MALNUTRITION
GAP – POLITY
News:
Bridging the malnutrition
gap, the Bemetara way
What's
in the news?
●
Nutrition counselling is a simple but
powerful strategy as the experience in this district in Chhattisgarh shows.
What
is malnutrition?
●
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies or
excesses in nutrient intake, imbalance of essential nutrients or impaired
nutrient utilization.
●
Undernutrition
manifests in four broad forms: wasting, stunting,
underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies.
●
Stunting:
low height for age
●
Wasting:
low weight for height
●
Underweight:
Low weight for age
Current
status of the malnutrition in India:
●
As
per the Government’s National Family Health Survey 5 (NFHS 5):
○
36% of children under age five years are
stunted
○
19% are wasted
○
32% are underweight
○
3% are overweight
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Anaemia:
Anaemia prevalence among the under five age children is 67%
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Anaemia prevalence among women is around
57% and men is 25%.
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Approximately 40% of the humongous
population of 1.4 billion is malnourished.
Causes
of malnutrition:
1.
Poverty:
●
Poverty is the main reason for
malnutrition in India. Poor people often cannot afford nutritious food or have
limited access to it.
2. Lack of primary healthcare infrastructure:
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Many people in India do not have access to
basic health services, such as immunization, antenatal care, or treatment of
infections.
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This increases the risk of diseases and
complications that can worsen malnutrition.
●
EG:
Doctor patient ratio is 0.7 per thousand population against the WHO
recommendation of 1 per thousand.
3. Poor education:
●
Illiteracy leads to poor job opportunities
and low-level income.
●
EG:
The National Health Family Survey said that women's education has a direct
impact on the child's nutrition.
4. Poor scheme implementation:
●
Poor implementation of poverty eradication
schemes by the officials led to malnutrition in India.
5. Poor sanitation:
●
Poor sanitation specifically in the rural
areas impacts the nutrition status of the country.
Government
measures to eradicate the schemes:
1.
Mid-Day Meal Scheme:
●
This is a school-based programme that
provides cooked meals to children studying in classes I-VIII in government and
government-aided schools.
●
It
aims to enhance enrolment, retention and attendance of children and also
improve their nutritional status.
2. Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme:
●
This is a comprehensive scheme that provides
specific interventions targeted towards the vulnerable groups such as children
below 6 years and women.
●
It includes services such as supplementary
nutrition, health check-ups, immunization, pre-school education, nutrition and
health education, etc.
3. Mission Poshan 2.0:
●
This is a flagship initiative that aims to
strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on
developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and
malnutrition.
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It also involves improving nutritional
quality and testing in accredited labs, strengthening delivery and leveraging
technology to improve governance.
4. The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013:
●
It is a scheme to ensure food and
nutrition security for the most vulnerable in the country and make access to
food a legal right.
5. Anaemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyan:
●
It was launched in 2018 to ensure that the
annual rate of decline of anaemia in the country accelerates from one to three
percentage points.
WAY
FORWARD:
1.
Awareness promotion:
●
Government should promote awareness about
the schemes and programmes enacted with the intention of eradicating
malnutrition.
2. Rural area focus:
●
Government should take efforts to focus
mainly in the rural areas, where the malnutrition problem is high.
3. Institutionalize Nutrition Counselling:
●
Nutrition counselling should be
institutionalized as a fundamental component of the healthcare system.
4. Monitoring the schemes:
●
There should be a process to monitor and
evaluate programmes and address systemic and on the ground challenges.