Malnutrition is the underlying cause of half of under-five child deaths. So even though the proximate cause of children dying may be measles, diarrhoea, diphtheria, jaundice or malaria, the real reason is that they are so weakened by malnutrition that their small bodies are unable to withstand infection. Half of Uttar Pradesh's children (52%) were malnourished when the last National Family Health Survey (1998), the second, took place; half of them (47%) are still malnourished according to the latest NFHS (2005-6), the third.
