According to a report on global nutrition, the percentage of Indian children (38.7%) suffering from stunted growth due to malnutrition is higher than that of the world average (23.8%). The report further revealed that India has doubled the rate of stunting reduction in the past decade, which is significant as India is home to one-third of the world’s stunted children.

Currently, China ranks 26, which is 106 notches above India, while Ghana and Togo rank 52 and 80, respectively. However, India and many other countries are winning their fight against this form of malnutrition. Other important finding of the survey is that families with people suffering from cardio-vascular diseases spend 30 per cent of their income on treatment of the ailment. The report also noted an increase of nearly 58 per cent in the cost of hospitalisation due to cardio-vascular diseases in the country in the period between 1995 and 2004.

Giving the data for other diseases, it said 9.5 per cent adults in India were suffering from diabetes as opposed to nine per cent of the global population. It said India ranked at 104 among 190 countries surveyed for diabetes. The report is an annual assessment of countries’ progress in meeting global nutrition targets established by the World Health Assembly and commitments made at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in 2013.