Two in five children under the age of five in rural Uttar Pradesh are stunted and, of this, 16 per cent are severely stunted as per data released by the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS). Overall, in Uttar Pradesh, 38.8 per cent children are stunted—a figure that is two-and-half times more that of severely stunted children.
Children who are wasted (that is those who have low height-to-weight ratio) in the 0-5 years age group account for 18.5 per cent of the children surveyed and, among these, almost one in four is severely wasted. In the same age group, underweight children account for 36.8 per cent of the surveyed population. One-third of these children are severely underweight.
More than one in five children in the 5-9 age group are stunted and one-fourth of these are severely stunted. More than one-fourth children in the 0-9 age group are moderately or severely thin. Yet, 1.5 per cent of the surveyed children also fall in the overweight/obese category. In the 10-14 years age group, the number of moderately/severely thin children is slightly higher at 27.1 per cent as is the number of overweight/obese children who account for 2 per cent of those surveyed.
As regards deficiencies, more than 3 in 10 children in the 1-9 years age group suffer from iron deficiency. Within this, the number of females who suffer from anaemia are two-and-half times the number of male children. Among other deficiencies, a deficiency of Vitamin B12 is most commonly reported, with more than two in five children suffering from it. This is followed by a deficiency of zinc, which was reported by more than one-fourth of the children surveyed.
The survey also captures estimates of bio-markers for non-communicable diseases in children from birth to 19 years. In 1.3 per cent children, high overall cholesterol levels were recorded. Within this, while 1.5 per cent children recorded high levels of LDL (bad cholesterol), 39.9 per cent children recorded low levels of HDL (good cholesterol). High levels of serum creatinine were reported by 8.1 per cent children.
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The CNNS is a national nutrition survey covering 1,12,316 pre-schoolers, school-age children and adolescents in rural and urban areas across 30 states of India. It provides national- and state-level representative data for nutritional status and micronutrient deficiencies among children and adolescents from birth to 19 years and estimates of bio-markers for NCDs.
The survey was conducted in Uttar Pradesh between April 6 and September 27, 2016. For the survey, household and anthropometry data was taken from 1,965 children in the 0-4 years age group, 1,996 children in the 5-9 age group and 1,799 children in the 10-19 years age group. Biological samples were taken from 558 children in the 1-4 years age group, 698 children in the 5-9 age group and 581 children in the 10-19 years age group.
