Undernourished people’s count in India dips, but obesity on the rise

UNITED NATIONS: The number of undernourished people in India has declined in the last 15 years to 224.3 million in 2019-2021, according to a UN report, which also said that there are more obese adults and anaemic women in the world’s second most populous country.

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The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 report, issued on Wednesday by UN agencies Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), said that in India, the number of undernourished people declined to 224.3 million in 2019–21 from 247.8 million in 2004-06. It said that the number of children under 5 years of age who are stunted declined to 36.1 million in 2020 from 52.3 million in 2012, the number of children under five years of age who are overweight declined to 2.2 million in 2020 from three million in 2012.

However, the number of obese adults in India, which has a population of over 1.38 billion, grew to 34.3 million in 2016 from 25.2 million in 2012 and the number of women aged 15 to 49 years affected by anaemia also grew to 187.3 million in 2019 from 171.5 million in 2012. The report added that the number of children up to 5 months of age exclusively breastfed touched 14 million in 2020 from 11.2 million in 2012.