New Delhi: India has earned a lot of praise from leaders of international economic institutions and forums for being the fastest growing economy in the world in recent years. This might not be the case when world capitalist leaders meet in Davos for the 2017 World Economic Forum in January next year. Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank’s president, has threatened to name and shame countries which have failed to prevent stunting among children. Kim, who has been a physician himself, wants to end stunting by 2030.

According to the 2016 Global Nutrition Report released by Washington based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); India was ranked 114 among 132 countries with 38.7% prevalence of stunting.

Children aged 0-59 months, whose heights are less than minus two standard deviations from World Health Organisation prescribed levels, are referred to as stunted. A lot of research shows that stunting during childhood can have adverse effects on health and cognitive abilities in adulthood, thus making it a more serious handicap than just poor in India physical growth.

As is to be expected, the incidence of stunting varies a great deal by place of residence and socio-economic background. Data from Rapid Survey of Children (RSOC) conducted in 2013-14 which was released by government of India’s Women and Child Development ministry last year shows that children from poorest families have the highest incidence of stunting in India. A previous Plainfacts piece has discussed the findings of this survey in detail.

To be sure, the current stunting levels could be slightly lower, than the IFPRI estimates which seem to be based on RSOC figures. An average of state-wise stunting figures for the 13 states for which data has been made available in the latest round of National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) shows stunting rates have declined by 11 percentage points to 32 percent. An Economic and Political Weekly editorial published in January this year, found this numbers to be broadly in line with the RSOC findings for 2013-14.

There is a broad consensus today that a higher prevalence of stunting is more due to factors such as access to better sanitation and nutrition than something like genetics.

Recently published research by Non Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Collaboration, a global network of health scientists, has shown that economic growth should lead to increase in average heights for even adult population countries.

The findings, which have been published in eLife, a biomedical journal, have used multiple data sources to gather data on heights of adult men and women for a century (1896-1996) in 200 countries.

While, the paper reiterates the existing wisdom of nutrition, sanitation etc. playing a more important role in determining heights, its database gives interesting insights into how economic development can affect average heights in a country.

For example, the paper finds that South Korean men and women registered impressive gains in heights during the twentieth century overtaking their Japanese counterparts in heights. Chinese men and women have also overtaken Japan in terms of heights, although they are yet to become taller than South Koreans. It is not very difficult to see the connection with improvement in economic growth in South Korea and China during this period. The paper notes that the rise in adult height seems to have plateaued in South Asian countries like Bangladesh and India at much lower levels than in East Asia, e.g., 5–10 cm shorter than it did in Japan and South Korea.

India ranks 160th and 191st in terms of percentage increase in average height of women and men in the hundred year period. China’s rank is 81 and 69. Even when one compares India’s progress with China, Japan and South Korea after 1947, the results are not encouraging at all.

To be sure, it can be said that the data excludes a large part of India’s post-reform period, which is normally associated with declining poverty and increasing incomes. However, the high stunting figures cited earlier suggest that any radical improvement is unlikely.

The task for India’s policy makers is cut out. It is one thing to get us a seat at the high table of global economic leaders. However, average Indians are still much behind their peers when comes to heights.

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