Some have challenged this metric, arguing that Indians’ genetics give them a different growth, that is height-for-age, pattern. Yet Sri Lankans, who presumably come from similar gene pools, have a much lower level of stunting than Indians, and studies have found that South Asian children in the United States and the United Kingdom approach the mean height of their peers within one generation;1 so it is not entirely ‘genetics’. We are simply not feeding our pregnant mothers and children well enough!
