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.