Analysis of the nutritional health consequences for indian children during drought

The major objective was to define the effect of drought on malnutrition and morbidity in rural Indian children. A comparative data set collected in the year before the commencement of drought and after three years of drought enabled the study of child nutrition and health status differences between drought and non-drought periods. Since the effect of drought is dependent on several factors, such as relief works provided by the government, socioeconomic status of the community, availability of employment opportunities, and existing nutrition and health programs, these factors during drought were also examined. In children, prevalence of current malnutrition (wt/ht, wt/age), vitamin A deficiency and anemia were lower and that of chronic malnutrition (ht/age) and various morbidities were higher during the drought period than during the non-drought period. The differences could be mainly attributed to the varying efficiency of nutrition and health intervention programs.