Bhubaneswar: Nearly 28 per cent of children under six years of age in Odisha are stunted, while 12 per cent are found to be underweight. Similarly, 3.21 per cent of children in the 0-5 age group were found to be wasted and 11.63 per cent of children were underweight, according to Poshan Tracker data for the month of June 2025.
Meanwhile, about 37.07 per cent of children under five years of age registered on the Poshan Tracker were found to be stunted, 15.93 per cent underweight and 5.46 per cent wasted nationally, according to official data. Poshan Tracker comprises pregnant women, lactating mothers, children up to 6 years of age, and adolescent girls as beneficiaries. Nearly 8.61 crore children up to the age of six were registered on Poshan Tracker as of June 2025, which is a slight decline from the previous year’s 8.91 crore, according to national data. It tracks interventions for beneficiaries and monitors their progress through daily and monthly reports, which are further reviewed by Supervisors, CDPOs, and DPOs. The levels of underweight and wasting in children as obtained from Poshan Tracker are much less than those projected by NFHS-5, said official sources. While concerns about chronic under-nutrition and its impact on child growth remain, the trend indicates Odisha is moving in the right direction.
According to Ministry of Child and Women Development, Odisha has recorded a consistent decline in major indicators of child malnutrition since 2022: Stunting fell from 30.6 per cent to 29.1 per cent, wasting dropped sharply from 5.9 per cent to 2.9 per cent and underweight children reduced from 14.7 per cent to 12.8 per cent. As per the World Health Organisation’s Child Growth Standard, stunting causes irreversible physical and mental damage to children.
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A stunted child is too short for their age, does not fully develop, and stunting reflects chronic under-nutrition during the most critical periods of growth and development in early life, said paediatricians. Similarly, children are regarded as underweight if they are in the bottom 5th percentile for weight compared to their height. Underweight is not only classified compared to other children their age, but to their height, as we clinically look for a child to be proportionate, they said. Child stunting and underweight issues occur to below five years of kids mostly due to malnutrition and lack of unhygienic living conditions, they said, adding that nutrient content in food intake could help them recover from these physical deficiencies.
