Official data reveals worsening childhood undernutrition and rising obesity in Madhya Pradesh, highlighting a complex and persistent nutrition crisis in the state despite ongoing monitoring efforts.
Madhya Pradesh’s child nutrition picture remains troubling, with official tracker data showing levels of underweight and wasted children far above the national average and a worsening stunting rate over the past year. According to Poshan Tracker figures for August 2026, 23% of children aged 0-5 in the state were underweight, compared with an all-India figure of 11%, while 7% were wasted, more than double the national level of 3%. Stunting, which indicates children are too short for their age, stood at 39% in Madhya Pradesh versus 28% nationally. The tracker, launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in March 2021, is used to monitor nutrition services under Mission Poshan 2.0.
The rise in stunting is particularly stark. State data show the rate climbed from 35% to 39% over the past year, while the share of underweight children stayed unchanged at 23%. Wasting eased only slightly, falling from 8% to 7%. The latest numbers suggest that despite ongoing monitoring, the state is still struggling to translate nutrition programmes into better outcomes for young children.
The burden is especially severe in some districts and cities. In Sheopur, 51% of children were stunted, while the figures were 48% in Shivpuri and 47% in Ashoknagar. In Bhopal, 30% of children were stunted, 15% were underweight and 4% were wasted; in Indore, the figures were 31%, 17% and 4%. Ujjain stood out for a sharp rise in poor nutrition, with wasting increasing from 31% to 35% and underweight from 22% to 23% over the past year.
The problem is not confined to undernutrition. The state is also seeing a small but worrying rise in childhood obesity, which increased from 2% to 3% over the same period. In some of the worst-affected districts, the pattern appears to be a double burden: places with high stunting also report a relatively higher share of overweight or obese children. That reflects a broader nutrition challenge, where too little food, poor diet quality and changing eating habits can coexist in the same communities.
That wider concern is echoed in other recent figures. NDTV reported that nearly 78,000 children were identified as malnourished in Madhya Pradesh in the first three months of 2023, including more than 21,000 with acute malnutrition. Meanwhile, National Family Health Survey-6 data for 2023-24 show Madhya Pradesh among the worst-performing states on child nutrition, with high levels of stunting, underweight and wasting, underscoring how persistent the issue remains.
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