Fighting Child Malnutrition

India has the dubious distinction of having the highest burden of malnutrition in the world – higher than Sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly 50 per cent of our children are underweight and stunted and 70 per cent suffer from serious nutritional deficiencies. The very high incidence of child undernutrition in India is both an ethical and economic imperative. Evidences show that avoidable undernutrition among young children reduces the effectiveness of investments in education and economic development. Overcoming early childhood undernutrition requires investing in targeted nutrition interventions for immediate impacts, as well as investing in packages of interventions that address the immediate and underlying determinants of undernutrition. Moreover, the benefit-cost ratio for nutrition interventions ranges from 5 to 200, much more than other interventions.