1/3 of world's under-developed children live in India, report reveals

New Delhi : The global nutrition report reveals a shocking statement according to which India is going through major malnutrition crisis. The country has almost one-third of the world's stunted children. 

In terms of stunted children, India tops the list of countries followed by Nigeria (13.9 million) and Pakistan (10.7 million), the Global Nutrition Report 2018 said. Report claims that the country has 46.6 million children who are stunted or low height for age. The reason behind this crisis is long-term insufficient nutrient-intake and frequent infections.

India also suffers from 25.5 million children who are wasted, followed by Nigeria (3.4 million) and Indonesia (3.3 million). Wasting, or low weight for height, is a strong predictor of mortality among children under five. It is usually the result of significant food shortage and disease.

"More than half of the world's children impacted by wasting (26.9 million) live in South Asia. Of the three countries that are home to almost half (47.2 per cent) of all stunted children, two are in Asia, with India having 46.6 million (31 per cent) and Pakistan having 10.7 million," the report said.

The global record confirms that 150.8 million children under five years are stunted and 50.5 million are wasted.

India is also counted among the set of countries that has more than a million overweight children. The other nations are China, Indonesia, India, Egypt, US, Brazil and Pakistan.

Of the 38.3 million children globally overweight, 5.4 million are in South Asia and 4.8 million are in East Asia.

Expert says that the number of overweight children is highest in upper-middle income countries and the lowest in low-income countries.

In urban areas, there are 7.1 per cent overweight children on average, whereas in rural areas 6.2 per cent children are overweight. It is slightly more common among boys than girls, the report mentioned.

In terms of obesity, women are more overweight than among men.  Conversely, diabetes is more common among men than women.