India has 6.7 million children going without food: Study

The prevalence of malnourished children in India who haven't eaten anything in 24 hours, also known as 'zero-food' children, is comparable to the prevalence rates in West African nations like Guinea, Benin, Liberia and Mali.

However, this claim by the researchers has been countered by Sanjeev Sanyal and Aakanksha Arora, Member and Joint Director, respectively, of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.

Many children in low and middle-income countries face challenges with accessing sufficient nutritious food due to various socioeconomic and environmental factors.

As a result, undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies continue to be significant public health concerns across the globe.

A Harvard study, published last month in the JAMA Network Open, a peer-reviewed journal, found that the prevalence of "zero-food children" is as high as 21% in some countries.

Zero-food children are children between 6 and 23 months old who did not consume any milk, formula, or food in the last 24 hours.

India had by far the largest number of zero-food children (6.7 million), which is almost half of all zero-food children in the 92 countries included in this study.

Nigeria had the second-highest number of zero-food children (962 000), followed by Pakistan (849 000), Ethiopia (772 000), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (362 000).

The study was by authors S.V. Subramanian, professor of population health and geography, and Rockli Kim, visiting scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, analysed 276,379 children from 92 low and middle-income countries, aged 6 to 23 months, whose caregivers had reported on their feeding.

To investigate the number of zero-food children around the world, the researchers used nationally representative data collected between 2010 and 2022 across 92 low and middle-income countries.

The study found that zero-food children made up 10.4% of the study population. The prevalence of zero-food children ranged widely between countries. In Costa Rica, the prevalence was 0.1%; in Guinea, 21.8%.

In India, which accounted for nearly half of the study’s zero-food children, the prevalence was 19.3%.

According to the authors, "The prevalence of zero-food children underscores the need for targeted interventions to improve infant and young child feeding practices and ensure optimal nutrition during this critical period of development. The issue is particularly urgent in West and Central Africa and India."