Underweight Children in India: Causes and Processes

Abstract

Contrary to the commonly-held perceptions, it is not Sub-Saharan Africa but South Asia which is the world's biggest home of child malnutrition More than half of the malnourished children in the world live in this region. Also in terms of proportion, South Asia has been showing by far the highest incidence of child malnutrition throughout the world: almost 60 percent of its children are underweight compared with the international standard, while it is just over 30 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa.

This paper analyzes the possible causes and processes of this high incidence of child malnutrition in South Asia with special reference to India. The author first examines several economic factors which are normally associated with the situation of nutritional situation in the country, viz. the level of overall food production and supply, the average level of income and its distribution, and the incidence and intensity of absolute poverty. Comparing India with Sub-Saharan African countries, the author concludes that none of these factors can satisfactorily explain the exceptionally high incidence of underweight children in India. The author then analyzes two more factors in detail which are more social than economic. One is the low social status and poor physical conditions of Indian women, and how it leads to inter-generational process of child malnutrition in India through low birth weight. Another is the problems in care and feeding for young children in India, particularly the timing of introducing appropriate supplementary food to the young infants at home, and how children get malnourished by two years of age before the conventional feeding programme starts. In the end, the author briefly comments on the practical implications of the results of these analyses for the planning and management of nutrition programme and nutrition-relevant actions in India and South Asia.