Why in news?
World Bank recently released a report on the prevalence and effects of stunting.
What are the highlights?
- A child is stunted if the height-for-age ratio is not proportionate.
- Effects - Children with stunted growth are more prone to enduring adverse outcomes later in life.
- They suffer from impaired brain development.
- This leads to lower cognitive and socio-emotional skills, and lower levels of educational attainment.
- India - The World Bank analysed 140 countries for workers who were stunted as children.
- Of these, only Afghanistan (67%) and Bangladesh (73%) surpassed India’s proportion (66%).
- Around 66% of the working population in India are earning 13% less.
- This is specifically because of lack of skills due to stunting in childhood.
- This is one of the highest proportions worldwide in such reductions in per capita income.
- Others - The average reduction for South Asia was 10% and North America 2%.
- Middle East and North Africa do better, with a reduction of 4%.
- This is better compared to Europe and Central Asia with a reduction of 5%.
- The economic impact of stunting was not limited to Asia and Africa.
- Stunting has affected almost all continents in varying amounts.
- But Indians lost more income than people, on average, from Sub-Saharan African countries.
- Notably, countries poorer than India have handled stunting better.
- E.g. Senegal, with a per capita GDP of half as that of India’s, was able to reduce stunting in its children by half over 19 years to 2012.
- Peru, too, demonstrated a remarkable decline in its childhood stunting characteristics.
- This was largely due to its nutrition, health and sanitation interventions.
- Returns - The World Bank report calculated that the returns on a national nutrition package outweigh the costs.
- This is in reference to interventions focussed mainly on maternal and neonatal health.
- But given the time lag between childhood and joining workforce, the effects begin to show only 15 years after implementation.
- After the initial 15 years, the cost remains static and the benefits continue to increase as more of the workforce begins to benefit.
- The average rate of return predicted for the programme was 17%.
- But for India the returns were forecast at 23%.
What is the current scenario?
- The percentage of childhood stunting in India’s current working-age population does not reflect the percentage of children currently stunted.
- This is given the gap between childhood and joining the workforce.
- Notably, the current number of stunted under-five children in India has reduced drastically.
- Over 26 years to 2014, the percentage of stunted Indian under-five children has reduced from around 62% to 38%.
What are the causes for India's state?
- Stunting is affected by a variety of socio-economic determinants.
- More than the economic development state, it reflects the treatment of women and children.
- The related causes for stunting lie in social inequity with women’s status and health, household wealth, access to services, etc.
- India clearly has inadequacies in women’s well-being and efforts to reduce poverty.
- The two most influential deciding factors are women’s BMI and women’s education.
- These factors explained the difference in child stunting between highly sensitive and less sensitive districts.
What lies ahead?
- In India, Integrated Child Development Services, PDS and mid-day meal schemes address children’s nutrition.
- The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and the National Rural Water Drinking Programme address sanitation needs.
- Despite these, improving women’s well-being remains a challenge for policy.
- A nutrition-specific national programme could significantly tackle stunting.
- The National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN Abhiyan) should thus be promoted to address nutritional gaps for women.
- There has to be a specific focus in the lower income brackets if stunting is to be truly eradicated.
