Childs growth and nutritional status in two communities-Mishing tribe and Kaibarta caste of Assam, India

Abstract

Physical growth and development studies were carried out among the populations of both tribal and non-tribal in eastern India by different scholars in different milieu and environmental factors from the eighties and onwards. Since then, the inhabitants of those areas have been doing agriculture, fishing, etc as prime occupation, but after a few decades in the same region, demographic and socioeconomic changes took place under the influences of worldwide globalization of industrialization. These are evident in the increase of budget allocation of the respective governments. At the same time, people living in the regions who are under the influence of industrialization have received improved life style being marked with over nutrition; while people in the regions that do not have the impact of socioeconomic improvement still struggle with under-nutrition. This co-existing situation of under-and over nutrition among the populations of Indian subcontinent is aptly described as double burden of malnutrition by Shukla et al. In this paper, growth based on anthropometric measurements of height and weight statistically treated in terms of height-forage weight ht-forage and BMI-forage -z score is analyzed by lms formula with reference to WHO. The nutritional status of 3 to 10 years plus children of Mishing (a scheduled tribe) and Kaibarta (a caste population of Assam, India) is studied. The children of 3-10 years plus of Mishing and Kaibarta populations were observed to be shorter than those of the children of CDC2000, Indian, and IndUp; but are taller than their ICMR counterpart. In the present study, the proportions of stunting, underweight, and thinness categories among the boys of both populations were observed to be higher than those of girls; this indicates suffering from chronic under-nutrition due to prolonged deprivation of required nutrients and illness.

Low height-for-age among Limbu and Mech children and adolescents from two districts of West Bengal, India

“…A study on growth and nutritional status of 3 to 10 year-old children from two communities, e.g. Mishing (a scheduled tribe) and Kaibarta (a scheduled caste of Hindus) of Assam State in northeast India [17] recorded higher prevalence of stunting in boys (Mishing 26.84%, Kaibarta 33.33%) than girls (Mishing 21.31%, Kaibarta 18.06%). In Tripura, another north-eastern state, rural boys aged 8 to 15 years were also found to experience high degree stunting (28%) than urban age-peers (8%) [11].…”

“…The study revealed that around 84% boys and 47% girls were stunted. Studies among children and adolescents from tribal communities also reported high prevalence of stunting from eastern and north-eastern India [17,18,19,20,21]. However, compared to the studies carried out in the communities living in urban and rural areas of India, reports from underprivileged sections of the society especially the tribal communities are relatively less.…”