India needs to scale up direct nutrition interventions

# GS-02 Social Justice

Context

The lack of development in the field of healthcare, especially in terms of malnutrition for children and mothers is a critical issue which needs to be addressed.

For Prelims

  • Child Malnutrition 35% stunted 67.1% anemic.
  • Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition or POSHAN Abhiyaan is to counter malnutrition.
  • Ministry of Women and Child Development is the nodal ministry for POSHAN Abhiyaan, now called POSHAN 2.0

To learn more about POSHAN Click Here

For Mains

Concerns

  • Malnutrition leads to poor learning capacity and poor school performance.
  • This in turn leads to poor earning capacity in adulthood and increased risk of Chronic Diseases such as diabetes etc.
  • India has 20% to 30% undernutrition even during the first six months i.e., the time of exclusive breast feeding.
  • Maternal nutrition interventions and infant/ child feeding practices have not had much success.
  • There has only been marginal success on exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) despite a ban on sale of commercial milk for infant feeding.

 

Suggestions

  • Create awareness on the importance of EBF.
  • Create awareness on the need for complementary feeding.
  • The fact that over 20% children in higher income households are stunted shows that the spread of knowledge about proper feeding practices is very limited.
  • Give more push to POSHAN 2.0 like with Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan so that it becomes the front runner of government policies for the coming year.
  • Overhaul the process of POSHAN 2.0 to eliminate any flaws so effective implementation takes place.
  • Revisit the Integrated Child Development System to ensure efficiency and replace it if necessary.