Food for thought

With greater food security and access, India has shown improvement in its malnutrition track record, compared to the past. But it still needs to go a long way in terms of its global ranking on its nutrition goals. The 2018 edition of the Global Nutrition Report has found that India holds around 24 percent of the world’s burden of malnourished children. Undernutrition among mothers, before and after pregnancy, is largely to blame for this situation.

When we see women for their contribution at large, we begin to appreciate how vital they are to keep the wheels of our economy running and holding our social structures in place. For instance, women working in farms or as labourer also contribute significantly to the family income. Homemakers play a vital part as well—they hold a ‘job’ that is 24x7 and all too demanding compared with our conventional notions about work and employment. 

Poverty, along with misconceptions and local myths on food and dietary habits, contribute to fuelling this crisis. Poor hygiene and unsanitary living conditions make things even worse.This combination of unaffordability, familial neglect, social marginalisation and lack of knowledge is why undernutrition and poor health among women, adolescent girls and young children continues to be a challenge. The National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16) reports that 38.4 percent of India’s 54 million children under five years of age suffer from stunted growth, while 58.6 percent are anaemic. The levels of anaemia among non-pregnant women age 15-49 years are 53.2 percent; for pregnant women, it is 50.4 percent. 

If left unaddressed at the early stages, malnutrition can lead to serious health issues later. Its short-term adverse effects include irritability and poor appetite, recurring illness, weakness and lower weight as per age, and delayed physical and mental development. Over the long-term, children could experience stunted growth, shorter height as per their age, hampered learning ability and poor health in general. 

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (2.2) promises to end all forms of malnutrition by 2025, which includes control over stunting and wasting (low weight for height) in children less than five years of age and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women. The right nutrition during the first 1,000 days in a child’s life, and the pre-natal and post-natal periods for a woman, can have significant impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn and succeed. This crucial phase shapes the emotional and cognitive well-being as the child grows to become an adult.

Successive governments in India have supported the corporate sector in addressing these concerns and serving the community through their knowledge, resources, and skills.The Adani Foundation-led Project SuPoshan, launched in May 2016, is an integrated community-based model that operates on a three-pronged strategy of promoting awareness, building institutional capacity and knowledge, and networking with government schemes to deliver curative and preventive solutions. The project now serves local communities in 20 locations, across 1,209 villages, 95 slums to reach 14.8 lakh beneficiaries living in 3,00,750 households. 

Till March 2019, a positive transition from being Severely Acute Malnourished to Moderately Acute Malnourished (MAM) was seen in total of 3,320 children and about 8,562 children moved from MAM state to healthy state. Similarly, about 5,000 women of 15 to 45 years age group have shown positive transition towards improving the status of anaemia in them. This only shows what the right kind of effort can do to overcome the most challenging problems. It is high time we directed our collective energies to rooting out the scourge of malnutrition and anaemia, and making India truly healthy and happy.