Chandigarh, July 12: The National Family Health Survey 2023-24 data has revealed a substantial increase in child malnutrition across Chandigarh, making it the fastest-growing union territory in the prevalence of underweight children below five years of age. The city’s rate surged to 31.6% from the 20.6% recorded four years prior, trailing only Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in the national rankings for union territories.
The findings have prompted immediate concern from local medical authorities because the deterioration in child health occurred within a fully literate urban population. Alongside the general underweight metrics, the data showed that children suffering from moderate acute malnutrition jumped to 19.5% from 8.4%, while severe acute malnutrition increased to 3.3%, indicating a vulnerable segment of the population at risk of severe illness and delayed cognitive development.
Senior medical practitioners explained that a child’s nutritional status is fundamentally linked to maternal well-being during pregnancy. The presence of chronic maternal conditions, coupled with broader socio-economic challenges faced by the city’s sizeable migrant worker population, has created significant headwinds for early childhood development.
“The socio-economic factor plays a definitive role with a large number of the population in Chandigarh being migrant and belonging to other states,” Sadbhavna Pandit, head of the paediatrics department at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, declared. “Multiple reasons, such as premature birth, high-risk pregnancies, and mothers being anemic, are responsible for underweight children.”
Public health teams are currently evaluating existing child care initiatives to counter the downward trend and replicate the progress seen in neighboring territories like Jammu and Kashmir.
“The nutritional status of a child reflects the mother’s health as well,” a senior health official involved with the reproductive and child health programme maintained. “We are thoroughly inspecting the cause of the increase in the prevalence rate to implement better interventions.”
