Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates – 2023 Report
Recently the report “Child Malnutrition Levels and Trends: Combined Child Malnutrition Estimates 2023” has been released.
- The report has been released jointly by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank Group.
- According to this report, progress towards achieving the World Health Assembly’s global nutrition goals by 2025 and the sub-target of Sustainable Development Goal-2.2 by 2030 has been insufficient.
- SDG-2.2 deals with ending all forms of malnutrition.
Key findings of report –
- In the year 2022, 22.3 percent of children under the age of five worldwide will be stunted. A child who is very short for his age is called a puny child.
- The stunting rate in India in 2022 was 31.7 percent. This is lower than 41.6 percent in 2012.
- In the year 2022, about 45 million children (6.8 per cent) under the age of five were suffering from wasting. Children suffering from thinness are very weak according to their height.
- In the year 2020, 18.7 percent of Indian children were suffering from wasting. The main reason for this is the consumption of a low-nutrient diet and / or frequent diseases.
- Globally, 37 million children under the age of five (5.6 per cent) are overweight. Overweight means that the weight of the child is too much according to its height.
- In the year 2022, 2.8 percent of children in India were overweight. In the year 2012, this figure was 2.2 percent.
- Malnutrition refers to the intake of less or more nutrients, an imbalance of essential nutrients, or improper use of nutrients.
Initiatives in India to tackle the problem of malnutrition:
- Integrated Child Development Schemes (ICDS)
- Establishment of Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers
- Poshan Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission)
Source – The Hindu
