Despite a spectacular economic growth over the last three decades, there continues to be widespread malnutrition in India. Consequently, between 2005 and 2006, an alarming 43 percent of children under three years old were stunted, 48 percent were underweight, and 17 percent were wasted. Indeed, income constraints can lead to malnutrition, but government policies, cultural norms, and lack of education are also some of the many determinants of malnutrition.

Using the NFHS, I confirm that following the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on child nutrition make a significant difference to anthropometric measures of Indian children.

Furthermore, I argue that poverty alone is not responsible for malnutrition. In fact, 20 percent of parents from the top 40 percent income group do not give supplementary solid food to their six- to eight-month-old infants, which I attribute to a lack of information on sound nutritional practices.