Half of India's children are malnourished: Study

Almost half of India's children are malnourished, putting the country in the same league as some of the world's poorest countries – even though fewer infants are dying and more pregnant Indian women are seeing doctors, according to a government data released recently.

The figures from India's National Family Health Survey offered a snapshot of a country that has made gains in recent years, yet is struggling to match its dramatic economic achievements with equal improvements in the health of its more than 1 billion people.

The data also highlighted persistent gaps between the health of rural and urban India, and the awareness of health issues among men and women, who in many parts of India remain second class citizens, at best.

But the most glaring problem illustrated by the data was the health of India's children.

With about 46 percent of children underweight – a negligible improvement over the last survey, conducted in 1998–99 – India is in the same league as nations like Burkina Faso and Cambodia. In China, Asia's other rising economic power and the country India so often compares itself with, only 8 percent of children are underweight.

The improved infant mortality rate – down to 57 per 100,000 births from 68 in 1998–99 – remains dramatically higher than that seen in Western nations, such the Netherlands, where it is 4.

In every category where a comparison between the health of people in the countryside and cities was offered, those in rural areas lagged far behind. The rural infant mortality rate, for example, was 62 per 100,000, compared to 42 the in urban areas.

Such statistics show India "should be worried," said Werner Schultink of UNICEF. "It's going to be difficult for India if wants to use its human resources to develop the nation but does not make improvements."

The survey – the third conducted since 1992–1993 – covers about 200,000 people between the ages of 15 and 54, more than half of them women, and was conducted through face–to–face interviews all across India between December 2005 and August 2006. It has no significant margin–of–error.

According to data, nearly 51 percent of women made at least three visits to the doctor when they were pregnant, up from 44 percent in 1998–99. Some 41 percent has children in a hospital or clinic, up from about 34 percent in the last survey.

Some 57 percent of Indian women who are or have been married have heard about HIV – a big jump from the 40 percent reported in 1998–99 but still likely to be criticized as far too low for a country's with 5.7 million people infected with the disease, the most in the world.

The data also indicated that a much higher percentage of men in the same group – 80 percent – had heard about the disease. No comparison with the data from previous surveys was offered for men.

The difference may have something to do with the fact that men are much more likely to be exposed to the country's media – the survey found 80 percent of men had access to media, while only 65 percent of women did.