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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Improving diet of low-income households only way to address chronic malnutrition -Veena S Rao

Improving diet of low-income households only way to address chronic malnutrition -Veena S Rao

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published Published on Jan 9, 2021   modified Modified on Jan 9, 2021

-The Indian Express

Raising the diet of our people from subsistence level to higher levels of nourishment by overcoming the triple deficit is the only way to improve the nutritional indicators of our population — amongst children, adolescents and adults.

It is nearly a month since the first phase of the NFHS-5 survey was published. While we await a response from the government or any policy-making authority, several articles by public health/policy experts have appeared, expressing deep concern at the deteriorating nutrition and anaemia indicators, especially among children. More deterioration in nutrition indicators following the COVID-19 pandemic is feared in the next phase of NFHS-5, primarily on account of loss of livelihoods, reduced food consumption among the poor and disruption of government nutrition programmes.

Most articles emphasise the need for higher budgetary allocations for healthcare, ICDS and monitoring systems. While these are no doubt necessary, a debate must also be initiated on whether the current programmes are adequate and effectively target the root causes of malnutrition or if the strategies require change.

The political executive and policymakers must also note that unlike a disease outbreak, which leads to an immediate public demand for government intervention, there may not be any popular demand to address malnutrition — the public, by and large, does not have adequate information about their affliction. All they know is that they are poor, get tired easily, and their children fall ill often. Hence, in the Indian context, it becomes the responsibility of the government/civil society to first provide information and awareness to the community about malnutrition and its causes, and then implement programmes to address them.

The government could start showing its seriousness by examining the current nutrition-related programmes, and analysing why they are not able to reduce malnutrition faster. Do they require complete overhaul? Should additional interventions be introduced in pockets, identified as high-burden districts? Surely, there should be different norms and more intensive interventions within the ICDS for these chronically malnourished pockets with the poorest indicators.

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The Indian Express, 9 January, 2021, https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/covid-19-pandemic-anaemia-malnutrition-7139073/


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