Only nine per cent of Indian children get proper nutrition in the age group 6 to 24 months, making malnutrition among the chronic problems facing the country today.?
As elections in the world¡¯s biggest democracy approach, yet again the issue has not managed to fit into the agenda of political parties and politicians. Across parliamentary constituencies, the proportion of stunted children under the age of five ranged from five per cent to 63.6 per cent; of underweight children from 11.1 per cent to 60.9 per cent; of wasted children from 5.9 per cent to 39.6 per cent; and of anaemic children from 17.8 per cent to 83.6 per cent.
There are several forms of malnutrition - stunting, low weight for age, wasting and anaemia. Multiple forms of malnutrition were observed, especially in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, which are ranked sixth and fifth among India¡¯s poorest states by per capita income.
Prime minister Narendra Modi¡¯s Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh fares worse in malnutrition indicators than most of his minister¡¯s from north India. For children under the age of five, Varanasi has a stunting prevalence of 43.1 per cent, ranking 124 from bottom.
BCCL
While these figures do not reflect the performance of MPs but they do reveal the nutrition status of the constituency.
IndiaSpend analysed Harvard study data that revealed one in every two children being stunted. The analysis revealed Karnataka¡¯s Gulbarga, constituency of Mallikarjun Kharge, being the worst among 18 high-profile constituencies.
Rahul Gandhi¡¯s Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Jyotiraditya Scindia¡¯s Guna in Madhya Pradesh ranked second and third from the bottom by stunting, after Gulbara.
The constituency of Shashi Tharoor, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and Telangana¡¯s Hyderabad constituency of All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen¡¯s Asaduddin Owaisi, are the best performers by stunting among the 18 high-profile constituencies.
BCCL
Constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, together home to around 400 million or 31 per cent of Indians, have the highest proportion of stunted children under five.
Parliamentary constituencies in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have the lowest burdens of stunting.?