Health Ministry released “India Health Report: Nutrition 2015”

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Jagat Prakash Nadda and Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi released the “India Health Report: Nutrition 2015” and “Global Nutrition Report” .

• The report was released during an event “Made in India: Good Nutrition for All: Implications of the Global Nutrition Report and the India Health Report for Nutrition Security in India” organized by Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Highlights of Reports
The India Health Report (IHR), 2015, offers a critical analysis of nutrition at the national and State levels. The IHR compared nutrition levels among children in 28 States and Delhi.

• India is on track to meet 2 (under-five overweight and exclusive breastfeeding rates) of the 8 global targets for reducing malnutrition by 2030.
• As per data, 39% of children under five in India are short for their age (stunted). Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have made the least progress over the 2005-2014 periods that had the worst stunting rates in 2005-06. The global rate is 24%.
• The rate of improvement in nutritional status has not kept pace with India’s significant gains in economic prosperity and agricultural productivity.
• In Uttar Pradesh, 4% are children malnourished, the highest in the country.
• India ignores the problem of under nutrition and its impact on child development at its peril and risks large economic, health and social consequences for future generations.

Factors affecting nutrition status as per Reports

• Global – The GNR also points out that diet choices affect greenhouse gas emissions and that climate change will affect nutrition status.
• India – Immediate drivers of poor nutrition in India are Breastfeeding and complementary feeding, Child health, Income inequality, Food security and diet quality, Caste and class, Water, sanitation and hygiene, including open defecation.

What India is doing in improving the status of nutrition?

• Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) – Bringing focus on all the life stages with nutrition as a cross cutting issue especially for adolescents
• Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) – Improving adolescent girls’ nutrition and to break the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.
• Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) & Janani Shishu Saraksha Karyakram (JSSK) – Contributing towards rapid increase in coverage of essential interventions.
• Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres – Established at district and sub district level health facilities for management of children with sickness and severe acute malnutrition.
• National Iron Plus Initiative – To control anemia covering all life stages
• Guidelines on Infant and Young Child Feeding – Recommending exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life
• Child Development Scheme Mission – Focusing on under-3s and early childcare promoting Infant and Young Child Feeding practices through intense home visits, use of relevant IEC, improving knowledge and skill base of nutrition counsellors, supervisors and frontline workers.