Healthy mothers give birth to healthy children who grow up to be productive adults. By contrast, women who begin pregnancy too thin and do not gain enough weight during pregnancy are far more likely to have low birth-weight babies. In India, low birth-weight is the leading cause of neonatal mortality, or death in the first month of life. Neonatal mortality accounts for about 70 per cent of infant deaths in India — and is far higher than would be predicted by India’s GDP. India’s high neonatal mortality rates is a symptom of widespread maternal malnutrition.

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