How you can contribute in defeating malnutrition in India?

Malnutrition has been one of the major concerns India has been dealing with since many years. Statistics say that about 21 per cent of children under 5 are affected from malnutrition. Considering this, we will talk on how to overcome malnutrition in india, as our initiative on the issue.

Malnutrition can be addressed possibly, in two ways:

Nutritional planning:

Nutritional Planning basically involves a political commitment by the government. The benefits of a well-planned and well executed project can be permanent as well as rewarding. Moreover, these long term projects can accelerate the developmental process.

Nutritional planning includes designing of a nutrition policy and a long term planning to improve food production and its supply. This policy ensures an equitable distribution of food and initiates programs for increasing the purchasing power of people.

This process may include, land reforms,help in appropriate marketing of farm produce and support in agriculture for helping the farmers to get better yields from lands. Some of the plans that government can implement are helping to increase capacity of people so that they can buy nutritious food in adequate quantity, a proper public distribution system to make available good quality food in affordable prices, income generating activities for the weaker sections to ensure availability of food to everyone, etc.

Direct nutrition and health interventions:

This involves various other systems:

1. Improved health care system

Various infections are prevalent in our society, which precipitate acute malnutrition among children and infants. These may include malaria, measles and diarrhea. A good health care system can go a long way in preventing malnutrition in the society, if it provides provides immunization, oral rehydration, early diagnosis, periodic deworming and proper treatment of common diseases.

2. Education on Nutrition

People should be provided education on various topics like:

• Importance and nutritional quality of local and low cost foods.
• Nutritional quality of common foods.
• Importance of absolute breastfeeding for six months and continuing it up to two years or beyond.
• Damage caused by cultural practice of feeding
• Importance of immunizing children and following proper sanitation regularly.

3. Nutrition supplementation

Welfare measures conducted by the government are to target biologically vulnerable groups like infants, pregnant women, preschool going and school going children. Micronutrients, calories, and proteins like iron, vitamin A and zinc can be supplemented.

Objective of nutrition supplementation includes treating and rehabilitating severe malnourished subjects and supplementing pregnant and lactating women.