MALNUTRITION - SOCIETY
News: India
sees reduction in stunting; but wasting, obesity are concerns: report
What is in the news?
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Recently, The UNICEF, WHO
and World Bank released Joint Malnutrition Estimates.
Key takeaways from the report:
India Specific Findings:
1. Wasting:
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The overall prevalence of
wasting in 2022 was 18.7% in India, with
a share of 49% in the global burden of this malnutrition indicator.
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Two-thirds of the wasting
is caused by maternal malnutrition.
2. Stunting:
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Stunting among children
under five years in India dropped from a
prevalence rate of 41.6% in 2012 to 31.7% in 2022.
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India’s share of the
global burden of stunting declined from
30% to 25% in the past decade.
3. Obesity:
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The prevalence of obesity
marginally increased in a decade from 2.2%
in 2012 to 2.8% in 2022 with the numbers growing to 31.8 lakh from 27.5
lakh thereby contributing to 8.8% of the global share.
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Overall classification
for obesity is low and much lower than the global prevalence of 5.6%.
1. Stunting:
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Globally, stunting
declined from a prevalence rate of 26.3%
in 2012 to 22.3% in 2022.
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In South Asia, the decline was much sharper as it dropped from 40.3% to 30.5%.
Concerns in the progress:
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The JME report says there
is insufficient progress to reach the
2025 World Health Assembly (WHA) global nutrition targets and the 2030
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets.
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only about one-third of
all countries are ‘on track’ to halve the number of children affected by
stunting by 2030.
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Even fewer countries are
expected to achieve the 2030 target of 3% prevalence for overweight, with just
one in six countries currently ‘on track’.
About Joint Malnutrition Estimate:
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The JME group was created in 2011 to address the call for
harmonized child Malnutrition estimates.
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The inter-agency team
releases annual estimates for child stunting,
overweight, underweight, wasting and severe wasting.
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The JME estimates for
stunting and obesity are based on country-level modeled estimates derived from
primary sources, such as national household surveys based on a methodology
developed by the JME Working Group.
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For wasting, the
estimates are based on national-level country prevalence data.
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Regulators:
UNICEF, WHO, World Bank.