Over one-third of world's underweight children in India

New Delhi, May 22 (UNI) Over 39 per cent of underweight children under the age of five years across the world are from India, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said today.

The extent of malnutrition mentioned in the UNICEF report titled Progress for Children: A Report Card on Nutrition No. 4 May 2006 appears to be based on the National Family Health Survey 2 (1998-99), she told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The millennium declaration adopted by the United Nations has laid down reduction in prevalence of underweight children under the age of five years by half between 1990 and 2015.

According to the national family health survey, the extent of malnutrition among children under the age of three years declined from 52 per cent in 1992-93 to 47 per cent in 1998-99.

The third round of survey was currently underway, said Ms Chowdhury, and current status would be known after its findings were available. The government was implementing several programmes to improve nutritional status of children.

In reply to another question, she said over 44,000 children went missing every year of which 11,000 remained untraced.

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