A study done by a bevy of experts from across the world throws some interesting insights how people in different countries have added to their nutrition and health and gained height over the last 100 years from 1896 to 1996. It shows Indian men just added just 2.9 cms in the last one century to achieve a mean height of 164.9 cms while the women have added a slightly higher 4.6 cms to gain a mean height of 152.6 cms.

This improvement fared so badly that Indian men’s global ranking in terms of height has slipped from 101 in 1896 to 178 in 1996 a fall down 77 rungs even while their spending and incomes has improved substantially over the period. Women fared comparatively better with their global ranking slipping only 29 rungs from 163 to the 192 position. But what makes India’s performance even more disturbing is that India’s neighbours and peers have raised the height of their people and significantly improved their global rankings almost across board.

In terms of height men in neighbouring Bhutan increased their height by 4 cms over the last 100 years while that in Bangladesh increased it by 5.2 cms, those in Myanmar improved it by 7.4 cms while that in Sri Lanka went up by 8.8 cms. It is also seen that even men in Vietnam, hit by decades of war, increased their height by as much as 9.1 cms, which is close to the double digit growth achieved in most developed countries.

In fact India only neighbour which has fared worse is Pakistan where the mean height of men only went up by 1.2 cms to 166.9 cms. Though this pushed down Pakistans ranking drastically by 105 rungs from 47 to the 152 position it still continues to fare marginally better than India. Similarly other Bric countries like China, Russia and Brazil have also registered much greater progress than India.

For instance mean height of men in China went up by 10.8 cms pushing it up to 171.8 and improving its global ranking from 130 in 1896 to 93 in 1996, a climb up by 37 rungs. Similarly the average height of Brazilian men also went up by 10.4 cms during this period which improved its global ranking from 80 to 68. In case of Brazil though the average height of men went up by 9.5 cms to 176.5 its ranking went down from 35 to 42.

But India is not the only country to be worried by its inability to make its people taller. In fact it is even seen that one time global super economies propelled by both free markets and social welfare states have also fared badly. For instance the countries with the tallest men in the world in 1896 were Sweden, Norway, USA and Estonia in that order.

However, by 1996 only Estonia improved its rankings to the 3rd position globally while Sweden’s ranking came down to 15, that of Norway to 13 and that of USA to 37, probably influenced by the large migration of people from South America and Asia. By 1996 the countries with the tallest males were Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Lativa with their mean heights being 182.5, 181.7 181.6 and 181.4 respectively (all above 6 feet). While Netherlands ranking went up from 12 to 1, that of Belgium improved from 33 to 2 and that of Lativa went up from 13 to 4.

But what is more interesting is the list of major economies which has made the largest gains in increasing the height of its men were from the East. At the top is Iran where the average men height increased by 16.5 cms increasing it to 173.6 cms. Next came South Korea where the average height increased by 15.1 cms to 174.9 cms. Then came Japan where the mean height increased by 14.6 cms to 170.8 cms.

The other major nations which registered the highest gains were mainly from Europe. This included countries like Belgium where the mean height rose by 14.5 cms to 167.2 cms, Spain where the height increased by 14.3 cms to 176.6 cms, France where the average height rose by 13.3 cms to 179.7 cms(almost 6 feet), Netherlands where it increased by 13.1 cms to 182.5 cms and Germany where it went up by 12.7 cms to 179.9 cms.

The changes in heights of women across nations also largely mirror these trends. All this certainly puts India’s marginal improvement in increasing the height of men and women and the country record in improving nutrition and health levels in poor light.