Rise in child stunting in Himachal Pradesh: Study

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, December 27

The stunting ratio has risen from 26 per cent in 2015-16 to 31 per cent in 2019-20, while the wasting ratio has grown from 14 per cent to 17 per cent during this period.

The ratio of overweight children has tripled from 2 per cent to 6 per cent from 2015-16 to 2019-20, a study said.

The state has 12 districts and only a few have recorded an improvement in these criteria in the past four years. While Hamirpur and Shimla districts have shown an improvement in stunting, the trend in the remaining 10 districts has worsened in the past four years.

In wasting criterion, only four districts namely Lahaul-Spiti, Bilaspur, Kinnaur and Sirmaur have shown an improvement. In overweight criterion, only Hamirpur registered improvement. Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan have shown an improvement in underweight criterion, while only Hamirpur showed improvement in overweight parameter.

The state has directed the officials of various departments such as Health and Family Welfare, Ayurveda as well as Women and Child Health to coordinate this trend by monitoring the growth of children in the first two years.

Anganwari workers will be assisted by the health staff to check malnourishment among children, with focus on controlling diarrhoea and respiratory diseases. Early marriage, especially among the migrant population, also resulted in malnutrition, said health experts.