Spatial heterogeneity and correlates of child malnutrition in districts of India

Background Despite sustained economic growth and reduction in money metric poverty in last two decades, prevalence of malnutrition remained high in India. During 1992–2016, the prevalence of underweight among children had declined from 53% to 36%, stunting had declined from 52% to 38% while that of wasting had increased from 17% to 21% in India. The national average in the level of malnutrition conceals large variation across districts of India. Using data from the recent round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 2015–16 this paper examined the spatial heterogeneity and meso-scale correlates of child malnutrition across 640 districts of India.