There is need to tackle
undernourishment
As per the UN’s State of Food
Security and Nutrition in the World report for 2017, there is need to tackle
undernourishment. People facing hunger and poor nutrition have always been high.
Deprivation is even greater among people who live in regions affected by
conflict and the extreme effects of climate change. The impact
of the economic downturn, many violent conflicts, fall in commodity export
revenues, and failure of agriculture owing to drought and floods are all making
food scarce and expensive for many.
All the countries are trying to
meet the Sustainable Development Goal on ending hunger and achieving food
security and improved nutrition. India’s efforts at improving access to food
and good nutrition are led by the National Food Security Act. There are special
nutritional schemes for women and children operated through the States. Yet there
are people who suffer from undernourishment, going by the UN’s assessment. All
this shows that the Centre and State governments are woefully short on the
commitment to end undernourishment.
Planning welfare policies is
crucial for tackling problem of undernourishment. The effective use of PDS
would drastically improve in tackling food problem. Through this scheme, poor
in rural areas can be given nutritious and healthy food. It is basically a
question of priorities. National aggrandizement abroad, and domestic political
calculus (driven by cronyism and communalism) leave no room for issues like
primary health and nutrition.
Even though there is food security
act to assure minimum food and government incessantly trying to put off
undernourishment countrywide, the problem still have its existence in a
worrying proportion. Another major lacuna is that people like junk food more and
shun with healthy food like egg, vegetables, milk in the needed quantity which
causes not only anemic but also deadly diseases like cancer. Hence both the
government and the people ought to be active in eliminating undernourishment
with healthy food and health concern.
The Ernakulam district panchayat
has launched a programme to identify nutritional deficiency in children based
on scientific evidence and adopt corrective measures based on it. This has been
done with the help of the software “Jathak”.
The programme was formulated after the
officials of the Integrated Child Development Service noticed serious weight
loss among children who were born with normal weight while examining the growth
chart during their visits to anganawadis. Use of ayurvedic, homoeopathic and
naturopathic treatment techniques among some children in anganwadis over three
months has helped in improving the health of around 300 children, aged between
0 and five years. This result has prompted them to propose extension of this
facility for all children in the district. Students from four private ayurveda,
naturopathy and homoeopathy colleges of the district were involved in this
exercise
It is clear that India has a lot to
do to tackle nutrition challenges — 26 million children suffer from wasting (a
low weight-for-height ratio), more than in any other country. Yet, the country
has the second highest number of obese children in the world — 15.3 million in
China and 14.4 million in India.
While tackling undernutrition through
assurance of adequate nutrition (usually interpreted as dietary calories), we
need to ensure that it is also about appropriate nutrition (the right balance
of nutrients). Our policy response has to move from “food security” to
“nutrition security”.
India must step up its efforts to
fight overweight and obesity just as it has been doing with wasting and
stunting.
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