IMPROVING NUTRITION IN ODISHA: INSIGHTS FROM EXAMINING TRENDS IN OUTCOMES, DETERMINANTS AND INTERVENTIONS BETWEEN 2006 AND 2016

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Odisha, an eastern Indian state with a long coastline, middle mountainous regions, central plateaus and major flood plains, is rich in natural resources and accounts for 4.8 percent of the area of the country (Government of Odisha 2017). Odisha has 30 districts subdivided into 314 blocks (Government of Odisha 2017) and is home to more than 41 million people (2.4 percent of the population of India) of which 72.9 percent is literate and 23 percent is tribal (Census of India 2011). The state has a sex ratio of 979 females per 1,000 males (Census of India 2011).

The purpose of this Policy Note is to examine the trends in undernutrition in Odisha and to document trends and geographic variability in the major determinants of nutrition and the coverage of key nutrition and health interventions. In doing this analysis, we aim to highlight the key areas of action to improve nutrition in Odisha. This analysis builds upon our previous work on documenting nutrition change in Odisha (Menon et al. 2016; Kohli et al. 2017).