NEW YORK -- Recent studies on children's health in Tibet reveal that almost half of them suffer from malnutrition. As a result, they suffer from stunted growth and their mental development has potentially been damaged.
In spite of the Chinese government's insistence that the region has made economic and social progress, Tibet continues to be one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita income of less than $100. New public health and social policies are needed to ensure that children won't continue to be the greatest victims of a difficult and unresolved political situation.
In 1996, the Western Consortium for Public Health, a private U.S.-based organization, said 60 percent of the children studied fell drastically below accepted international growth reference values and concluded that the height of Tibetan children was a matter of grave concern. Their data indicated that the children's shortness was a result of nutritional deficiencies -- chronic malnutrition during the first three years of life -- rather than the consequence of genetics or altitude, as had been previously suggested.