India has most stunted children in world: Report

India, which claims to be the world's fastest growing major economy, is also home to the largest number of stunted children in volume terms in the world, much ahead of smaller economies like Nigeria, Pakistan and Ethiopia.

Globally, around 159 million children under the age of 5, or one in every four children in this age group, are stunted and the major cause of this is repeated instances of diarrhea caused by unclean water.

"Diarrhea diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation are the second biggest killer of children under five after pneumonia, taking 315,000 young lives every year. Even those children who survive severe bouts of diarrhea are at risk of having their lives, and life chances, forever changed," a report titled 'Caught Short' - How Lack of Toilets and Clean Water Contributes to Malnutrition published by Water Aid showed.

India has the highest concentration in the world of people practicing open defecation and research shows high rates of this has a strong correlation to increased rates of stunting, as faeces in the environment spread disease and infection, the report showed.

The report shows 48 million children in India, or two in every five under 5 years, suffer from stunted growth, which affects their physical development as well as cognitive and emotional development, the report said.

Nigeria and Pakistan rank second and third with 10.3 and 9.8 million children stunted, respectively. China is ranked fifth in the list.

The Southeast Asian nation of Timor-Leste, and also one of the world's newest countries, tops the list for having the highest percentage of children who are stunted in proportion of its population at 58 per cent.

Some 140,000 children under five in India die each year of diarrheal diseases related to the lack of these basic services. And 50 per cent of malnutrition cases are linked to infections, including chronic diarrhea, caused by lack of safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) including hand washing with soap.

"Water, sanitation and hygiene are important determinants of nutrition. With open defecation rampant in India, frequent diarrhea hinders the ability of children to absorb nutrients. India has made significant efforts to improve the nutritional status of children and women, but the beneficial impact of these efforts are threatened by poor WASH," Water Aid India's policy manager, Arundati Muralidharan, said.