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Interviews | Professor HPS Sachdev, Member of the Technical Advisory Group, Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, interviewed by TK Rajalakshmi (Frontline.in)
Professor HPS Sachdev, Member of the Technical Advisory Group, Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, interviewed by TK Rajalakshmi (Frontline.in)

Professor HPS Sachdev, Member of the Technical Advisory Group, Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, interviewed by TK Rajalakshmi (Frontline.in)

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published Published on Oct 26, 2019   modified Modified on Oct 26, 2019
-Frontline.in

Interview with Professor H.P.S. Sachdev, Member of the Technical Advisory Group, CNNS.

The objective of the very first nationally conducted Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) was to collect nationally representative data on the nutritional status of preschool, school-going and adolescent children. The survey took on board many technical and medical experts to work on its design. One of them was Professor H.P.S. Sachdev, a Senior Consultant in Paediatrics and Clinical Epidemiology at Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research, New Delhi. His current research interests include developmental origins of adult disease; nutrition in children; adolescents and mothers in low and middle-income countries; and systematic reviews to guide policy and practice. Sachdev is totally opposed to (food) product-based interventions. He feels poverty and equity are the basic issues and that the government should not find quick-fix methods to address the findings of the survey.

Excerpts from an interview he gave Frontline:

* As one who was associated with the design of the CNNS, what do you make of the figures thrown up by the survey, particularly those on undernutrition, anaemia and obesity? What is so unique about the CNNS?

We have been doing surveys looking at biochemical indicators for deficiencies and excesses. We used to look at data from the National Nutrition Monitoring Board surveys, which used to study the poorest of the poor. Those were projected as national estimates. Our estimates do not focus on any particular section as each economic group can throw up different results. Some of us felt we needed to look at anthropometry only and more specific bio-markers of nutrition. The United Nations Children’s Fund decided to do this. I was involved in the first cut of the study design. Several nutrient-based programmes have been pushed over the years and what always has been hurting me, including the recently released Global Hunger Index... which does not say anything about hunger. Poor body size, or undersize, is not an indication of starvation. We thought that to guide our policy, we needed more accurate and proximate estimates. Undernutrition leads to undersize and then starvation which calls for medical interventions and leads to pushing of products. One thing leads to another. On the one hand, there is undernutrition and starvation, and on the other, we are told that India is the capital of diabetes, hypertension and various non-communicable diseases. I am not saying that we are not undernourished, but undersize does not translate into hunger. There were no data on micronutrients and overnutrition situations. The survey was designed at the national level and was not specific to any group. The findings could have gone either way but our objective was to inform nutrition policy. The other thing I insisted on, along with others, was to have built-in quality checks. We felt that if the findings were unpalatable to the government and to those who were part of the commercialisation of development misery or involved in pushing poverty alleviation programmes, quality checks needed to be built in for robust data. There was an agency to check the fidelity of data and a few samples were re-evaluated. The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta] also participated in quality testing.

Frontline.in, 8 November, 2019, please click here to read the entire interview.
 
Image Courtesy: Frontline.in

Frontline.in, 8 November, 2019, https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article29766139.ece?fbclid=IwAR30Q_oG1GoOEP72eCyI6Hxz-zRLSF6OAeycAJhnQoHexuLRlQRXf18nhyQ


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