NEW DELHI: India is among the countries accounting for the highest burden of stunted, wasted and overweight children, the new Global Nutrition Report, 2018 reflecting the growing concern around child nutrition in the country.With 46.6 million stunted children, India accounted for nearly one-third of the world’s 150.8 million children who are stunted, the report shows warning against a major malnutrition crisis .. India is followed by Nigeria (13.9 million) and Pakistan (10.7 million). The three countries together are home to almost half of all stunted children in the world.This is despite the improvement made by India in reducing stunting since 2005-06. According to the latest National Family Health Survey-4 data, India recorded a 10 percentage point decline in stunting from 48 per cent during 2005-06 to 38.4 per cent in 2015-16. Stunting, or low height for age, is caused by long-term insufficient nutrient-intake and frequent infections.Underlining the variation in stunting within the country, the report said India is so diverse from state to state, it is important to understand how and why stunting prevalence differs. "The mapping showed that stunting varies greatly from district to district (12.4 per cent to 65.1 per cent), with 239 of 604 districts having stunting levels above 40 per cent," it said.Apart from stunting, India also accounts for the largest number of wasted children in the world with low weight for height. India recorded 25.5 million children who are wasted, followed by Nigeria (3.4 million) and Indonesia (3.3 million). In fact, this is more significant because unlike stunting, percentage of wasted children has increased in India over the years. According to NFHS-4, percentage of wasted children under five years increased from 19.8 per cent in 2005-06 t0 21 per cent in 2015-16. Share of severely wasted children also rose from 6.4 per cent to 7.5 per cent during the same period.Wasting, usually caused by acute food shortage or disease, is a strong predictor of mortality among children under five years of age."Wasting still affects a greater proportion of rural children than urban, though the contrast is far less pronounced," the report said. It added, more boys than girls are stunted and wasted.India also figures among the set of countries that have more than a million overweight children. The other nations are China, Indonesia, Egypt, US, Brazil and Pakistan.Globally, 50.5 million children under five years are wasted and 38.3 million are over-weight.Prevalence of overweight children is the highest in upper-middle income countries and the lowest in low-income countries, the report said.Of the 141 countries analysed in the report, 88 per cent (124 countries) experience more than one form of malnutrition, the report said."The figures call for immediate action. Malnutrition is responsible for more ill-health than any other cause. The health consequences of being overweight and obese contribute to an estimated four million deaths globally," Corinna Hawkes, co-chair of the report and director of the Centre for Food Policy said.Though the report acknowledges that significant steps are being taken globally to address malnutrition, the burden remains "unacceptably high, and progress unacceptably slow."Overweight and obesity among adults are also at record levels globally with 38.9 per cent of adults overweight or obese. Women have a higher burden than men when it comes to certain forms of malnutrition: one third of all women of reproductive age have anaemia and women have a higher prevalence of obesity than men. Millions of women are still underweight.Women and maternal health is considered crucial to tackle overall malnutrition because the seeds of child malnutrition are often sown in the womb. NFHS-4 data shows Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are the major three problem states with very low full ante-natal care (ANC) coverage of mothers. Apart from these three, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and Gujarat were the states with highest incidence of stunting.