Living Environment and Child Nutrition in India

Malnutrition is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of five in developing countries. The role of living environment in determining children’s nutritional health has gone largely unnoticed until recently. This study explores the relationship between living environment and children’s nutrition in India using third round of National Family Health Survey data on children less than five years of age. The study sets out to answer the following questions: First, what is the level of child malnutrition and how it varies among different socio-economic groups? Second, is living environment an important determinant of child nutritional status? The preliminary analysis shows that the level of child malnutrition differs considerably across the subgroups of population. Living environment also affects children’s nutritional status. Finding suggests that in the interest of improving the nutritional status of children, living environment should be improved in slum areas of India.