Sanitation failures kill, stunt children most in UP, 4 other states

Poor sanitation makes unhealthy children prone to water-borne diseases

Despite recently revealed improvements, primitive sanitation is killing, retarding the growth and leaving susceptible to disease millions of Indian children, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of the latest available national health data.

Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Assam and Chhattisgarh had India’s highest under-five mortality, higher stunting (low height-for-age) rates and higher prevalence of diarrhoea due to lack of “improved sanitation”–usually a house with its own latrine connected to a sewer or septic tank–according to the National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4).

Unsafe water, poor