Improved sanitation reduces child malnutrition: NITI Aayog working paper

Need to develop state-level grids for sewage and solid waste, says Aayog

A working paper by Niti Aayog has argued that improved sanitation, either through private or shared sources, reduces child malnutrition, which in turn reduces child mortality across Indian states.

 

It also stated that India’s high child malnutrition levels are more due to the malabsorption of nutrition in the gut than to the availability or lack of nutritious food.

 

The paper, authored by the central think tank’s member Arvind Virmani and Shruti Sabharwal, said that drinking water quality, mild diarrhoea, per capita income, and measured nutrition (iron-rich and vitamin A-rich foods) are statistically insignificant in explaining inter-state differences in child stunting, underweight, and mortality.

 

 

The research in the paper found that both stunted and underweight children are more vulnerable to mortality triggered by other causes, such as life-threatening diseases. In other words, the probability of death due to these diseases is higher for stunted and underweight children than for normal children under five years of age.

 

“The most important policy implication relates to the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). The large increase in private and public toilets has had a significant effect in reducing the prevalence of underweight and stunted children and in reducing child mortality. Simulations suggest that a replacement of the remaining lower-quality toilets by toilets connected to sewage systems or other high-quality disposal systems can reduce the percentage of stunted children by 7.8 per cent, underweight by 8.6 per cent, and child mortality by 4.8 per cent,” the Aayog said.

 

Taking reference from past models, the think tank found that the installation of modern sewage systems in large cities like London and New York transformed the health of nations by eliminating the spread of many diseases that thrive on poor sanitation and sewage.

 

“Given that our goal is to become an upper-middle-income country in 5-7 years, and a high-income country in 25 years, we need to develop state-level grids for collecting, processing, and recycling sewage and solid waste in the next ten years,” it said.