Indian Preschool Children--A Profile of Stunting and Wasting

Abstract

Anthropometric data collected on 18,938 preschool children (1-5 years) by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB) in 10 states of the country were analysed for assessing growth status in terms of 'stunting' and 'wasting'. The results showed that the prevalence of stunting, reflective of chronic malnutrition, is of higher magnitude compared to wasting (considered to be an outcome of current acute malnutrition), as well as wasting and stunting. The stunting increased with increasing age of children. The data also suggested that over the period, the prevalence of stunting declined from 58 per cent in 1974 to 45 per cent in 1980. A corresponding increase in normals from 35 to 50 per cent has also been noticed during the same period.