of the mother or caretaker was measured and they were weighed again holding the child. The deduction was counted as their weight.
• Children younger than 24 months were measured lying down and standing height was used for older children
• Data for all UTs except Delhi is from NFHS-4 as the latest round of data has not been released yet