{"id":49244,"date":"2019-07-10T19:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T13:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=49244"},"modified":"2019-07-10T17:57:06","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T12:27:06","slug":"7-pm-intent-of-nutrition-policy-is-clear-but-achieving-its-goals-may-be-a-challenge-10th-july-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-intent-of-nutrition-policy-is-clear-but-achieving-its-goals-may-be-a-challenge-10th-july-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | Intent of nutrition policy is clear but achieving its goals may be a challenge | 10th July, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=1irh96JOYwtBRJhwkUB05oFk9zGqnH68s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Read&nbsp;In-depth analysis of all the Editorials here (opens in a new tab)\">Read&nbsp;In-depth analysis of all the Editorials here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Context:<\/strong> As\nper the UN Global Nutrition Report 2018, India is home to almost one-third of\nthe world\u2019s stunted children, widespread micronutrient malnutrition or hidden\nhunger. In the wake of the report\u2019s findings, government of India gave impetus\nto nutritional reforms, with the launch of Poshan Abhiyaan or National\nNutrition Mission (NNM).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\nis malnutrition?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to\nWorld Health Organisation (WHO), \u201cMalnutrition\nrefers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person\u2019s intake of energy\nand\/or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers 2 broad groups of conditions.\nOne is \u2018undernutrition\u2019 which includes stunting (low height for age), wasting\n(low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient\ndeficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals). The other is\noverweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (such as heart\ndisease, stroke, diabetes and cancer)\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Need of Nutrition Policy:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Nearly every third child in India is\nundernourished \u2013 underweight (35.7%) or stunted (38.4%) and 21% of children\nunder five years are wasted as per NFHS 4 2015-16. Moreover, the NFHS-4 data\nindicates that every second child is anemic (58.4%). The intergenerational\ncycle of under-nutrition is accentuated by multiple deprivations related to\npoverty, social exclusion and gender discrimination. Nutrition vulnerabilities are\ncompounded by differentials in socio economic status and vary by vulnerable\ncommunity groups such as SC, ST, minorities and others.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"285\" height=\"92\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/child.jpg?resize=285%2C92&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-49245\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Deficiencies of key vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin A, Iron, Iodine and Zinc continue to coexist and interact with protein and energy deficits.<\/li><li>In India, annually, it is estimated (as on 2011) that about 1.45 million children die before completing their fifth birthday (MHFW). Currently the mortality rate in children under 5 years is 50, as per NFHS-4. The Infant Mortality Rate is 37 i.e. 37 out of 1000 infants die in the first year of life as reported in SRS Report 2015.<\/li><li>Infant Mortality Rate&nbsp;(IMR) of India was 34 per 1000 live births in 2016.<\/li><li>Maternal Mortality Ratio of India maternal mortality continues to be high with MMR at 130 in 2014-2016.<\/li><li>The study estimates that the economic cost of micro-nutrient malnutrition costs India between 0.8 per cent and 2.5 per cent of its GDP, which is equivalent to $15\u201346 billion.<\/li><li>The lack of proper nutrition for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and young children, especially before their second birthday can impair the child\u2019s brain development, cognitive abilities and physical development, leading to stunting or reduced growth.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"272\" height=\"490\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/national-health.jpg?resize=272%2C490&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-49248\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>National Nutrition Mission:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The National Nutrition\nMission (NNM) or \u2018Rashtriya Poshan Abhiyaan\u2019 has been launched by the\ngovernment of India with three year budget of 9046.17 crore rupees. The scheme\nwas commenced from 2017-18. <\/li><li>National Nutrition Mission\nas an apex body under Ministry of Women and Child Development will supervise,\nmonitor, fix targets and guide nutrition related interventions all over the\nMinistries. It will also monitor an assortment of schemes contributing towards\naddressing malnutrition in India.<\/li><li>50% of the NNM will be\nfunded by the Government Budgetary Support and 50% will be funded by\nInternational Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, also known as\nWorld Bank). The Government budgetary support would be of 60:40 between Centre\nand States\/UTs, 90:10 for Northeast region and Himalayan States and 100% for\nUTs without legislature.<\/li><li>National Nutrition Mission\nwill bring in measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres\n(AWCs). The scheme will assist to conduct Social Audits. It will also set-up\nNutrition Resource Centres, which will involve masses through Jan Andolan for\ntheir participation on nutrition throughout various activities, among others.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Objective of National Nutrition Mission:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nobjective of POSHAN Abhiyaan is to reduce stunting in identified Districts of\nIndia with the highest malnutrition burden by improving utilization of key\nAnganwadi Services and improving the quality of Anganwadi Services delivery. It\naims to ensure holistic development and adequate nutrition for pregnant women,\nmothers and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Implementation Strategy and Targets:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Implementation\nstrategy would be based on intense monitoring and Convergence Action Plan right\nup to the grass root level. POSHAN Abhiyaan will be rolled out in three phases\nfrom 2017-18 to 2019-20. <\/li><li>POSHAN Abhiyaan\ntargets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children,\nwomen and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2%\nper annum respectively. <\/li><li>Although\nthe target to reduce Stunting is at least 2% p.a., Mission would strive to\nachieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022 (<em>Mission 25 by 2022<\/em>).