The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Initiative launched to speed up child hunger eradication

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 24, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Initiative launched to speed up child hunger eradication

Special Correspondent

Aimed at reducing India's rate of under-nutrition

A SUGGESTION: M.S. Swaminathan, chairman, MSSRF, interacting with Gian Pietro Bordignon, WFP representative in India, at a workshop in Chennai on Saturday. — Photo: V.Ganesan

CHENNAI: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme have launched an initiative to accelerate progress towards ending child hunger and under-nutrition.

The initiative will have an impact on reducing the country's rate of under-nutrition, which is worse than those of sub-Sharan countries. While the country had made an impressive progress in tackling hunger and extreme poverty, it was yet to go a long way. The prevalence of under-nutrition among children, which was 53 per cent in 1990, came down marginally to 47 per cent in 1996.

Launching the initiative at a workshop on "Environment and Food Security," convened by The Hindu Media Research Centre of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, here on Saturday, Gian Pietro Bordignon, WFP representative in India, said the rate of reduction of under-nutrition in India had to be doubled in the coming decade if the country had to cut under-nutrition by half by 2015.

The initiative envisaged joint programme implementation in strategic areas, including strengthening of the Government's maternal and child health programmes and collaboration in primary education with focus on nutrition for women and children.

UNICEF India representative Cecilio Adorna said there was a strong will to tackle malnutrition. However, there was a gap between implementation and accountability. Child hunger and under-nutrition could be reduced through specific, accelerated and targeted action. The increase in the economic growth in the past had not helped to reduce hunger and malnutrition. While the GDP of the developing countries increased by three per cent a year during the 1990s, the proportion of underweight children decreased only by 1.7 per cent.

M.S. Swaminathan, chairman, National Commission of Farmers, said the country needed a revolution to ensure that children, especially those in rural areas, received adequate nutrition. Malnutrition among children would affect the country's development. Mobilising communities for nutritional security was the most effective and sustainable strategy for bridging the nutritional divide.

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