Poshan Power note Strengthening the Evidence Base through the Comprehensive National Survey
Prevalence and Burden of Malnutrition in Children Under Five Years Old in India, NAFS-5I, (2019–21)
Highlights
Good health, nutrition and wellbeing throughout the life cycle is a precursor to a healthy and productive living. India faces triple burden of malnutrition in terms of micronutrient deficiencies, undernutrition and quickly rising overnutrition rates in children under five years old.
Going beyond children, unmet nutrient and energy needs during late childhood and early adolescence can result in increased vulnerability to undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies while excess intake can lead to overweight, obesity and increased risk of non-communicable diseases. In India, 561 millioniii children and adolescents 5–19 years old constitute almost one third of total population (28.5 per cent) and require policy and programme investments to generate economic and social returns.
Prior to 2016, adequate, comprehensive and reliable national data on all-aged children and adolescents’ nutrition to inform policy makers was limited on following aspects: • The age groups in various national surveys usually covered women, children under five years of age and adolescents in the age group of 15–19 only. The age group between 5–14 years was missing
• The types of micronutrients assessed in surveys were limited to Iron and Iodine • The methodology lacked precision – use of surrogate measures for a condition, crude estimations based on recalled dietary intakes, sampling bias, and use of different methodologies made comparison across surveys challenging • Information on risk factors for non-communicable diseases linked to nutrition was missing
