One-third to one-half of all child deaths in India are due to malnutrition, making it one of the biggest causes of child deaths in the country, said Dr Victor Aguayo, Chief, Child Nutrition and Development, UNICEF. For the country to tackle this crisis effectively, the root cause of malnutrition must be addressed through appropriate prevention strategies.

Speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Malnutrition an Emergency: What it costs the Nation’, jointly organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) & Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region in New Delhi on Monday, Dr Aguayo stressed that the consequences of child undernutrition were enormous and there was, in addition, an appreciable impact of undernutrition on productivity so that a failure to invest in combating nutrition reduces potential economic growth. He discussed that practices such as exclusive breast feeding for the first six months, initiation of complementary foods at 6 months of age, timely immunization, proper hygiene and sanitation can play a major role in addressing the problem of under-nutrition among children under two years of age.

Introducing the theme, Smt Veena S Rao, Secretary, Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region, pointed out that the number of people suffering from malnutrition far exceeded the numbers of those living below the poverty line. “It is an inter-generational, inter-sectoral problem that needs multi-sectoral solutions.”

She said that malnutrition was an unaddressed gap in the country’s development agenda and urged the industry to ensure that high energy-low cost food was made available to the poor. “If we are able to address one quarter of the malnutrition in India, which is quite possible as more than 50 per cent malnutrition is not related to poverty, but to lack of awareness, we can increase the country’s GDP by 1 per cent.”

Responding to Ms Rao’s appeal to the industry, Ms Vinita Bali, Managing Director, Britannia Industries Limited, outlined how the food industry had taken the initiative to provide healthier food to the public without passing on the costs. She said it was important that the industry did not wait for the government to legislate and incentivise the promotion of nutritious food products; instead it must adopt a proactive approach in this regard. Here, she pointed out that Britannia Industries had recently signed an agreement with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutirition (GAIN) and was supplying fortified biscuits to schools not as a substitute but as a supplement to the hot cooked meals.

On his part, Dr Vinod Paul, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, AIIMS, said that malnutrition in children was a contributing factor to more than half of all child mortality cases, while malnutrition in mothers accounted for a substantial proportion of neonatal mortality. In this regard, he suggested that priority be given to strengthening the primary healthcare system, from community-based interventions to the first referral-level facility at which emergency obstetric care is available. This implied a focus on the district level where critical planning, budgeting, and implementation decisions are made.

Similarly, Mr T K Arun, Resident Editor, Economic Times, sought to delink child malnutrition from just being a health issue and said that a holistic approach was needed in the areas of food security, health, sanitation, safe drinking water, family welfare and poverty alleviation, apart from various social issues. Here, he gave the example of naxalism, saying that “we have to realise the social reasons for its growth and only by removing them will we be able to tackle issues like poverty alleviation and child malnutrition.”

Summing up the discussion, Ms Syeda Hameed, Member, Planning Commission, noted that the progress in reducing levels of malnutrition in recent years had been extremely slow despite the acceleration in overall economic growth. While income poverty and health status were closely inter-connected, health outcomes were clearly influenced by many factors, she said. Activities need to be better targeted towards the most vulnerable age groups (children under three and pregnant women), she added.

Earlier, the panellists were welcomed by Mr Dipankar Chatterji, Chairman, CII North East Council, who pointed out to the concerns of the industry over malnutrition and said that social stability would not be not possible if this was not dealt with on a priority basis.

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