Food Security Atlas Of RURAL MAHARASHTRA - WFP Remote ...

Table 2.8: Mortality and Nutritional Status of Children and Women 2 (2005-06)Under- Infant Under- Wasted Stunted Anemic Thinfive Mortality weight Children Children Children WomenmortalityChildrenIndia 74.3 57 42.5 19.8 48.0 69.5 35.6Uttar Pradesh 96.4 72.7 42.4 14.8 56.8 73.9 36.0Madhya Pradesh 94.2 69.5 60.0 35.0 50.0 74.1 41.7Jharkhand 93.0 68.7 56.5 32.3 49.8 70.3 43.0Orissa 90.6 64.7 40.7 19.5 45.0 65.0 41.4Chhattisgarh 90.3 70.8 47.1 19.5 52.9 71.2 43.4Rajasthan 85.4 65.3 39.9 20.4 43.7 69.7 36.7Assam 85.0 66.1 36.4 13.7 46.5 69.6 36.5Bihar 84.8 61.7 55.9 27.1 55.6 78.0 45.1Maharashtra 46.7 37.5 37.0 16.5 46.3 63.4 36.2Best State 16.3 15.3 22.9 9.2 24.5 44.5 18.0(Kerala) (Kerala) (Kerala) (Punjab) (Kerala) (Kerala) (Kerala)Worst State 96.4 72.7 60 35.0 56.8 78.0 45.1(UP) (UP) (MP) (MP) (UP) (Bihar) (Bihar)Source: National Family Health Survey III, 2005-06.and nutritional status specially of women. Social and economic factors determining the access tofood, food entitlements, safe drinking water, and so on, all come into play. Consequently, for an analysisof food security, child mortality is a more relevant indicator than infant mortality.In nutritional status of children (Table 2.9), rural Maharashtra is more or less at the par with all-India level. The proportion of stunted children under 3 years is about the same as the nationalaverage, but the proportions of children under 3 years who are underweight or wasted are bothmuch lower for rural Maharashtra. This would mean that there has been some improvement inchildren’s nutrition. This has not affected stunting, which, however, is a long-term, even intergenerationalissue.While rural children in Maharashtra are more or less at the all-India nutritional levels, the same is notthe case for rural women in Maharashtra. Of adult rural women in Maharashtra, as many as 43 percenthave an incidence of low BMI. This is more than four percentage points of all-India incidence. On theother hand, adult rural men in Maharashtra perform better than adult rural men at the all-India level(See Table 2.10).2. Only those states have been selected that have under five mortality higher than 80 per thousand live births.A PROFILE OF THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA17