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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stunting scare for Bihar's children -GS Mudur

Stunting scare for Bihar's children -GS Mudur

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published Published on Jun 7, 2017   modified Modified on Jun 7, 2017
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: Four out of every 10 children in Bihar suffer from stunting, a condition marked by impaired growth and development, despite overall improvements by the state on several measures of nutrition over the past decade, a report has said.

The report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) that analysed changes in Bihar between 2006 and 2016 has found that in 36 out of the state's 38 districts, over 40 per cent children under five years of age suffer from stunting. The analysis has also warned that in 2016, only eight in 100 children between six and 23 months of age received an adequate diet.

The levels of stunting, which results from chronic under-nutrition during children's critical periods of growth and development and may lead to diminished learning and mental capacity, ranged from 35.6 per cent in Gopalganj to 57.3 per cent in Sitamarhi, the report said.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar has been flagging the issue while drawing attention to the evil effects of child marriage, a custom still prevalent in some sections of society in the state. Nitish has said child marriage results in malnourishment among women and children and also stunting among the new generation.

"I am bothered as how to do away with the problem of stunting," he has said.

The IFPRI report, aimed at documenting trends and geographic variations in under-nutrition using the National Family Health Survey 2015-16, has been shared with the Bihar government and is expected to guide nutrition-specific interventions for children.

"Most of the stunting we see is due to under-nutrition caused by poverty or lack of awareness about the diet children need," said Nagendra Prasad Gupta, associate professor of paediatrics at the Darbhanga Medical College, who was not associated with the IFPRI report.

"Some (parents) do not know how to improve the nutrition of their child with locally available food without a significant economic burden on the household," Gupta added. A campaign to improve public awareness is "very important" to combat child under-nutrition, he said.

The IFPRI said stunting prevalence in Bihar declined from 55 per cent to 48 per cent and the proportion of infants who received exclusive breastfeeding - which reduces the risk of stunting - increased from 28 per cent to 53 per cent from 2006 to 2016.

But the report found that exclusive breastfeeding is "highly variable" across the state's districts.

The lowest rate of exclusive breastfeeding (27 per cent) is in Begusarai and the highest rate (79 per cent) is in Muzaffarpur.

However, the timely introduction of complementary food between six and eight months of age declined substantially from 54 per cent to 30 per cent over the 2006-16 decade. In 2016, only 7.5 per cent of the state's children received an adequate diet.

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The Telegraph, 6 June, 2017, https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170607/jsp/frontpage/story_155516.jsp


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