By Isha Sharma & Hoimawati Talukdar
In the age of digital culture and booming social connectivity, the silent crisis of child malnutrition continues to undermine its very foundation. Thus, a healthy lifestyle becomes the primary cornerstone of any economy. One of the chosen health indicators that significantly affects a nation's long-term economic trajectory, labor productivity and human capital formation is child malnutrition which includes stunting, wasting and underweight.
In India, where nearly one-third of children suffer from one or more forms of malnutrition, addressing these indicators is both economically and morally vital as noted by economists. Malnutrition costs India US$46 billion annually or more than 2.5 per cent of GDP, according to the UN World Food Programme's Cost of Hunger report, 2020.
According to NFHS-5, 35.5 per cent of Indian children under five alone suffer from stunting which has an impact on both physical and mental development. Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach (1979) highlights that malnutrition is a basic deprivation that prevents people from realizing their full potential. A poor diet restricts an individual's true freedom and directly hinders their ability to grow physically and cognitively.
The UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Joint Malnutrition Estimates (2023) indicates that India is accountable for 17.3 per cent of underweight, 30.9 per cent of stunting, and 27.6 per cent of wasting worldwide. Of the 148.1 million stunted children worldwide, more than 53 million are in India alone. This data raises serious concerns about India's health, especially about malnutrition.
All this calls for a multi-pronged approach in the arena of malnutrition with one of the dimensions as social media. Traditional interventions including government nutrition programs, community health workers, and clinical treatment are fundamental but often face limitations in their reach, engagement, and sustained behavior change. This is where social media emerges as a powerful ally. In the digital age, social platforms are not just channels for communication, instead they are vehicles for education, community empowerment and behavior transformation.
Over the past decade, social media has been playing a significant role in health promotion. There has been an exponential growth in social media usage across all leading platforms in the past decade. As per the Datareportal of 2025, there were 5.31 billion social media users. This increasing growth of social media users not only reflects social and economic opportunities but also shows significant potential for discussing and addressing public health issues like malnutrition.
Feeding India by Zomato is one such initiative where it addresses the gap by providing proper nutritious food to the underprivileged children. But its social media presence in terms of narrating a health and conscious diet still remains a distant cry. Compared to other developed countries, the Low- and Middle-income countries (LMIC) are far behind including India when it comes to shaping proper nutritious narratives in social media. Even though social media are emerging as influential tools in shaping dietary behaviors across diverse populations, yet countries like in India, healthier menu options were rarely promoted to children from low income households, showing a skewed marketing approach.
The consumption of fast food is rising at an alarming rate among these LMICs, with 55.5 per cent of adolescents aged between 12 to 15 years across 54 LMICs consuming fast food at least once a week. Social media has been a prime factor in driving this trend with fast food companies using these social media platforms to target these young adults as lower income consumers. There is an urgency in fulfilling the call for a well-integrated, multisectoral policy framework that positions social media as a central agency in aiding the functionalities of national and regional public health strategies in India.
Malnutrition is not merely a public health concern but it is also detrimental to economic growth, social injustice and human capital formation. Social media particularly is home to countless users, therefore, these digital platforms can shape narratives, normalize healthy dietary practices and counter misleading food practices. Reducing malnutrition in India, requires reshaping the information ecosystem that influences everyday decisions. By reclaiming social media as a digitally empowered space for informed choice and social responsibility, India can envisage a better future where child nutrition is strengthened through healthy and digitally connected societies.
(Dr Isha Sharma is an Assistant Professor in Economics, School of Social Sciences and Fellow, Centre for Studies in Population and Development (CSPD), Christ (Deemed to be University) and Dr Hoimawati Talukdar is an Assistant Professor in Media Studies, School of Social Sciences, Christ (Deemed to be University), Delhi NCR
The views expressed are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times
