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(GIST OF KURUKSHETRA) Nutritional Management Framework for Rural India

(August-2023)

Nutritional Management Framework for Rural India

Introduction:

Food and nutrition constitute critical components for maintaining good health, enhancing productivity, and fostering socio-economic development. The Global Nutrition Report, published by the World Health Organization, states that nutrition holds a pivotal role within the 12 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, underscoring its significance.

Why Nutrition is Important?

Nutrition refers to the process of consuming food and converting it into sources of energy and other essentials required for life.
Nutritional deficiency: A shift in consumption patterns towards processed and snack foods from traditional, healthy, homemade diets has led to an increased incidence of nutritional deficiencies.
Lifestyle disease: Increased nutritional deficiencies along with chemical-based intensive agriculture, modern lifestyle and environmental pollution have contributed to a surge in lifestyle diseases such as obesity, high cholesterol, and diabetes.
Socio-economic impact: Malnutrition and undernutrition are reported heavily in rural areas, tribal areas and urban slums and among people Below Poverty Line (BPL).

Government Initiatives:

Integrated Child Development Services – Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS): This system enabled the Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) to track health and nutritional services nationwide, enabling data-driven decisions at the grassroots level.
POSHAN Abhiyan: Launched in 2018, POSHAN Abhiyan focuses on enhancing nutritional outcomes for children, adolescents, women, and lactating mothers, with a particular emphasis on rural areas.
POSHAN Tracker: Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has implemented POSHAN Tracker to track each beneficiary.
National Nutrition Mission: A comprehensive nationwide programme to enhance the nutritional outcomes for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children by addressing undernutrition, malnutrition and low birth weight.

Nutritional Management Framework for Rural India

The nutritional management framework should include all relevant stakeholders and make use of available technologies in creating a data-driven, outcome-oriented nutritional ecosystem.
The nutritional framework should address the four key categories; Children under 5 years, Pregnant and lactating women, Young women, and Adolescent women for holistically addressing nutrition issues.
It should also ensure regular updation and monitoring of key nutritional targets, promote nutritional education programmes and capacity building of government functionaries.

Way forward:

A robust nutritional ecosystem can be established by engaging all stakeholders and building a robust digital infrastructure for effective implementation and monitoring of government initiatives.
A continuous feedback loop should be created to make the policies data-driven and result-oriented to make government interventions meaningful.