“Stunted children, whose height-for-age is severely below normal, face a lifetime of lost opportunities in education and work,” said a global study called End of Childhood Report 2017. Stunting, too, is more acute among scheduled caste boys (39.4%) and girls (33.4%). A father’s education particularly impacts boys in this respect, said this July 2011 study published by the Medical Journal of The Armed Forces. Rising levels of education among fathers results in lower malnutrition rates: 16.3% of underweight boys have fathers who are graduated and 22.8% of underweight girls have fathers who have studied up to grades IX-XII. Better sanitation means better nutritional statusAccess to sanitation reduces cases of diarrhoea, one of the major causes of malnutrition among children, according to this World Bank study.

Source: Hindustan Times October 25, 2017 08:15 UTC