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hurdles in the implementation of National\nNutrition Mission: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Monitoring and delivery system:<\/strong> Real-time data about stunted and wasted\nchildren in India is missing. It becomes more difficult to reach out to all the\nmalnourish children. A 2015\nevaluation carried out by NITI Aayog had found that over 24% of the AWCs\nsurveyed maintained poor records. <\/li><li><strong>Technological or digital illiteracy of Anganwadi\nWorkers (AWWs):<\/strong> Government is\nplanning to introduce information and communications technology-enabled real\ntime monitoring (ICT-RTM). However, due\nto the limited capacities of AWWs to handle smartphones owing to their lack of\ntechnological literacy, compounded by technical issues like slow servers and\ndata deletion problems, may result in irregular and improper recording of\ngrowth data of children.<\/li><li><strong>Infrastructure of <\/strong><strong>Anganwadi\ncentres (AWCs): <\/strong>They are the focal\npoint of delivery of health and nutrition services for pregnant women,\nlactating mothers and children. However, many of the AWCs lack basic amenities\nand face infrastructure problems. Around 24% of them lacked their own building\nand operated from small rented premises, and around 14% lacked pucca buildings.<\/li><li><strong>Under utilization of funds:<\/strong> National Council meeting held in February 2019\nfound that only 16% of allocated resources for 2018-19 were utilized by the\nstates and union territories.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Measures to improve Nutrition statistics in\nIndia: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Multi-sectoral\napproach:<\/strong>\nThere have been several nutrition centric schemes in India. However with the\nfailure in implementation and other issues, there is emergent need to establish\nNutrition as centre-stage in the National Development Agenda. As a\nmulti-sectoral approach, NNM is offering enough flexibility in operations and\nat the same time offering a platform for resolving issues relating to policy\ncoordination, incentives and convergent action.<\/li><li><strong>ICT\nintervention:<\/strong> There has been poor record maintenance by the AWWs,\nto overcome the challenges of the\ntedious and irregular system of manually maintaining daily registers and\nmonitor growth efficiently, information and communications technology-enabled\nreal time monitoring (ICT-RTM). Back-end infrastructure must be strengthen to\navoid any flaws.<\/li><li><strong>National\nNutrition Surveillance System<\/strong>: A National Nutrition Surveillance\nSystem should be set up, building on previous experience in states such as\nAndhra Pradesh. This will include an early warning system for increase in\nnutritional vulnerabilities, through assessment and analysis with trigger\npoints for timely corrective action, through development programmes and safety\nnets.<\/li><li><strong>Nutrition\nSocial Audits:<\/strong> Social nutrition audits would be need-specific and\nbased on nutrition surveillance data. Nutrition Social Audit teams should\nconsist of a mixed group representing officials, community members, Panchayati\nRaj Institutions, experts and technical institutions. It will help in\nidentifying the areas with severe under-nutrition.<\/li><li><strong>Encouraging\nPanchayats participation:<\/strong> The active involvement of panchayats is\nseen to be a key factor in changing societal norms and entrenched behavior\npatterns in campaigns such as Swachh Bharat, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. Same must\nbe followed in making Nutrition Mission as a societal movement.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Way Forward:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nutrition is\ncentral to the achievement of other National and Global Sustainable Development\nGoals. It is critical to prevent under-nutrition, as early as possible, across\nthe life cycle, to avert irreversible cumulative growth and development\ndeficits that compromise maternal and child health and survival and undermine\nthe achievement of optimal learning outcomes in elementary education, impairing\nadult productivity and undermining gender equality. Under- nourished children\nof today will not be able to build a New India. Good Nutrition will be the\nfoundation of New India. National Nutrition Mission is indeed a timely\ninitiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/politics\/policy\/intent-of-nutrition-policy-is-clear-but-achieving-its-goals-may-be-a-challenge-1562698332423.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/politics\/policy\/intent-of-nutrition-policy-is-clear-but-achieving-its-goals-may-be-a-challenge-1562698332423.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Read&nbsp;In-depth analysis of all the Editorials here Context: As per the UN Global Nutrition Report 2018, India is home to almost one-third of the world\u2019s stunted children, widespread micronutrient malnutrition or hidden hunger. In the wake of the report\u2019s findings, government of India gave impetus to nutritional reforms, with the launch of Poshan Abhiyaan or&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-intent-of-nutrition-policy-is-clear-but-achieving-its-goals-may-be-a-challenge-10th-july-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | Intent of nutrition policy is clear but achieving its goals may be a challenge | 10th July, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":3567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/brief-image.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704871933},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}