From now on, 2.5 kg, and not 2.8 kg, will be considered as “normal” birth weight for newborns. Faced with lopsided figures, as India used to follow the National Child Health Standards (NCHS), the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) recently decided to adopt the World Health Organisation’s new “growth monitoring standards” and revise its “weight for age” method.

A lot of homework was done before the ministry gave its go-ahead for adopting the WHO method. A cross sectional study was done in India along with Brazil, Ghana, Norway, Oman and the US, factoring in common grounds like single birth, full-term, non-smoking mothers and immunisation. “In fact, not much difference was seen amongst these countries,” the official said, adding that the new method will give a correct picture of child health.

Under the new methods, India will monitor children in three categories — normal underweight, severely underweight and malnourished. Earlier, there were five categories — normal, mild, moderate, severely malnourished and very severely malnourished.

The ministry says the new method with increase the number of both “normal weighing” and “severely malnourished” children. If earlier 41.9 per cent children fell in the category of normal weighing, as per the new method this number will go up to 59.1 per cent. Similarly, while earlier 5.2 per cent children were in the category of severely malnourished, the numbers will go to 15.6 per cent as per the new method.

“Health staff in various states are being trained on the new method of calculation, while Anganwadi workers will be trained to monitor the growth of children. A sample of new growth charts will soon be dispatched. The states have been told to translate them into regional languages,” added the official.

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