Malnutrition due to lack of awareness: World Bank

India’s woes with malnutrition is little to do with poverty or food insecurity, but is exasperated by inadequacies in child care, feeding information and awareness, the latest World Bank report has said.

“Appropriate infant and young child feeding practices even in the highest wealth quintile are extremely poor. Effective interventions, which cover the three critical determinants, when provided at scale during the first 1,000 days of life, can reduce stunting and improve under-nutrition significantly,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director in India while releasing the Nutrition in India report on Thursday. 

The report says stunting in children from households in middle and upper wealth quintiles is also quite high – about 50 and 25 per cent respectively.

 It reveals that even amongst the wealthiest Indians, the top third of the wealth distribution, only about 7 percent children between 6 and 24 months receive adequate feeding, health care and environmental health.

“While nearly 70 percent of them have adequate environmental health (water and sanitation), only 36 percent receive appropriate health care and an even lower about 18 percent are fed recommended quality and quantity of food for their age,” the report says.