Global Nutrition Report 2020

Global Nutrition Report 2020 has been published recently. With India facing a major malnutrition crisis, it calls for concerted actions to address the gaps and concerns.

Key nutrition indicators used in the report:

• Stunting, or low height for age, is caused by long-term insufficient nutrient intake and frequent infections.
• Wasting, or low weight for height, is a strong predictor of mortality among children under five, which usually the result of acute significant food shortage and disease.
• Overweight: It is the condition of having more body fat than is healthy.
• It also identified the country as one with the highest rates of domestic

inequalities in malnutrition.

• In 2012, the World Health Assembly identified six nutrition targets for maternal, infant, and young child nutrition to be met by

‘World Nutrition Report -2020’ and India:

• According to the World Nutrition Report, India will not be able to achieve any of the four standards for which data are available at present.
• These four standards are cases of anemia in children under 5 years of age, cases of anemia in women of reproductive age, obesity in children, and exclusive breastfeeding.
• According to this report, India is one of the countries with the highest local inequality in terms of malnutrition.
• However, in the past, India had succeeded in reducing the rate of underweight cases in children and adolescents.

Malnutrition:

• According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition refers to a lack, excess or imbalance of energy and / or nutrients in a person.
• Malnutrition in general can be divided into three groups:
• Undernutrition: It includes weakness / leanness (weight loss to length ratio), growth retardation (length reduction in proportion to age) and weight loss.
• Micronutrient-related Malnutrition: It consists of a lack of micronutrients in the body (deficiency of important vitamins and minerals) or excess.
• Excess of weight: This includes obesity or dietary non-communicable diseases (eg heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers) etc.

India and Report

• According to the Global Nutrition Report 2020, India will miss targets for all four nutritional indicators for which there is data available.

These indicators are

1. stunting among under-five children
2. anaemia among women of reproductive age
3. childhood overweight
4. exclusive breastfeeding
5. Underweight children

Underweight children

• Between 2000 and 2016, underweight rates have decreased from 0% to 58.1% for boys and 54.2% to 50.1% in girls.
• However, this is still high compared with the average of 6% for boys and 31.8% for girls in Asia.
• In addition, 9% of children under five are stunted, and 20.8% are wasted, compared with the Asia average of 22.7% and 9.4%, respectively.

Anaemic Condition

• One in two women of reproductive age is anaemic, while at the same time, the rate of overweight and obesity continues to rise, affecting almost a fifth of the adults, at 6% of women and 17.8% of men.
• India is identified as among the three worst countries, along with Nigeria and Indonesia, for steep within-country disparities on stunting, where the levels varied four-fold across communities.

Stunting level

• The stunting level in Uttar Pradesh is over 40%, and the rate among individuals in the lowest income group is more than double those in the highest income group at 0% and 50.7%, respectively.
• In addition, stunting prevalence is 1% higher in rural areas compared with urban areas.
• The same applies to overweight and obesity, where there are nearly double as many obese adult females as there are males (1% compared to 2.7%).

aims

• It aims to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children – have access to sufficient and nutritious food all year round.
• This involves promoting sustainable agricultural practices: supporting small scale farmers and allowing equal access to land, technology, and markets.

UPSC