Govt to focus on malnutrition eradication

10 Jan 2012 Evaluate

Claiming robust national fundamentals and looking forward to complete the developed nations, India Inc yet suffers from problem like mal-nutrition. Expressing concern over the higher degree of mal-nutrition in India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said “the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame. Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high,”

Although government has initiated Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to tackle the problem, however, Prime Minister stated that the government cannot rely solely on the ICDS. “We need to focus on districts where malnutrition levels are high and where conditions causing malnutrition prevail,” he added.

Prime Minister also cited that sectors like health, sanitation, drinking water and nutrition can no longer work in isolation of each other. “Health professionals cannot solely concentrate on curative care. Drinking water and sanitation providers cannot be oblivious to the positive externality of their actions. The school teacher needs to be aware of the nutritional needs of the adolescent girl. And above all, the Anganwadi workers should be aware of their contribution to nation building by focusing on the care of our young citizens,” he said.

ICDS was launched in 1975, is one of the globe’s largest and most unique programmes for early childhood development. With the help of ICDS government has been successful to eradicate issue of malnutrition up to 20% since last seven years. However, yet 42% of children still suffer from this deficiency disease. Thus, despite its performance it is clear that ICDS alone is insufficient and government will have to work on other methods to exterminate malnutrition.

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