Maharashtra’s Child Stunting Declines: What is Driving Them? Findings of a Multidisciplinary Analysis, 2014.
Authors: Haddad, Lawrence; Nisbett, Nick; Barnett, Inka; Valli, Elsa. Institute of Development Studies.
Between 2006 and 2012, Maharashtra’s stunting rate among children under two years of age was
reported to decline by 15 percentage points – one of the fastest declines in stunting seen anywhere at any time. This was seemingly more remarkable because it occurred within a context where Indian stunting levels nationally are regularly characterised as stuck or static. Maharashtra, the second largest state in India with a population of over 100 million people, appears to represent a major departure from the norm. This report aims to understand the driving factors behind this rapid decline.
This overview first surveys the literature to describe the broad economic, political and social changes occurring within the state in the 2000–2012 period. In what kind of environment did these declines in stunting occur? Second, the paper analyses two child-level surveys undertaken in 2006 and 2012 to describe the distribution of stunting declines, identify factors correlated with the higher stunting (and wasting) rates in both years and to assess whether the relationship between stunting, wasting and its correlates has profoundly changed. The final section of the paper concludes with a series of messages that we
believe are important for nutrition policymaking in India and globally.
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