Maintaining that the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high.
While releasing a report on Hunger and Malnutrition (HUNGaMA) here, Mr. Singh said, “Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high. The problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame”.
The Prime Minister said, “Though the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) continues to be our most important tool to fight malnutrition, we can no longer rely solely on it. We need to focus on districts where malnutrition levels are high and where conditions causing malnutrition prevail”. India has not succeeded in reducing the levels of malnutrition fast enough, he added.
He further said, “Policy makers and those who implement programmes need to clearly understand many linkages-between education and health, sanitation and hygiene, drinking water and nutrition – and then shape their responses accordingly.
The ICDS scheme is a major national programme that addresses the health and nutrition needs of children under the age of six. The HUNGaMA report states that the prevalence of child underweight has decreased from 53 per cent to 42 per cent, marking a 20.3 per cent fall over a seven year period with an average annual rate of reduction of 2.9 per cent. The survey found that the rates of child malnutrition were still unacceptably high in the 100 focus districts with the poorest child development indicators where over 40 per cent of children were underweight and almost 60 per cent stunted.
Dr Singh pointed out that while the survey reports high levels of malnutrition, it also indicates that one child in five has reached an acceptable healthy weight during the last seven years in 100 focus districts.
“This 20 per cent decline in malnourishment in the last seven years is better than the rate of decline reported in National Family Health Survey-III,” he said. “However, what concerns me is that 42 per cent of our children are still underweight. This is an unacceptably high occurrence,” he said.