Sporting successes at CWG aside, the Commonwealth realm has not much to cheer India for. The country, according to a report, has the highest number of underweight children among all the Commonwealth nations.

“India has both the highest number and the highest proportion of underweight children among the Commonwealth countries,” says a report by Save the Children, an NGO working in over 120 countries on child rights.

The report titled ‘Commonwealth or Common Hunger’ launched on Thursday, says that nearly half of all under-fives in India are undernourished - almost 7 million of them with severe acute malnutrition.

In fact, nutrition for under-two children is necessary for the development of the brain. Nutritionists call it ‘the thousand-days period’, the period between child is conceived till his/her second birthday. This has been identified as a 'window of opportunity' to improve nutrition in children.

The report says, "Nearly half of all under-fives in India – 55 million children - are malnourished, almost 7 million of them with severe acute malnutrition.”

Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children, said, “With 43 per cent of India’s children underweight and seven million under-fives severely malnourished, the possibility that India will shine in future sporting events like the Commonwealth Games appears bleak.”

The report points out that compared with other developing countries, India fares worse at birth weight of babies. “India, Pakistan and Bangladesh all have significantly higher levels of children being born at low birth weight than developing countries in other parts of the world. In these three countries, between 22 percent and 32 percent of babies are born weighing less than 2.5 kg. They begin life already malnourished and are at a disadvantage. Many are unable to catch up and therefore remain underweight.”

India also leads the Commonwealth countries in number of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). According to the report, this figure comes around 6,941,387 children or six percent of the children in 6–59 months category.

“In India and Pakistan, less than half of women receive the recommended number of antenatal care visits compared with 62 percent in Tanzania and 57 percent in Malawi,” the report added.

India is also one among other 14 Commonwealth countries with insufficient progress in the child nutrition area. Countries like Botswana, Ghana, Jamaica, Maldives, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Swaziland are much ahead of India.

The report, however, was not damning of India alone.

“Sixty-four percent of the world’s underweight children live in the 54 Commonwealth countries,” the report noted.

“We now need to see urgent action that will deliver real change in the lives of mothers and their children in India,” M S Swaminathan, eminent agriculture scientist and chairperson of the Coalition for Sustainable Nutrition Security in India wrote in the foreword of the report.

The report also urged that the ‘Commonwealth countries should use child malnutrition indicators as a key indicator of progress for the Commonwealth as a whole as it gives a clear picture of how well a society is performing.’

There are 54 countries in the Commonwealth and thirty per cent of the world’s population lives in these countries.

Read the report