NGO working on Malnutrition

Pledge Foundation focuses on improving nutrition and health status by reducing rates of acute malnutrition in target communities with a focus on infants and other at risk groups of population through an integrated environmentally sustainable systems approach to food practices.

One in two women of reproductive age in India is anaemic. One in three children under five years of age is stunted. One in five children five years is wasted.

Inequalities are evident for stunting, with stunting prevalence being 10.1% higher in rural vs urban areas. Rates of overweight or obesity reach 20.7% in adult women and 18.9% in adult men. With undernutrition and overweight or obesity together, India faces a double burden of malnutrition

According to the Global Nutrition Report 2020, India will miss targets for all four nutritional indicators for which there is data available, i.e. stunting among under-5 children, anaemia among women of reproductive age, childhood overweight and exclusive breastfeeding.

Between 2000 and 2016, rates of underweight have decreased from 66.0% to 58.1% for boys and 54.2% to 50.1% in girls. However, this is still high compared to the average of 35.6% for boys and 31.8% for girls in Asia. In addition, 37.9% of children under 5 years are stunted and 20.8% are wasted, compared to the Asia average of 22.7% and 9.4% respectively.

Among three worst countries, India is identified as one along with Indonesia and Nigeria. Stunting level in Uttar Pradesh is over 40% and their rate among individuals in the lowest income group is more than double those in the highest income group at 22.0% and 50.7%, respectively. In addition, stunting prevalence is 10.1% higher in rural areas compared to urban areas. The same applies for overweight and obesity, where there are nearly double as many obese adult females than there are males (5.1% compared to 2.7%).