This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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Highlighting that 42 per cent children were underweight in a country spectator high growth, today has been described as a national shame and has said the government could not rely exclusively on ICDS, a program for early childhood development, to address it.
“…the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame. Regardless of striking growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is inappropriately high,” he has told releasing a report on Hunger and Malnutrition (HUNGaMA) here.
Pointing out that India had not accomplish something in reducing the levels of malnutrition fast enough, he said, “Though the ICDS persist to be our most important tool to fight malnutrition, we can no longer rely solely on it.” The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme is a major national program that addresses the health and nutrition needs of children under the age of six.
The HUNGaMA report states that the pervasiveness of child underweight has decreased from 53 per cent to 42 per cent, marking a 20.3 per cent fall over a seven year period with an average annual rate of reduction of 2.9 per cent.
The survey has found that the rates of child malnutrition were still unacceptably high in the 100 focus districts with the poorest child development pointer where over 40 per cent of children were underweight and almost 60 per cent undersized. “We need to focus on districts where malnutrition levels are high and where environment causing malnutrition prevails,” Singh said.
He has stated that the policy makers and program implementers need to clearly understand many linkages – between education and health, sanitation and hygiene, drinking water and nutrition – and then shape their responses accordingly.
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