NEW DELHI, May 11 (Xinhua) -- About 60 million Indian children are underweight and the country should work more to "address the current malnutrition crisis," a World Bank report said here Thursday.

    The prevalence of underweight among children in India is among the highest in the world, and nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa, said the report named "India's Undernourished Children: aCall for Reform and Action."

    According to the World Bank's latest figures, 47 percent of Indian children were underweight in 2000.

    Child malnutrition is mostly caused by high levels of exposure to infection and inappropriate infant and young child feeding and caring practices, mainly in the first two to three years of life, the report said.

    Around 30 percent of Indian children are born with low birth weight and is largely irreversible, the report said.

    And the child malnutrition in India shows a concentrated character, which means five states and 50 percent of villages account for 80 percent of malnutrition cases.

    The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program, India's main policy to cope with the child malnutrition, has worked effectively but failed to make big progress in the problem.

    According to the report, the program has given more attention to increasing the coverage than to improving the quality of service delivery and to distributing food than changing family-based feeding and caring behavior, which has resulted in limited impact.

    The ICDS needs to undergo significant changes, the report noted.Enditem