SHILLONG:
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) 2019-20 has revealed that the continuing high levels of undernutrition are still a major problem in Meghalaya.
According to the NFHS, the percentage of stunted children has marginally increased by three per cent from 44 per cent to 47 per cent in the four years between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. The report found out that 47 per cent of children, under five years of age, are stunted, or too short for their age, which indicates that they have been undernourished for some time.
However, the survey found put that children’s nutritional status in Meghalaya has slightly changed since NFHS-4 by all measures.
The percentage of children who are underweight (27 per cent) or wasted (12 per cent) has marginally declined since NFHS-4. Among the 27 per cent underweight which takes into account both chronic and acute undernutrition, even during the first six months of life, when almost all babies are breastfed, 23 per cent of children are stunted, 15 per cent are wasted, and 18 per cent are underweight.
Twelve per cent are wasted, or too thin for their height, which may result from inadequate recent food intake or a recent illness causing weight loss, and five per cent are severely wasted.
According to the NFHS report, in Meghalaya, only 43 per cent of children under six months, are exclusively breastfed.
Tobacco and alcohol use
According to the NFHS, over three-fifths (61 per cent) of men, and 25 per cent of women, age 15-49 use some form of tobacco.
Tobacco products mostly used by men are cigarettes (50 per cent), bidis (23 per cent), paan with tobacco (8 per cent), khaini (3 per cent) and gutkha or paan masala with tobacco (2 per cent).
The survey also found out that among women and men, the use of any form of tobacco is same as in rural areas (25 per cent for women and 61 for men) than in urban areas (25 per cent for women and 60 per cent for men).
In Meghalaya, among adults between the age of 15-49 years, one per cent of women and 36 per cent of men drink alcohol, and the consumption is much higher in the urban areas.
In rural areas, less than one per cent of women and 36 per cent of men drink alcohol. In urban areas, two per cent of women and 39 per cent of men drink alcohol.
Most men who drink alcohol about once a week (45 per cent) or less than once a week (44 per cent), and 12 per cent drink almost every day.
Women’s empowerment
In Meghalaya, 49 per cent of women have money that they can decide how to use.
The proportion of women who have money that they can decide how to use is higher among urban (56 per cent) than rural (47 per cent) women, increases sharply with age, is much higher among women with 12 or more years of schooling (64 per cent), and is highest among women who are employed for cash (71 per cent) than any other group of women.
Seventy per cent of women have a bank or savings account that they themselves use.
Ownership of assets
Sixty-four per cent of women and 48 per cent of men between the age of 15-49 years in Meghalaya own a house alone or jointly with someone else, and 45 per cent of women and 38 per cent of men own land alone or jointly with someone else.
Among men and women, ownership of a house and land is more common in rural than urban areas.