Niti Aayog moves to tackle malnutrition

Concerned about growing cases of malnutrition across the country and to get a clear picture of action taken by states to counter the problem, the Prime Minister’s Office has mandated its think tank Niti Aayog to identify 200 districts having most number of malnutrition cases.

In a high-profile meeting chaired by Niti Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar on October 28, which was attended by top officials of ministries like health, women and child development, water and sanitation, as well as representatives of various states, the think tank directed the Central ministries to prepare the parameters on which the 200 districts will be identified. Once these districts are identified, the concerned ministries will work out a strategy along with concerned states where these districts are situated, to evolve a national action plan on curbing malnutrition, sources privy to the development told this newspaper.

Some of the significant aspects of malnutrition were discussed threadbare during the meeting, sources informed.

Principal among these were cases of people dying mainly due to lack of food. Secondly instances of people dying despite getting adequate food mainly due to poor immunity and other disorders, also came in for discussion.

Officials also analysed the fact that most of the deaths due to malnutrition were occuring owing to poor sanitation facilities in households and lack of proper nutrition in pregnant women.

Lack of proper nutrition during the first 24 months from the time of birth of children make them highly vulnerable to malnutional deaths, sources said.

Keeping all these aspects in mind, the states’ representatives were asked by the Aayog to prepare a list of 200 such districts where malnutritional deaths because of these reasons have been reported, sources aware of the developments said.

In future consultations, the concerned Central ministries and states will have to work out a plan to prevent such instances.

The meeting, which was convened by Niti Aayog at the behest of the PMO, was only the first in what is likely going to be a long drawn task of consultations between the aforementioned ministries and states to work out a strategy on countering malnutrition.

Niti Aayog has been analysing the emerging data on undernutrition for quite some time and with the PMO also concerned about the poor performance of some states in arresting malnutritional deaths, the need for preparing a list of 200 districts and evolving an action plan on malnutrition was arrived at.

Help from other stakeholders like subject experts, international agencies, voluntary agencies and community-based organisations is also likely to be taken on the matter, sources added.