Partial results from the National Family Health Survey round 5 (NFHS-5) draw attention to the crisis of malnutrition in the country. 

The factsheets that are available pertain to 17 states and five Union Territories – put together they roughly account for half of India’s population. 

Background:

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) recently released the results from the first phase of the National Family Health Survey (NHFS). 
• This is the fifth such survey and the first phase — for which data was collected in the second half of 2019 — covered 17 states and five Union Territories.

What is NFHS?

National Family Health Survey (NHFS) is a large-scale nationwide survey of representative households. The data is collected over multiple rounds. 

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has designated International Institute for Population Sciences in Mumbai as the nodal agency.
• The survey is a collaborative effort of IIPS; ORC Macro, Maryland (US); and the East-West Center, Hawaii (US). 
• The survey is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with supplementary support from UNICEF.
• This is the fifth NFHS and refers to the 2019-20 period. 
• The first four referred to 1992-93, 1998-99, 2005-06 and 2015-16, respectively.

What data does it collect?

The initial factsheet for NFHS-5 provides state-wise data on 131 parameters. 

These parameters include questions such as how many households get drinking water, electricity and improved sanitation; what is sex ratio at birth, what are infant and child mortality metrics, what is the status of maternal and child health, how many have high blood sugar or high blood pressure etc.

In the fifth iteration, there are new questions on preschool education, disability, access to a toilet facility, death registration, bathing practices during menstruation, and methods and reasons for abortion are added.

Why are NFHS results important?

The NFHS database is possibly the most important one because it not only feeds into the research needs and informs advocacy but also is central to both central and state-level policymaking. 

What has NFHS-5 found?

Researchers and experts on health and welfare metrics have described the latest results as “shocking”, “alarming” and “very troublesome”.

• On several parameters, the number of states worsening over the last round — NFHS-4 (2015-16) — is not only high but often more than the number of states improving.
• The most troubling is that on child malnutrition parameters several states have either been stagnant or worsened.

• In other words, children born between 2014 and 2019 (that is, 0 to 5 years of age) are more malnourished than the previous generation. 

Another cause of concern is the fact that the first phase data is pre-pandemic and it is quite likely that the second phase — which will also incorporate Covid’s impact — may throw up ever poorer results.