Improve nutrition for children
The issue related to health, longevity and well-being of Indians should
be given top priority. A third of
the world’s stunted children under five live in India. The important role played by political commitment, administrative
efficiency, literacy and women’s empowerment in ensuring children’s health.
Food and freedom go together, and the availability of one strongly influences
access to the other; social institutions can work to improve nutrition and children’s
welfare.
The national framework to improve nutrition already exists. The Anganwadi
Services scheme caters to children up to age six, and to pregnant and lactating
women.
Among the factors affecting the quantity and quality of nutrition are
maternal education, age at marriage, antenatal care, children’s diet and
household size. A second issue is that of the quality of nutrition in packaged
foods available to children. Only 21% of these foods in India were rated as being healthy.
India should invest more of its economic prosperity in its welfare system.
To tackle malnutrition, food prices must be regulated. Despite being one of the
fastest growing economies in the world, India has been ranked at 103 out of 119
countries, with hunger levels categorised as “serious”, in the Global Hunger
Index 2018.
India’s child malnourishment level is not only the highest in the world
but varies considerably across States. Growing prosperity has hardly made any significant dent in chronic
malnutrition of children. Millions
of children remain undernourished, as it
not only impacts early childhood health and imposes disease burden but also
affects education, wages and productivity when they grow up, which will impact
India’s growth. Where does the solution lie?
Another prominent idea is the need to link agriculture and nutrition, as
agriculture provides answers to most nutrition problems. Understand the contradiction between
agrarian plenty and malnutrition. An
inclusive and holistic approach, including controlling/regulating food price,
strengthening the public distribution system (PDS) and income support policies
for making food cheaper are important steps. The launch of the National Nutrition Mission as a strategy to fight
maternal and child malnutrition is a welcome step
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