Malnutrition stunts one of every two children in India

REALITY CHECK: According to UNICEF 51 per cent of our kids under five years are stunted in height.

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New Delhi: Even though US President George W Bush has accused India of eating too much - a recent study has found that nearly half of the country's under 5 kids are stunted in growth, and 2.2 million are severely malnourished.

We are a country, which boasts of a 9.4 per cent GDP growth rate; our cities are building their malls and metros - but on the flip side - nearly half of our preschool kids are undernourished.

According to a landmark study done by UNICEF and medical journal LANCET- 51 per cent of our kids under five years are stunted in height - representing 1/3rd of the global total of stunted children. That’s’ not all 1 in 5 children are malnourished.

What’s worse is that undernourished and stunted children are likely to grow into short adults and give birth to a shorter generation.

To add to this inflation in food prices could be devastating for the vulnerable women and children.

UNICEF says that the lower income families have already cut down on the number of meals and quality of food as well.

Extreme poverty, lack of food supply - well the country has yet again let down children and today our malnutrition stats are worse than subsaharan Africa, Pakistan and even Afghanistan.

Medical evidence links stunting to a high risk nutrition related chronic diseases - very low cognitive development and even poor grades at school.

A World Bank study says that undernourished children on an average earn 10 per cent less than their healthy counterparts.

India has high food grain production - but immediate steps like expansion of school feeding programme and better midday meal schemes - need to be taken to the poor and hungry of the country.