By Bidyaluxmi Khuraijam and Manya
Every year, the month of September is celebrated as 'Rashtriya Poshan Maah' and 1st - 7th September is observed as Poshan Week' (National Nutrition Week) across the country, to raise awareness about nutrition and healthy eating habits. Its motto of is to make people understand the significance of vital nutrients for a healthy mind, body and lifestyle. This year’s theme of the National Nutrition Week is ‘feeding smart right from the start’.
via National Health Portal
In the light of the same, MH Vatavaran, The Environment Society of Miranda House presents a blog on Nutrition Programmes in India:
India is one of the most populous countries in the world, coming just after China. Only a handful
belong to the rich class and the rest are poor. The economic status of the country was very poor from the nutritional point of view, i.e. many people are still undernourished or malnourished. The World Health Assembly (WHA) in its Global Nutrition Report of 2020 revealed that India is very far from achieving its 2025 nutrition targets and that it is severely affected by malnutrition. It was also seen that women and children are severely affected by the rest of the population. India is among the top three countries which are severely hit by malnutrition and stunting. One in every three children under five years of age suffers from childhood stunting. The highest rates are from Uttar Pradesh with more than 40% stunting. The Indian government under the guidance of the Department of Woman and Child Development in 1993 adopted the National Nutrition Policy of India.
Since then the government has introduced many schemes and programs to recover itself from the clutches of malnutrition and undernutrition. The Indian policy wants to accomplish the following targets to eradicate undernutrition: anemia amongst women of reproductive age, low birth weight, exclusive breastfeeding, childhood wasting, and childhood overweight among children under the age of five years.
Let's have a look at such Nutrition Programmes in India:
National Nutrition Policy
It was initiated by the Government of India and was supported by the Department of Women and Child Development in 1993. National Nutrition Policy was divided into direct strategies (short term) and indirect strategies (long term) to achieve its vision of eradicating malnutrition and achieving optimum nutrition for all.
Direct strategies includes ensuring proper nutrition of the vulnerable section of the society (children, adolescent, pregnant and nursing women, etc.), expanding the safety net for children (i.e. expanding the policy to rural slums along with urban slums), food fortification, provisions for low-cost nutrition food, and combating micro-nutrition deficiency in the vulnerable groups.
Indirect strategies includes food security, improving the dietary pattern like providing nutritionally rich food at affordable cost, improving purchasing power, encouraging more of the small and medium enterprise to emerge, prevention of food adulteration, imparting nutrition education through social marketing, communication, etc., minimum wage administration, equal remuneration for women, monitoring of nutrition programs. POSHAN Abhiyan
POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyaan is Government of India’s flagship programme to enhance nutritional outcomes for children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers. It was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March, 2018, the Abhiyaan seeks to to deal with the problem of malnutrition in mission-mode.
via icds-wcd.nic.in
Mission Poshan 2.0 (Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0) has been announced in the Budget 2021-2022 as an integrated nutrition support programme, to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes, with a focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition.
Mid-Day Meal Scheme
It is a school meal program launched by the Government of India in 1995. It was formulated to make sure that school-going children receive better nutrition. It covers all the children of primary schools run by the government or aided by the government.
via icds-wcd.nic.in
National Food Security Act It was enacted by the Parliament and came into force in 2013. It aims to give at least 5 kg of food grains per month at a subsidized price to around 75% of the rural and 50% of the urban population. This Act also aims to give nutritional support to pregnant and lactating women together with children aged 6 months to 14 years.
Other important programmes under this act are: National Vitamin A Prophylaxis Programme (1970), Special Nutrition Programme, 1970, Balwadi Nutrition Programme, 1970, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), 1975, National Iodine Deficiency Disorder Control Programme, 1992.
via India News Diary
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme
The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is one amongst the flagship programmes of the Government of India and represents one of the world’s largest and unique programmes for early childhood care and development.
via icds.gov.in
It is the foremost symbol of the country's commitment to its children and nursing mothers, as a response to the challenge of providing pre-school non-formal education on one hand and breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality on the other. The beneficiaries under the Scheme include children within the age bracket of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Balwadi Nutrition Programme, 1970
It was launched under the aegis of the Department of Social Welfare with children from the rural areas being its target. Under this program, the Government of India seeks to provide food supplements to the Balwadis and is meant for children within the age group 3–6 years.
via CSRBox
Special Nutrition Programme, 1970
It was launched to provide a supplementary feeding of around 300 calories and 10 grams of protein to preschool children. It also covers nursing mothers and feeds them with 500 calories and 25 grams of protein. It takes place for six days in a week.
National Vitamin A Prophylaxis Programme, 1970
It was launched to fight against nutritional blindness. It is a Centre sponsored plan which covered all children between the ages of one and three years and the plan seeks to administer about 2,00,000 IU of vitamin A to such children in every six months.
National Iodine Deficiency Disorder Control Programme, 1992
It was started as the National Goiter Control Programme (NGCP). It was later renamed to National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme (NIDDCP) in August 1992 considering wide spectrum of iodine deficiency disorders like mental and physical retardation, deaf-mutism, cretinism, stillbirths, etc.
via medCampus
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