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Abstract
This paper, based on the data from the NFHS-5, examines various indicators of child health in India. A variety of correlates have been considered in order to understand the causes of poor health outcomes and reflect on effective strategies which may contribute to better health of the children. The inter-spatial variations bring out certain specific patterns based on which insights are developed. A major deterioration in the food value seems to have occurred, causing stunting, wasting, underweight and anemia among the children. Mothers' diet, access to medicines, antenatal care and education and participation in the decision-making process within the household are some of the important factors to bring in improvement in child health. Besides, the role of sanitation, vaccine and breast feeding comes out clearly in restoring the health of the children. Some of these findings have important policy implications.
Keywords: Health, child, food, nutrition, NFHS, India
Introduction
Nearly half of all deaths in children under five years of age across the globe are attributable to undernutrition. Undernutrition puts children at greater risk of dying from common infections, increases the frequency and severity of such infections and delays recovery (1, 2). Child health is a pertinent issue because it determines the health outcomes in later life and their implications in terms of productivity performance of the economy. Even the investment in the key sectors is dependent on the social infrastructure endowment of the region (3). After all, future economic growth depends on a variety of development indicators, though we believe that rapid economic growth may release resources to be utilized in the broad areas of development. Inadequate nutrition, poor health and the lack of accessibility to certain facilities at the time of birth have serious bearings in terms of sluggish economic growth in the long run (4).
The findings of the latest round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) conducted in 201920 covering 22 States/UTs under Phase-I (5) present a somewhat disappointing picture of children's health in many parts of India (6). Majority of the experts, based on prima facie evidence, just highlighted the deteriorating sign of child health in terms of increase in proportion of stunted and underweight children in most of the phase-I states/UTs over last two rounds of NFHS (2015-16...