Nepal, Feb. 14 -- Despite improvement in maternal and child survival, malnutrition is rife in Nepal's western mountains

To understand the new wave of migration from the remote mountains of western Nepal, one just needs to look at the nutrition status of its children.

Hara BK's 2-year-old son has an abnormally distended belly, his arms are thin - the result of insufficient food from fallow farms in this rugged and arid region of Nepal.

"Nothing grows here, I'm tired of walking to the health post," the mother of two tells us, showing the nutrition packet the baby was given. "He gets better as long as we feed him the packet, then he is hungry again."

Child marriage is still common in Bajura, and Hara was 15 herself when her parents ma...