Malnutrition in India- its High Time.

 India-The largest democracy of the world had climbed through its treacherous past of war and slavery. Anyhow in the 21st century our country faces many new problems, one of a serious problem is malnutrition, according to reports and nutrition experts India has one of the highest burdens of malnutrition in the world.

According to WHO Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalance in person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers 2 bread groups of conditions. One is ‘undernutrition’-which includes stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient  deficiencies or insufficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals ). The other is overweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (such as heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, and cancer).

Malnutrition in India is one of the main concerns especially among children below the age of 5 since the prevalence of underweight children in India is 19.3% (National Family Health Survey, Food and Agriculture Organization), one of the highest in the world, making it lack in unseen potential.

The major cause can be stated as lack of administration or vast poverty but if we think critically it is something that is existing in hidden forms people feel ashamed and unaware about the issues.The first step to solve any problem is to first rectify the problem or get aware of it, we need to form a more robust mechanism for this. Another very important point is reproductive health and malnutrition share a nexus, it is found from studies that many pregnant women who lacked awareness about proper nutrition or was unable to source it, were the major people on the list. It was also concluded from many case studies that proper awareness and government drives contributed significantly to reduce these numbers.

A healthy mother often gives birth to a healthy child and vice-versa, therefore we can address that one solution pillar lies in comforting the health and nutrition level of pregnant women. The POSHAN Abhiyaan by the government to lay emphasis on nutritional status of adolescent girls, pregnant women, lactating mothers and children from 0-6 years age helped to reduce the number therefore making the argument concrete that comprehending and analysis of this nexus can be considered as a key to start the downfall of malnutrition.

After the key comes the idea of proper and robust mechanism to implement these ideas- for this i will like to state the case study of a place called Bharuch in Gujarat where malnutrition was a critical concern in the society here the government choose to work at different levels to provide care and nutrition to many pregnant females and malnourished children, schools and local community drives also did their best to escape this illness.

People and government must realize that its not the primitive times where democracy was an alien term,its high time for a country like India to act upon the solution and many models upon  which many states elevated their condition. These case studies and remedies must be kept alive, its important for us to keep striving to eradicate the issue from its roots for the betterment and welfare of all.

   “ There are people in this world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of Bread”.

                                      -Mahatma Gandhi.