NITI Aayog has launched the National Nutrition Strategy aimed at Kuposhan Mukt Bharat. It intends at bringing nutrition to the centre-stage of the National Development Agenda. It lays the roadmap for targeted action to address India’s nutritional needs.
Leader of the Green Revolution, Dr M S Swaminathan and Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Dr Rajiv Kumar launched the Nutrition Strategy in New Delhi. Our correspondent reports that the nutrition strategy calls for convergence between four proximate determinants of nutrition – food, health services, income and water.
The Nutrition Strategy framework envisages a Kuposhan Mukt Bharat – linked to Swachh Bharat and Swasth Bharat. It enables states to make strategic choices, through decentralized planning and local innovation, with accountability for nutrition outcomes.
Currently, there is a lack of real time measurement of these determinants, which reduces the capacity for targeted action among the most vulnerable mothers and children. The Strategy lays down a roadmap for effective action, among both implementers and practitioners, in achieving our nutrition objectives.
This is especially relevant in view of enhanced resources available with states to prioritise focused interventions with a greater role for panchayats and urban local bodies.
In India 20 per cent of children under five years of age suffer from wasting due to acute under-nutrition and it pays an income penalty of 9 to 10 per cent due to a workforce that was stunted during their childhood.