Nutrition and health related empowerment of women

Introduction:

• Over the past few decades, empowerment of the masses in general and that of the women in particular, has been gaining due attention globally.
• Women empowerment is specifically important not only from the perspective of social justice and equality but also as a means for achieving the various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including poverty reduction as well as improving nutrition, health and education of the people at large. 
• Research indicates that women (as mothers/primary caretakers) are more likely to influence health and nutrition outcomes of their families, especially the children. Therefore, women empowerment is becoming a top priority in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the policies/programs of every nation.
• Some household-level indicators for measuring women empowerment viz. nutrition and health issues:

Women’s involvement in household decision making:

• economic decisions (finance, expenditure, resource allocation);
• social and domestic matters (e.g. marriage etc.);
• children related decisions (like schooling, health & nutrition).
• Women’s access/control over household resources (including cash, assets, income, freedom of mobility).
• Power & money relationship (between the spouses); social hierarchy; appreciation and sense of self-worth (self-esteem).

Some important laws enacted prior to Independence for reducing social hostilities towards women:

• Hindu Widow Remarriage Act, 1856
• Female Infanticide Act, 1870
• Married Women Property Act, 1874
• The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929
• The Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act, 1937

Various acts to ensure special provision/preserve the interest of women from immediate post-independence till date:

• Special Marriage Act, 1954
• The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
• Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956
• Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961
• Maternity Benefit Act, 1961
• Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971
• Equal Remuneration Act, 1976
• Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act, 1986
• The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987
• National Commission for Women Act, 1990
• Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
• Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013
• Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019

Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY): 

A safe motherhood intervention under the National Health Mission (NHM) for curbing maternal and neonatal mortality by promoting institutional deliveries especially among the pregnant women belonging to weaker socio-economic strata (SC, ST, BPL households).

National Health Mission (NHM): 

• A flagship programme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it addresses malnutrition among women. Its components include: 
• Anaemia Mukt Bharat; organization of Village Health and Nutrition Days as well as Sanitation and Nutrition days (for providing maternal & child health services along with awareness generation on maternal and child care);
• Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation; calcium supplementation and promotion of iodized salt consumption.

Umbrella scheme of ICDS:

• Under the Umbrella scheme of ICDS, a number of programs/schemes address nutrition and health related issues of the women which include:
• Anganwadi Services Scheme which aims to improve the nutrition/health status of pregnant women and nursing mothers, thereby, lowering the incidence of mortality, morbidity and malnutrition among them. The beneficiaries are provided supplementary nutrition, nutrition and health education, immunisation, health check-up and referral services—all of which collectively help in uplifting their nutrition and health status.
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMKVY)/Maternity Benefit Programme (launched in January, 2017) under which pregnant women and nursing mothers receive a cash benefit of Rs. 5,000/- in three instalments, on fulfilling the respective conditionalities: early registration of pregnancy, ante-natal check-up, child-birth registration and completion of first cycle of vaccination (applicable only for the 1st living child). The eligible beneficiaries also receive cash incentive under the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY). Hence, on an average, a woman gets Rs. 6,000/- for her first living child-birth.
• Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG) provides services to out-of-school adolescent girls (11–14 years) for their self-development and empowerment; improving nutritional & health status; promoting awareness regarding health, hygiene and nutrition; giving support to out-of-school adolescent girls for successfully transitioning back to formal schooling or bridge learning/skill training and upgrading their home-based life skills.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched in December, 2017 to improve nutritional status of adolescent girls, pregnant women and nursing mothers in a time bound manner.
• Educated, well-nourished and healthy girl children in the times to come will grow into well nourished adolescent girls and later they will become healthy women and mothers who in turn are expected to bear well-nourished and healthy children. This can help in perpetuating an inter-generational cycle of healthy progeny.

Ways of empowering women in nutrition and health related aspects:

• Dietary diversification or bringing variety in the household diets;
• Adopting nutrient enhancing techniques like mutual supplementation, germination, fermentation, etc. in their day-to-day cooking/food preparation for the household;
• Promoting the use of nutrient rich local/seasonal/under-utilized foods or the so called commonly-discarded foods (e.g. radish leaves, pea-peels, cauliflower stalks etc);
• Homestead-gardening to maximise sustainable gain at the household/community level (increasing availability, access and consumption of wide variety of nutritious foods);
• In rural settings, promoting mixed cropping and integrated farming systems;
• Using fortified/bio-fortified foods, esp. micronutrient-enriched foods;
• Inculcating the habit of food and water conservation among family members with due emphasis on avoiding wastage at all levels;
• Nutrition education to encourage the consumption of nutritious, safe and healthy diets.

Way forward:

• It is imperative to suitably modify the policies/programs for addressing nutrition and health related empowerment of women, attending to the women’s issues in all the facets, capturing emerging challenges, providing access to optimum healthcare services, ensuring nutritionally well-balanced meals and ultimately positioning women as equal partners in development and progress of the household, community and the nation. 
• Only unrelenting nutrition, health and socio-economic empowerment of women can help them to claim their own and the family’s rights/entitlements and they can play an important role in improving their family’s as well as their own nutrition and health status.

Conclusion:

• It is important to reiterate that women empowerment is rather crucial for improving nutrition and health related outcomes of the family. Government has accorded top-most priority to tackle malnutrition among women and is making conscientious efforts to address the issue. 
• The broad vision and mission of the Ministry of Women and Child Development is to empower women so that they can live with dignity as well as contribute as equal partners in national development in a non-violent and discrimination-free environment.
• A well-nourished, healthy and empowered woman is not only an asset to the family but to the society and the nation as a whole.

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Courtesy: Kurukshetra