Examining the linkage between open defecation and child malnutrition in India
Section snippets
Introduction:
It is not possible to realize sustainable development in the absence of nutritional well-being. Achieving key global health objectives, for example, ending avoidable maternal and child deaths, will also require targeting malnutrition (WHO, 2016). Malnutrition is a significant public health issue resulting due to complicated pathophysiological mechanisms, making it dismal through socio-economic consequences, especially in the developing world (Verma et al., 2016). Malnutrition results in many
Data
The data for this study is taken from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) conducted during 2015–16. This survey is the fourth in the series of national surveys; earlier, NFHS surveys were carried out in 1992-93 (NFHS-1), 1998-99 (NFHS-2) 2005-06 (NFHS-3). This survey is nationally representative and covers more than 99% population of India. NFHS is the Indian form of the Demographic Health Survey (DHS).
“Four Survey Schedules - Woman’s, Man’s, Household, and Biomarker
Results:
Fig. 1 is displaying how the practice of open defecation is distributed across India. The practice of open defecation is tremendously high in states like Jharkhand (71%), followed by Bihar (69%) and Odisha (66%). It is also high in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (nearly 60%). The magnitude of open defecation practice is also high in Uttar Pradesh (54%) and Rajasthan (48%). Remarkably all these states belong to Empowered Action Group (EAG) states. The presence of open defecation practice is
Discussion and Conclusion:
Nutritional status is vital to track the development progress of a nation. Moreover, malnutrition is a global concern and poses many challenges in terms of health, welfare, and wellbeing. That is why it becomes an important priority in terms of the goals listed in SDGs. While Global efforts have been increased in the past few decades, countries also have framed strategies to overcome the challenges of malnutrition. On the other hand, research has thoroughly tried to sort the possible obstacles
Policy recommendations and future scope
Recently during a conference in China, the great philanthropist Bill Gates puts the human faeces on the stage for highlighting the gigantic issues of open defecation, which is also a cause of undernutrition among the children in the developing world particularly South Asia. The multiphasic reasons for undernutrition appeals for coordinated and coherent actions that go beyond the customary boundaries. Faecal pathogens’ exposure is a serious risk to children’s growth, so the improvement in the
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
Not applicable.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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2023, Children and Youth Services ReviewCitation Excerpt :Many previous studies have examined the factors affecting U5 child undernutrition in India (Black et al., 2013; Das & Sahoo, 2011; Debnath & Bhattacharjee, 2014; Dutta, Selvamani, Singh, & Prashad, 2019; Saha & Chouhan, 2021). Undernutrition is caused by both the immediate (inadequate dietary intake, lack of care, and the onset of disease) and underlying factors (an unhealthy environment and insufficient education) (Bhutia, 2014; Cashman, Sabates, & Alcott, 2021; Jose, 2017; Pal, 1999; Rahman et al., 2020; Saha & Chouhan, 2021; Yadav et al., 2015). It has been noted that children from low-income families are malnourished not just as a result of poverty, but also as a result of limited access to maternal healthcare services and lack of newborn care due to illiteracy of parents (Kumar & Singh, 2013; Saha & Chouhan, 2021; Singh et al., 2019; Story & Carpiano, 2017; Varadharajan, Thomas, & Kurpad, 2013).
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2022, Journal of Environmental Chemical EngineeringCitation Excerpt :However, in low-income countries, the most common sanitation option for defecation is the pit latrine [12,13]; in worse scenarios, people choose to defecate in the open [14,15] to avoid using filthy pit latrines [16]. The consequence is expressed in high numbers of diseases, and mortality [17,18]. In the latrines, fresh feces are biologically transformed into a slurry mixture called fecal sludge [8], which starts to degrade and stabilize with time [19–21].
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