The Hindu : New Delhi News : Private sector needed to check malnutrition

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 16, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Private sector needed to check malnutrition

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 15. The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, A. Ramadoss, has stressed the need for involving the private sector and funding institutions to increase reach to areas that have so far not been brought within the food-security net in the Asian region.

Inaugurating the three-day Regional Ministerial Consultation on "Maternal and Child Nutrition in Asian Countries'', organised by the United Nations World Food Programme, and the Department of Women and Child Welfare (Ministry of Human Resources Development), Mr. Ramadoss said successful programmes could be replicated and the countries can help each other adopt and implement effective low-cost direct food-based nutrition interventions to make the region food-secure within a decade.

"We are here to identify effective and low-cost direct interventions dealing with maternal and child nutrition in the region. Sitting down and exchanging strategies is another step forward for governments, international organisations and the non-governmental agencies to work together and adopt people-friendly policies that will make halving undernutrition a reality within a decade,'' he said.

Pointing out that the World Summit for Children in 1990 had called for a worldwide reduction in child mortality below 70 deaths per 1,000 live births by the year 2000, Mr. Ramadoss said unfortunately investments in health systems and interventions necessary to achieve this were not commensurate with needs.

The Minister said that all countries need sound epidemiological information to prioritise, plan and implement public health. Vital registration of events, if done properly, will provide very useful information on the causes of death.

South Asia contributes to 34 per cent of global child deaths and despite a 50 per cent drop in mortality, almost one in 15 children in this region still dies before its fifth birthday. Even within countries, spatial variation in mortality rates can be large. In India, for example, mortality rates for children younger than five years vary from 10 per 1,000 births in Kerala to 85/87 per 1,000 in Madhya Pradesh.

In terms of malnourishment, South Asia has been clearly shown as the worst affected. It has over 50 per cent malnourished, the highest level in the world. In Bangladesh and India, the proportion of children malnourished is significantly higher than in even the poorest countries of the sub-Sahara. Extreme inequality leading to widespread destitution is a possible factor as is poor hygiene. Exceptionally high rates of malnutrition in South Asia are rooted deep in inequality between men and women.

Addressing the meeting, the Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Kanti Singh said the national common minimum programme (NCMP) of the present Government has stressed the importance of nutrition and health of women and children with special emphasis on the expansion of nutrition programmes for girl child. "One of the immediate tasks before my department is to extend the coverage of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme to cover all settlements in the country,'' she said.

India has a sound and comprehensive National Nutrition Policy and National Plan of Action of Nutrition. A National Nutrition Mission was notified in July 2003 with a view to address the problem of malnutrition in a mission mode approach.

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