SHILLONG:
With the rate of stunted children in Meghalaya higher than the national average of 35.5 per cent, the number is likely to increase if no immediate interventions are made to arrest the problem of malnourishment and undernutrition.
According to the Chancellor of Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU), Dr Glenn C Kharkongor, post-Covid, child malnutrition might be worsening — fewer children in India are dying, but those who survive are more malnourished and anaemic.
Kharkongor said this while addressing a group of women journalists during the national workshop on Children’s Learning issues after the Covid pandemic organised by the South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) in the city on Monday.
Referring to the fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) conducted in 2019-20, Kharkongor said the national average of children (below 5) suffering from stunting (height for age) has dropped slightly compared to 2015-16 (NFHS-4), which stood at 38.4 per cent.
But the numbers are worrisome for Meghalaya. As per NFHS-5, the number of children suffering from stunting has increased from 43.8 in 2015-16 to 46.5 per cent in 2019-21.
Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.
On the other hand, the wasting percentage (weight for height) and underweight percentage (weight for age) for children under the age of five in Meghalaya has dropped from 15.3 to 12.1 per cent and 28.9 to 26.6 per cent, respectively.
This survey provides state and national information for India on fertility, the practice of family planning, infant and child mortality, maternal and child health, nutrition, reproductive health, anaemia, utilisation and quality of health and family planning services.
The NFHS-5 conducted in 2019-21 was supposed to be released in July 2020 but because of the Covid pandemic, the release date was pushed to December 2022.
Stating that malnutrition in Meghalaya is a cause of great concern, Kharkongor said various factors can be attributed to the alarming increase in the number of malnourished and stunted children in the state, high fertility rate and silence about sexuality being a few of them.
The MLCU chancellor said the refusal of women to say no to God and man is one of the reasons why Meghalaya tops the list as far as the total fertility rate is concerned.
“Most women refused to go against the Christian belief of using contraception and are unable to say no to their husbands because of the fear of being abandoned,” Kharkongor said.
Aside from this, Meghalaya comes second after Kerala with the highest number of single mothers between the age of 25-40 years.
“There are several reasons why the number of single and abandoned mothers is high in the state. It can either be social or economical. And lack of stigma for mother and child is only adding to this worrisome figure,” he added.
“This is a cause of concern because such topics are socially indigestible and the scientific world doesn’t want to deal with them,” Kharkongor said.
The numbers are alarming – there are 159 million stunted children worldwide, with 50 million alone in India and, Covid-19 has disrupted care for children, especially those who are malnourished.
The workshop witnessed the participation of women journalists associated with different media organisations across the country.