Child nutrition: India may be reversing decades of progress, show govt data

India could be seeing an increase in child undernutrition, reversing decades of gains, early data from the just-released first phase of the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS) indicate. If subsequent phases display similar trends, this would represent the first increase in child stunting--low height for age--in 20 years. More infants now receive immunisations, data released on December 12 show.

On the positive side, fewer women in 15 of the 22 states and union territories (UTs) for which data were released reported that they experienced marital violence compared to 2015-16, when the last round of the survey was conducted. However,