Underweight
Topic: Human Capital: Education, Health and Demographic Dividend · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Underweight means a child weighs too little for their age. Under WHO growth standards, a child is counted as underweight if their weight-for-age is more than 2 standard deviations below the median. It is a composite (combined) measure. A child may be light because they are short from long-term undernutrition (stunting), thin from recent undernutrition (wasting), or both.
Example
NFHS-5 (2019-21) found 32.1% of Indian children under 5 underweight.
Don't confuse with
- Stunting: this is low height for age and shows only chronic undernutrition.
- Wasting: this is low weight for height and shows only acute undernutrition. Underweight cannot tell these two causes apart.