Abstract

The burden of malnutrition is ‘unacceptably high and progress unacceptably slow’ according to the recent global nutrition report. The report notes that of all the children under 5 years of age across the world, 150.8 million are stunted, 50.5 million are wasted, and 38.3 million are overweight. It also points out the criticality of malnutrition, which is responsible for 45% of deaths among children under 5 years of age (mostly in low- and middle-income countries) and 4 million deaths and 120 million healthy years of life lost due to overweight and obesity across the globe (Global Nutrition Report, 2018). India has continuously fared poorly in nutritional indicators and bears one of the largest malnutrition burdens across the globe. According to the Global Nutrition Report of 2020, 34.7% of India’s children under 5 are affected by stunting, while more than 50% of women aged 15 to 49 years suffer from anaemia.

Karnataka Nutrition Index:
In order to compare the districts according to nutritional status of children under five years of age, a composite index comprising of three indicators has been constructed to show the nutrition status of the different districts of Karnataka. The indicators selected are standard indicators of a child’s nutrition status. The indicators included are as follows: children under five years of age who are stunted (height-forage), children under five years of age who are wasted (weight-for-height), and all women age 15-49 years who are anaemic. All women aged 15–49 years were chosen due to lack of district level data on pregnant women with anaemia within the NFHS.

Earlier CBPS studies on nutrition expenditure in Karnataka have shown that (Rao et al., 2018) expenditures at the level of districts are not well segregated. This has made the tracking of expenditures at district level a futile exercise for identifying any gaps that may be present below the level of the state. This raises questions on whether expenditures at the level of district are adequate. This is especially important as districts vary geographically and population-wise and so do their nutrition requirements. For e.g., districts in coastal Karnataka may have higher access to protein due to access to fish in diet. In continuation of our study on nutritional expenditure in Karnataka, we propose to estimate district level cost of DNI in Karnataka. Therefore, the objective of the study was1. To estimate district level costs for DNI for children aged 0 to 18 years for Karnataka for 2018, 2. And to compare these estimates to known child indicators in the districts where possible.

CBPS. (2020). Estimating District Level Costs for Nutrition-Specific Interventions in Karnataka. In www.cbps.in.