NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Theme : Health
Paper : GS - 2
Addressing malnutrition is critical to laying a strong foundation for human development. Optimal maternal nutrition and infant and young child feeding are the most effective set of interventions in reducing child deaths and disease, preventing malnutrition, in determining cognitive development, and in eventually enabling adult life productivity.
TABLE OF CONTENT
- Context
- Malnutrition
- Indian Initiatives
- Evidence based Intervention
- SDGs
- World hunger and malnutrition and the impact of COVID-19
Context :
- Addressing malnutrition is critical to laying a strong foundation for human development. Optimal maternal nutrition and infant and young child feeding are the most effective set of interventions in reducing child deaths and disease, preventing malnutrition, in determining cognitive development, and in eventually enabling adult life productivity.
- Specifically, the first 1,000 days of life, i.e., from conception to the first two years of a child’s life, are key as this phase presents a critical window of opportunity in ensuring optimal growth, development, child survival and lifelong health and nutrition. In fact, 80% of brain development takes place in the first 1,000 days of life.
Malnutrition:
- The term malnutrition addresses 3 broad groups of conditions:
- Undernutrition, which includes wasting (low weight-for-height), stunting (low height-for-age) and underweight (low weight-for-age)
- Together, the stunted and wasted children are considered to be underweight, indicating a lack of proper nutritional intake and inadequate care post-childbirth.
- Micronutrient deficiency or hidden hunger: Micronutrient-related malnutrition, which includes micronutrient deficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals) or micronutrient excess; and
- Overweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases/NCDs (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers) can also turn into chronic health problems.
Indian initiatives :
POSHAN Abhiyaan :
-
To address the persistent high burden of malnutrition, India started the Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment (POSHAN) Abhiyaan under the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD).
-
Its overarching goal is to improve nutritional outcomes by focusing on
-
capacity building
-
improvement of service delivery
-
community mobilization and participation
-
use of technology
-
inter-ministerial/ inter-departmental convergent planning and review.
-
Additionally, there has been an enhanced focus on documentation of interventions coverage in the first 1,000 days, such as registration of pregnancies, antenatal checkup, and exclusive breastfeeding, as compared to the situation in 2015-16.
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS):
- The beneficiaries under the Scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
- The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) is the implementing agency. It plays a huge role to prevent malnutrition in children and mothers at the grassroots level.
Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana :
-
The centrally sponsored scheme was launched in 2017. Rs. 6,000 is transferred directly to the bank accounts of pregnant women and lactating mothers for availing better facilities for their delivery to compensate for wage loss and is eligible for the first child of the family.
Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDM):
-
It is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children. It covers all school students studying in Classes 1 to 8 of government schools, government-aided schools, special training centres, including madrasas supported under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.
National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013:
- Its objective is to provide for food and nutritional security in the human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantities of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.
- Coverage: 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population for receiving subsidized foodgrains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). Overall, NFSA caters to 67% of the total population. Priority Households to be covered under TPDS, including households covered under existing Antyodaya Anna Yojana.
- It provides 5 Kgs of foodgrains per person per month at Rs. 3/2/1 per Kg for rice/wheat/coarse grains. The existing AAY household will continue to receive 35 Kgs of foodgrains per household per month.
- It also provides meal and maternity benefits of not less than Rs. 6,000 to pregnant women and lactating mothers during pregnancy and six months after the child birth. Meals for children up to 14 years of age.
Evidence-based interventions :
- Evidence tells us that for bringing about change in nutrition outcomes, evidence-based interventions need to be delivered with high coverage, continuity (over the first 1,000 days of life and across delivery channels), intensity (multiple interactions), quality and equity.
- The health and nutrition status of women, including the weight and hemoglobin level, age at conception, and levels of multiple micronutrients during periconceptional period, are critical determinants for the child’s health.
- The criticality of preconception care, i.e., care before pregnancy, is acknowledged. In 2018, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare worked with Maharashtra and UNICEF to introduce the first ever primary health-care innovation programme to promote the health of women during the preconception period, in Nashik district.
- During the programme, it was seen that promoting the health of adolescent girls and women not only promotes the health of the newborn but also prevents low birth weight, preterm birth, and newborn deaths. Its success led to it being scaled across several districts in the State.
- All such interventions are delivered to the last mile by the network of the frontline workforce: Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives (ANMs) and Anganwadi Workers (AWWs), who play a key role in empowering the community on health planning and action. In many geographies, they are the only access point to basic nutrition and other health services. They are critical in promoting healthy practices, providing on-ground support, and improving awareness.
SDGs :
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".
- The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030.
World hunger and malnutrition and the impact of COVID-19:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 is about creating a world free of hunger by 2030. In 2020, between 720 million and 811 million persons worldwide were suffering from hunger, roughly 161 million more than in 2019.
- Also in 2020, a staggering 2.4 billion people, or above 30 percent of the world’s population, were moderately or severely food-insecure, lacking regular access to adequate food. The figure increased by nearly 320 million people in just one year.
- The number of people going hungry and suffering from food insecurity had been gradually rising between 2014 and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The COVID-19 crisis has pushed those rising rates even higher and has also exacerbated all forms of malnutrition, particularly in children.
- The war in Ukraine is further disrupting global food supply chains and creating the biggest global food crisis since the Second World War.
FAQs :
1. What are SDGs ?
Answer : Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030.
2. What are the Objectives of NFSA 2013?
Answer : Its objective is to provide for food and nutritional security in the human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantities of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.