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Stunting and Wasting - Indicators for Poverty
Ines Reinhard
Trincomalee, April 2000
Poverty commonly focuses on family income and income opportunities, access to resources and empowerment. The aspect of nutrition is generally neglected. The evolution of food and nutrition security contributed to changing definitions of poverty. If poverty is considered as "unsatisfied basic needs", then stunting and wasting are appropriate indicators of poverty. Stunting reflects the non-satisfaction of basic needs during the first years of life while wasting reflects the acute deprivation of basic needs.
Stunting is commonly used as an overall indicator of the long-term health and nutrition situation of a population, pointing to poverty, low socio-economic conditions and the prevalence of chronic diseases. In Trincomalee, stunting was highest among Tamils (34% in ‘cleared areas’, 42% in ‘uncleared areas’), followed by 17% among Muslims and 15% among Sinhalese, according to a baseline survey carried out by IFSP (see baseline survey nutrition and health WP 24).
Prevalence of wasting or acute malnutrition among children under five was found to be alarming (26%) compared to 13% at national level. The Tamil community is especially affected, with 27% wasting in the villages randomly selected from ‘cleared areas’ and 38% in ‘uncleared areas’. Wasting was also very high (25%) among the Sinhalese community, whereas the Muslim community recorded 14%. Wasting is an indicator of hunger, insufficient food intake and crisis-related food shortages.
Displacement, the effect of war, poor living conditions, poor personal and environmental hygiene, seasonal food shortages, infectious diseases, lack of access to health services, inadequate maternal and child care, poor education and lack of employment and income opportunities are some of the reasons for the high prevalence of malnutrition in Trincomalee.
Malnutrition arises from a combination of nutritional, biological, social, cultural, economic and political deprivations, and thus implies more than inadequate energy and nutrient intake. In a study of human deprivation in South Asia, Sri Lanka's health situation, measured in terms of lack of access to safe drinking water and prevalence of underweight among children under five, appeared worse than that of Bangladesh and India.
The IFSP Working Paper 27 gives a brief overview on commonly used definitions of food security, nutrition security and poverty. The conceptual framework for the analysis of food and nutrition security considers malnutrition as an outcome of immediate, underlying and basic causes. WP 27 summarises the evolution of food and nutrition security concerns and discusses various indicators for food security, nutrition security and poverty.
Download Working Paper 27 PDF (122 KB)
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