3% more babies with low birth weight born during pandemic in India: Study

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, number of babies in India born with a low birth weight rose sharply -- by about three per cent, a new study has found.

Babies born during the pandemic were also found to be at double the risk of having a low weight at birth.

The increase in babies born with a low weight could impact the development of "human capital" in the long term, as these infants are known to often "struggle with school", corresponding author Santosh Kumar, an associate professor of development and global health economics at the University of Notre Dame, US, said.

"Children who have lower birth weight as infants often go on to struggle with school and this limits their capacity to develop what economists often call 'human capital' -- the key knowledge and skills that will affect their ability to earn a good living and support themselves and their families," Kumar said.

Roughly one in every four babies (3 crore) around the world are born with a low weight, which the World Health ..