Rohit Shishodia

The level of stunting among children under 5 years has marginally declined from 38 to 36 percent for India since the last four years, the Union Health Ministry informed.

The ministry said that stunting is higher among children in rural areas (37%) than urban areas (30%) in 2019-21. Variation in stunting ranges from the lowest in Puducherry (20%) and highest in Meghalaya (47%).

The ministry further informed that a notable decrease in stunting was observed in Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim (7 percentage points each), Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur (6 percentage points each), and Chandigarh and Bihar (5 percentage points each).

The ministry said that compared with NFHS-4, the prevalence of overweight or obesity has increased in most states/UTs in NFHS-5.

At national level, it increases from 21 percent to 24 percent among women and 19 percent to 23 percent among men. More than a third of women in Kerala, A&N Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Sikkim, Manipur, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Punjab, Chandigarh and Lakshadweep (34-46 %) are overweight or obese.