Malnutrition declined during Manmohan govt: World Bank

Report says child undernourishment fell 9.1 percentage points from FY06 to FY14; exclusive breastfeeding data trend shows 2025 target well in line

India's percentage of children whose growth is stunted due to undernourishment showed a 9.1 percentage point decline between 2005-06 and 2013-14, the period when the Manmohan Singh-led government was in power, a new World Bank report on nutrition in India says.

The report, issued on Thursday, based its findings on the 2005-06 National Family Health Survey and the preliminary findings of the 2013-14 Rapid Survey of Children. In this period, the average annual rate of reduction in children with stunted growth was 2.6 per cent, below the national target of 3.7 per cent but much higher than the 1.7 per cent of earlier surveys.

The findings show the percentage of infants exclusively breastfed had risen in this period from 46.4 per cent to 71.6 per cent. Both parameters are considered key indicators on child malnutrition and health.

"The rise in exclusive breastfeeding rates from 46.4 per cent to 71.6 per cent in eight years represents an average annual rate of increase of 5.5 per cent, far above the rate required to meet India's World Health Assembly (WHA) target by 2025 (1.5 per cent). In fact, if the preliminary numbers hold, India will have by by 2025 far surpassed its WHA exclusive breastfeeding target of 57 per cent," the report said.

The percentage of children under five years who are wasting away dipped from 2005-06 to 2013-14 from 20 to 15 per cent, the report said. Wasting, or low weight for height, is a strong predictor of mortality among children under five. The report says India loses two to three per cent of its GDP every year due to under-nutrition among children in the age group of up to two years.

"Significant direct and indirect economic losses are associated with under-nutrition, with direct productivity losses estimated at more than 10 per cent of lifetime individual earnings, and about two to three per cent loss to GDP," it said.