| Food & Nutrition
Explanation
Malnutrition across India is around 46% for children under
age of 5. This represents a decline of only 1% in last 30 years.
Thus despite huge economic progress malnutrition has not reduced
significantly. Almost 46% of children are underweight in India.
Child malnutrition is irreversible and causes permanent damage
including reduced intelligence. Malnutrition is not due to lack
of food, but due to lack of micronutrients. Children may not be
getting right amount of proteins for instance.
However Indian food is nutritious – dal, sabji, roti, rice
and dahi together include all major food groups. So lack of protein
cannot be blamed on Indian vegetarian habits. However, many people
do not have enough access to adequate food.
However children do not get breast feeding for first few hours
of birth. Sometimes breast feeding does not begin until few days
after birth. There is enough literature that indicates that beginning
breast feeding within few hours of birth is very important. It
is important for child to be breast fed for 4-8 times. But they
are breast fed only 2 times. Further more children are exclusively
breast fed, instead of supplementing breast feeding with other
foods.
Sometimes malnutrition is caused by bad choice of food –
say food that only contains starch and does not include other
food groups such as proteins.
India’s causes of malnutrition are not same as Africa.
India has enough resources. Indian food is nutritious. India’s
problem is connection. Government programs like ICDS and Mid Day
meal schemes are great schemes. However sometimes it is matter
of connection.
Sometimes it is about knowledge that must be imparted to people.
1. For instance the need to breast feed immediately after birth.
2. And breast feeding during first six months.
3. Proper nutrition during pregnancy.
4. Then complementing breast feeding
5. Keeping child hygienic
6. Proper sanitation.
7. Proper Immunization for children.
When ICDS works well, it works very well. But what happens that
there are gaps. ICDS worker may not be paid well and ICDS needs
reinforcement and is essentially well conceived. ICDS needs innovation
and improvement and better training of anganwadi. There is need
to stream line procedures. If ICDS has dedicated officials ICDS
works very well.
Statistics
Classification of Nutritional Status
State Normal (%) Grade I (%) Grade II (%) Grade III and Grade
IV(%)
Andhra Pradesh 50 32 17 0.09
Assam 64 26 9 0.58
Chattisgarh 47 34 18 0.74
Goa 62 31 6 0.07
Gujarat 43 37 18 0.80
Haryana 56 33 10 0.09
Himachal Pradesh 62 29 8 0.11
Jammu and Kashmir 69 25 6 0.06
Karnataka 48 35 16 0.35
Kerala 62 30 7 0.06
Madhya Pradesh 56 29 13 0.41
Maharashtra 62 31 6 0.13
Meghalaya 61 29 9 0.15
Orissa 47 37 15 0.8
Punjab 65 32 3 0.10
Rajasthan 53 31 15 0.70
Tamil Nadu 64 34 1 0.02
Uttar Pradesh 47 32 20 0.45
West Bengal 50 34 14 0.22
Delhi 50 34 16 0.02
All India 54 34 13 0.40
Source : ICDS Government data.
Legal Position
Though there is no specific law on malnutrition. However the
food security bill has a bearing on malnutrition. The right to
food is a law that has a bearing on malnutrition.
Challenges
There are several challenges in combating Malnutrition.
1. Scale. We are talking about almost 60 million children under
age of 5 years who are malnourished and almost 46% of children
are malnourished.
2. Low education levels.
3. Misconceptions about foods.
4. Low Vaccination Coverage.
5. Lack of Sanitation.
6. Lack of Hygeine.
Actions taken by Government.
Government has taken programs such as ICDS which targets children
under age of 6 years. Government has started nutrition rehabilitation
centers for severely malnourished children where children are
provided fortified food to correct malnutrition. Government trains
parents on nutrition. A child is usually admitted for up to 3
weeks. Government is introducing community based theraupetic care
to correct malnutrition.
Advocacy to Government, Political parties and Media
Government can do a lot to correct malnutrition:
1. Government should improve implementation of ICDS.
2. Government should focus on local solution for malnutrition.
3. Government should universalize community based therapeutic
care using ready to use theraupetic food.
4. More programs through education by prevention through hygenie
and sanitation and immunizaton
5. Government should recognize malnutrition as medical problem
due to lack of micronutrient, vaccination,
6. Government should also focus on medical component of malnutrition.
7. Government should ensure Vitamin A supplementation and deworming
and provide antibiotics during infection.
What corporates should do?
ICDS is huge program and cannot afford to experiment. Hence
corporates should carry out pilot experiments of new approaches
on small scale and educate ICDS for complete scaling up. Corporates
can produce products foods that are nutrients fortified. Corporates
can make their products available at cheaper prices for rural
market.
What should common people do?
Common people can ask their representatives on what they are
doing on malnutrition. Common people should demand transparent
implementation of programs such as ICDS. Common people can donate
or volunteer for NGO working in area of malnutrition.
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