Jayalakshmi Rajeev
Central University of Kerala, India
Title: Catch- up growth of children with stunting in the early adolescence: A comparison of two India Human Development Surveys 2005 and 2012.
Biography
Biography: Jayalakshmi Rajeev
Abstract
Statement of the Problem: Stunting is an indicator of chronic nutritional deprivation among children. However, what happens to the affected children as they grow older is not known due to the lack of adequate prospective studies in this area. Present paper addresses this issue using the data of two India Human Development Surveys (IHDS I and II) in 2005 and 2012, conducted among same samples. IHDS I and II collected data during the periods 2004-05 and 2011-12 respectively by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. Children with anthropometric measurements were included in the present study constituting about 411 children below five years from IHDS I and 390 children of age 7-12 years from IHDS II. The prevalence of stunting among children below five years in IHDS I and children of age 7-12 years in IHDS II are compared. Pearson Chi-square test was performed to find out the associations with socioeconomic variables. A drastic reduction in the prevalence of stunting was observed among children as they grew older from 0-5 years to 7-12 years (50.4% vs. 20.3%) during the period between the two surveys. The boys of age 7-12 years were found to be more stunted than girls and the finding was significant at 10% level (23.1% vs. 17.0%). The increase in annual income and monthly per capita expenditure is also evident from the sample though a significant association could not be established with stunting. The cognitive skills of stunted and normal children did not vary widely. The results of this study indicate that the stunted children can regain their growth and development in the early adolescence provided the socio-economic conditions in which they live also improve. All stakeholders, policy makers in particular have to exploit this second ‘window of opportunity’ in children’s lives to regain the deprived growth in their younger ages.