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Global Nutrition Report 2021

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Polity & Governance
  • Published
    26th Nov, 2021

Context

According to the recently released Global Nutrition Report 2021 (GNR, 2021), India has made no progress on anaemia and childhood wasting.

  • Global Nutrition Report released by WHO (World Health Organisation).

Key-findings

  • The world is off track to meet five out of six global maternal, infant and young children nutrition (MIYCN) targets, on stunting, wasting, low birth weight, anaemia and childhood obesity.
    • Globally, 149.2 million children under 5 years of age are stunted, 45.4 million are wasted and 38.9 million are overweight.
    • Over 40% of all men and women (2.2 billion people) are now overweight or obese.
  • The world is also off track for meeting all diet-related non-communicable disease(NCD) targets, on salt intake, raised blood pressure, adult obesity and diabetes.
  • Key global targets and systematic monitoring exclude diet, despite its health and environmental impacts.
    • No global targets are set to address micronutrient deficiencies (with the exception of anaemia), despite their importance for health and development.
    • There is also no specific target that captures malnutrition among children and adolescents.
  • COVID-19: An additional 155 million people are being pushed into extreme poverty globally due to pandemic.
  • Obesity: No country in the world is ‘on course’ to achieve the target for obesity.

Global Nutrition Report India data

  • Anaemia: 53% of Indian women in the age group 15-49 years are anaemic, while in 2016, 52.6 per cent of Indian women were anaemic.
    • This signifies that there has been a rise in anaemic Indian women since 2016.
  • Affected children: Where in Asia, around 9% of the children are affected, in India, more than 17% of Indian children under 5 years of age are affected.
  • The report says that India is ‘off-course’ in meeting 7 of the 13 global nutrition targets.
    • These include sodium intake, raised blood pressure (both men and women), obesity (both men and women) and diabetes (both men and women).
  • Obesity: Around 6.2 percent of adult women and 3.5 percent of adult men are living with obesity in the country.
  • Stunting: According to the report, India is among 53 countries ‘on course’ to meet the target for stunting. But over 34 per cent of children under 5 years of age are still affected, it added.
  • Overweight: The country is also among 105 countries that are ‘on course’ to meet the target for ‘childhood overweight’.
  • Some 58 percent of infants in the age group 0-5 months are exclusively breastfed in India.
  • Low birth weight: India does not have adequate data on prevalence of ‘low birth weight’.

Global Nutrition Targets

In 2012, the World Health Assembly (the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation) identified six nutrition targets to be met by 2025. These are:

  • Reduce stunting by 40% in children under 5.
  • Reduce the prevalence of anaemia by 50% among women in the age group of 19-49 years.
  • Ensure 30% reduction in low-birth weight.
  • Ensure no increase in childhood overweight.
  • Increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months up to at least 50%
  • Reduce and maintain childhood wasting to less than 5%.

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