10 March 2010
One in three children in developing countries is chronically malnourished, or stunted.
Chronic malnutrition prevents proper brain development which means children are less able to start school when they should, and less able to learn and perform in school.
Adults who were stunted in childhood earn significantly less as adults, and contribute less to economic growth. Beyond a child’s second birthday the damage from chronic malnutrition cannot be corrected. Efforts to tackle the problem must be focused on pregnant women and children under the age of 2.
These three children living in Shivpuri District, Madhya Pradesh, India are 3-years-old. Roshani on the the left is 16cm shorter than Sonam on the right. The chances of Roshani being this short just by natural variation in height is less than three in 100.
View the complete set of our images on undernutrition in Madhya Pradesh, a state in the heart of India, on Flickr.
