India has the largest number of stunted children below the age of five in the world, according to the latest UNICEF report released here.
Approximately 200 million children, under the age of five, suffer from stunted growth in the developing world.
The report "Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition" found that stunting is primarily caused due to childhood under-nutrition, which contributes to more than a third of all deaths in children under five.
India also has one of the highest numbers of underweight children, below the age of five, and one third of "wasted children" — those facing a greater chance of death — in the world.
Out of total of 19 million newborns per year in the developing world that are born with low birthweight, India has 7.4 million low birthweight babies per year-the highest in the world.
The report finds that 80% of the developing world’s stunted children live in 24 countries.
"Under-nutrition steals a child’s strength and makes illnesses that the body might otherwise fight off far more dangerous," UNICEF chief, Ann M Veneman, said.
"More than one-third of children who die of pneumonia, diarrhoea and other illnesses could have survived had they not been undernourished," she added.