Explanation:

Explanation

Context: UNICEF released its State of the World’s Children report for 2019. 

Ranking of countries: The report has ranked countries in the order of ‘highest burden of death among children of under-5’ to the ‘lowest burden of death among children of under-5’. 

The report analyses the global state of children’s health vis-a-vis malnutrition, obesity, anaemia and other health issues.

Key findings:

Global scenario:

• One in three children under the age of five years — around 200 million children worldwide — are either undernourished or overweight.
• This puts them at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases, death.
• It describes a triple burden of malnutrition: Undernutrition, hidden hunger caused by a lack of essential nutrients, and overweight among children under the age of five.

India specific:

1. In India, every second child is affected by some form of malnutrition.
2. 35% of Indian children suffer from stunting due to lack of nutrition, 17% suffer from wasting, 33% are underweight and 2% are overweight. 
3. Among countries in South Asia, India fares the worst (54%) on prevalence of children under five who are either stunted, wasted or overweight. 
4. It has the highest burden of deaths among children under five per year, with over 8 lakh deaths in 2018.
5. One in five children under age 5 has vitamin A deficiency, which is a severe health problem in 20 states.
6. Every second woman in the country is anaemic, as are 40.5% children.
7. One in ten children are pre-diabetic.
8. Poverty, urbanisation as well as climate change are some of the factors that are driving poor diet.