Telangana: Gadwal fourth on district list of stunting in country

HYDERABAD: Telangana’s Jogulamba Gadwal district is among the four worst districts in the country having the highest stunting rates among children under the age of 5.
Worse still, of the 16 districts in Telangana identified under the Poshan Abhiyaan scheme, 15 districts have stunting (stunting occurs when a child does not have sufficient nutrition to grow and develop) rates between 25 and 50 per cent — significantly higher than the target of keeping it below 25 per cent.
Poshan Abhiyaan was launched by the Centre in March 2018 in 235 districts with the aim of reducing malnutrition in the country in a phased manner.
As per a report of the Centre, Sambhal (Uttar Pradesh) district recorded 51.6 per cent stunting, followed by Southwest Khasi Hill (Meghalaya) with 51.4 per cent stunting, Patan (Gujarat) with 50.5 per cent stunting and Gadwal with 49.7 per cent stunting.
The report was tabled in the Lok Sabha by Union minister of women and child development Smriti Irani.
Other districts in Telangana with a stunting per cent higher than 30 include Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Kumuram Bheem Asifabad, Medak, Nalgonda, Nagarkurnool, Nizamabad and Nirmal. Sources in the state health department reveal that despite almost all babies being breastfed during the first six months of life, 20 per cent children are stunted.
“Children’s nutritional status in Telangana has substantially changed since national family health survey (NFHS-4) by all measures. The percentage of children who are stunted increased marginally from 28 per cent to 33 per cent in the four years between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. The percentage of children who are underweight (28 per cent) or wasted (18 per cent) has increased respectively from 22 per cent to 32 per cent in between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. However, the continuing high levels of undernutrition are still a major problem in Telangana,” said the NHFS-5 report released earlier this year.