‘Malnutrition, anaemia pose huge health challenge to India’

Mumbai, November 7 (IANS): Sounding alarm bells, The Global Nutrition Report 2017 says India faces a serious challenge stemming from both under-nutrition and obesity leading to various health, social and economic problems. Among 140 countries, including India, the GNR-2017 found “significant burdens” of key forms of malnutrition as indicators of the broad trends, the findings released here on Tuesday said.   These include: Childhood stunting affecting 38 per cent children under-five years of age of 155 million worldwide; 21 per cent of under-fives defined as “wasted” or “severely wasted”, implying they are underweight for their height, comprising 52 million children.   More than 51 per cent of women of reproductive age suffer from anaemia and more than 22 per cent of adult women are obese or overweight, besides one-third of all women affected worldwide with no country on track to meet global targets.   While India has made some headway in addressing the problem of under-five stunting, it has lagged in tackling anaemic women and is off-the-mark in achieving targets to reduce adult obesity and diabetes.   “India’s government is recognising that the country cannot afford inaction on nutrition, but the road ahead is going to be long.   “The GNR-2017 highlights (what) needs to be tackled as part of its national nutrition strategy,” said the report.