Hunger and malnutrition remain among the most devastating problems currently facing the majority of the world’s poor Malnutrition causes a great deal of human suffering, and it Is a violation off child’s human rights. Conventionally, the nutritional status of under-five children is one of the acceptable indicators of households’ well-being.
However, child malnutrition has worsened significantly over he past few decades In many developing countries. Although hunger Is most directly manifested in inadequate food intake, over time inadequate food intake and lack of a proper diet, especially in combination with low birth weights and high rates of Infections, can result In stumped and under weight children. The most extreme manifestation of continued hunger and malnutrition is mortality.
Even today 46 percent of all children in India continue to be under weight and a very high proportion of women suffer from anemia, India Is one of the countries with the eighties proportion of malnourished children in the world, along with Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Nepal. In spite of its remarkable economic growth in the past decade, Indian’s progress In reducing child malnutrition has been excessively slow. The care of young children cannot be left to the family alone – it is also a social responsibility.
Social intervention is required, both the form of enabling parents to take better care of their children at home, and in the form of direct provision of health. Nutrition. Pre- school education and related services. The need for accomplishing millennium development goals is immense. Today, 1. 1 billion people live on less than one US dollar per day (the Internationally recognized poverty threshold) 430 million In South Asia, 325 million in Sub-Sahara Africa, 260 million in East Asia and the Pacific, and 55 million in Latin America.
Data from hunger and malnourishment in India are available from different sources. They are National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NUMB) reports, National Centre for Health Statistics (INCH), Various issues of National Family Health Survey (NEFF), Government of India publications, District level on Household Survey on Reproductive and Child Health Survey. WHO, UNDO, World Bank and EUNICE publications, National Sample Survey Organization (OWNS) reports, various articles and other publications are used for this investigation.
Hunger and malnutrition remains the world’s most serious health problem and the single biggest contributor to child mortality. Over 150 million children under-five in the developing would are underweight – a factor contributing to over half of all child deaths and Pakistan – which alone account for half the world’s total underweight children. Note that these three countries together constitute Just 29% of the developing oral’s under-five population.
Globally, the proportion of children under age five who are underweight has fallen only slightly since 1990 – proof that the world is failing to address children’s issues (EUNICE 2006, Human Development Report, 2006). In the development regions, the proportion of underweight children dropped from 33 per cent in 1990 to 28 percent in 2003, with significant advances in some very poor countries. Still, progress is too slow to meet the MEG target of to restore normal lives to the millions of children who are currently undernourished.
The largest advances ere achieved in Eastern Asia, where the proportion on under weight children was nearly cut in half. This accomplishment was mainly due to advances made by China. Substantial improvements were also made in Latin America and the Caribbean – a region with already low levels of under weight prevalence – where rates declined by more than a quarter (form 11 per cent to 7 per cent). South-Eastern Asia also experienced substantial improvements, with rates declining from 38 per cent to 29 percent.
South Asia, where the largest number of malnourished children resides, made absentia progress in reducing malnutrition by decreasing the share from well over 70 percent to 46 percent between 1970 and 2005. However this cannot be rates as satisfactory performance. The most impressive developments took place in East Asia where the number of malnourished children decreased from 39. 5 percent to 15 percent between 1970 and 2005 (Arrogant and Meijer 2002). South Asia will continue to be the region with the highest prevalence and number of malnourished although both will fall rapidly.
With over 200 million people who are food insecure, India is home to the largest umber of hungry people in the world. India has consistently ranked poorly on the Global Hunger Index. The Global Hunger Index 2008 (Bon Greener et al. 200) reveals Indian’s continued lackluster performance at eradicating hunger, India ranks 66th out of the 88 developing countries. The India State Hunger Index (SUSHI-2008) is computed by averaging the three underlying components of the hunger index- biz. The proportion of underweight children, the under-five mortally rate (expressed as a percentage of live births), and the prevalence of calorie under nutrition in the population. After India became independent in 1947, several steps were taken for the improvement of the health situation and well-being of its citizens. The Supreme Court of India in 2006 passed an order, which requires the budget allocation of the central and state government to increase funding for supplementary nutrition for severely malnourished children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and adolescent girls.
Further more, given the large share of underweight children and the high proportion of the population living minimum consumption level, the Supreme Court of India reiterated the low prospect of India reaching the MEG target on hunger. Resources required for the implementation of hunger and malnutrition intervention programmer is considerably higher than the current budget allocation of the government. According to a EUNICE report on the state of Indian’s newborns, the health any other country. Hunger and malnutrition one in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India.
The major cause is lack of public health services in remote and interior regions of the country, poor access to subsidized healthcare facilities, declining State expenditure on public health, and lack of awareness about reverting child healthcare. This is a serious problem through-out the country but with large disparities between states and groups. There is no single state in India falls in the low hunger or ‘moderate hunger’ categories defined by the CHI 2008. Instead, most states fall in the alarming category, with one state- Madhya Pradesh – falling in the extremely alarming ‘category.
Four states – Punjab, Kraal, Andorra Pradesh and Assam – fall in the ‘serious’ category. The India State Hunger Index 2008 findings highlight the continued overall severely on the hunger situation in India, while revealing the arability in hunger across states within India. Similarly scheduled castes and tribes make up a relatively large portion of the population in extremely deprived and impoverished state of India, including Attar Pradesh, Briar, Dish, Madhya Pradesh, Restaurants, Chastiser and Shorthand.
