Poor sanitation is a better predictor of child stunting than calorie consumption, new data shows. The authors of the study say, however, that both sanitation and calorie consumption contribute in different ways to health and well-being. They found that open defecation was a strong predictor of child stunting; Indian districts with higher levels of open defecation had higher levels of child stunting, even after controlling for other factors like household expenditure, household size and calorie consumption. The new findings feed into both the more recent interest in heights as an indicator of nutrition, and the previously ignored role of sanitation.

Read more in The Hindu, 17th September 2013