The reduction of proportion of people living below poverty line has been particularly sharp in the asses. When there has been a 10 percentage points decline between 1993-94 and 1999-2000. These trends indicate that India is on track with respect to the target of halving the proportion of people below poverty line. The infant mortality rate has also come down from 80 per thousand live births in 1990 to 57 per thousand in 2005 and the proportion of 1 year old children minimized against measles has increased from 42. 2 percent in 1992-93 to 59 percent in 2002-03.
The principal causes of infant mortality in India are prematurely, diarrhea diseases acute respiratory infections, vaccine preventable, Inadequate maternal and newborn care, malnutrition contributes to over 30 percent of child deaths, low birth weight and birth injury. However, the rural-urban disparity is still a prominent determinant of receiving basic health services. Schedule castes and tribes make up a relatively large portion of the population in extremely deprived and impoverished states of India, including Attar Pradesh, Briar, Dish, Madhya Pradesh, Restaurants, Chastiser and Shorthand.
The state of Dish has the highest MIR of 96 deaths per thousand live births, whereas the state of Kraal has the lowest MIR of 14 deaths per thousand live births. Nevertheless, one-third of Indian’s total population, approximately 340 million people, live in the states that have a high MIR of at least 70 deaths per thousand live births, particularly in Arioso, Madhya Pradesh, Attar Pradesh, Restaurants and Assam (Kandahar and Pippin chandler 2008). India must reduce maternal mortality rate from 437 deaths per 100, 000 live births in 1990 to 109 by 2013.
The fundamental risk of maternal deaths lies in the women’s nutrition and health status. In rural India, particularly among Muslim communities, many girls aged 13-15 years are already married. The National Rural Heath Mission (NORM) 2003-2012 was initiated by the Government of India under the National Health Policy 2002 to improve the standard f health for the general population. This includes access to water, sanitation, immunization and nutrition.
NORM incorporates measures for achieving the health- prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases. The reproductive and child health (RICH) programmer was launched in 2005 as a part of NORM and is the principal vehicle for reducing infant mortality, maternal mortality and total fertility to meet the demands of the targeted population. In addition, the Integrated Child Development Services (ACIDS) Programmer, under the National Policy n Children, has attained some success over the past 30 years.
However, it has not achieved significant reduction of child malnutrition in India because the programmer has focused on food supplementation rather than on nutrition and health education and has lacked targeted interventions. District level household survey (DAHL-2) has for the first time provided district level estimates on the magnitude of hidden hunger of micro nutrition deficiencies and malnutrition. Severe malnutrition has decreased significantly in India and severe nutritional deficiencies has considerably declined.
Freedom from hunger and malnutrition is a basic human right and fundamental prerequisite for human and national development. Better nutrition mess stronger immune systems, less illness and better health. More than half of the children in India are unable to grow to their full physical and mental potential owing to malnutrition. India has progressed dramatically in various fields but the levels of malnutrition in the country are not showing desired reduction rates. In an effort to bridge the gap between energy intake and requirement in children, food supplementation programmer were initiated.
In the recent years, a range of strategies has been devised to address these issues. There are a host of such interventions, which cover a full-range of life-cycle vulnerabilities affecting the poor. The targeted public distribution system (TAPS) provides health subsidized cereals to the entire PL families; the Antibody Anna Hosanna (AY) targets the absolute destitute; the integrated child development scheme (ACIDS) covers young children and mothers and the mid-day meal scheme (MS) supports the school-going children.
National Nutrition Policy 1993 and National Plan of Action for Nutrition 1995 eve placed a special emphasis interracial on improving the nutritional status of children. The National Nutrition Mission has been set up under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister in 2003. The basic objective of addressing the problem of malnutrition in a holistic manner. All these interventions did result in some improvement in hunger and nutritional status of children but the pace of improvement is slow.
The interventions and programmer recommended for the 1 lath plan period should include improving the reach and quality of existing programmer and formulating new schemes to address hidden unaddressed areas ND issues based on National Policy for Children 1974. National Charter for Children 2004, which makes special mention of the importance of protecting the rights and dignity of girl children, National Common Minimum Programmer, and the National Plan of Action for Children 2005. The broad strategies that with be adopted to reduce malnutrition in India are as follows : Adopting Life- cycle and Rights based Approached to nutrition interventions.
The Supreme Court verdict also directs that the Nutritional requirements (calorie wise, protein wise and encountering wise) of children and pregnant mothers should e observed in all the feeding programmer carried out by Government and Public malnutrition among the Indian children are listed below. It is essential to reform the targeted distribution system (TAPS) and simultaneously release some resources needed by the integrated child development services (ACIDS) and Mid-day meal scheme (MS).
In essence, all the current food- based interventions play a complementary role in Justifying malnutrition over the life cycle of an individual. Certain specific food supplements such as food mixes and multiple encountering remixes, and fortified food items such as dizzied salt are essential for ensuring the nutrition security of individuals, families and the community. In order to support the family counseling and the peer group activities, the mass media will be utilized to promote the same messages and practices to provide an overall positive environment for behavioral change.
Malnutrition occurs largely due to inappropriate family practices related to diet, health care and hygiene/sanitation. The primary focus would be to strengthen family practices related to Infant and young child feeding exclusive breastfeeding, appropriate complementary feeding). Sick childcare with appropriate medical treatment and nutrition management, prevention of illnesses through immunization and hygiene/sanitation, appropriate cooking and dietary practices in the family, appropriate use of nutritional supplements and encountering supplements and diarrhea management through ROT to be promoted within the family.
