Malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh (MP) has taken centre stage! With 60% of the State’s children suffering from malnutrition, and over 27% of them severely malnourished, there has been an unprecedented political commitment from the government to tackle the issue. A recent example of this was a groundbreaking meeting of the Chief Minister’s Working Groups on 4 June 2009 in Bhopal to collaboratively address the challenge of disturbing statistics and chalking out a roadmap for combating malnutrition in MP on a sustainable basis. This gathering was also a reaffirmation of the State that the responsibility to reduce malnutrition called for joint action by concerned departments and is not the sole responsibility of the Departments of Women and Child Development and Health and Family Welfare. It is now a call to action by a host of departments and agencies to bring together synergies and agree on a holistic plan for a nutrition-rich Madhya Pradesh.
Professor Kraisid Tontisirin, a key payer in Thailand's fight against malnutrition, seen her on his visit to India. Thailand halved its malnutrition rate from 1980-1986 The workshop, led by the Department of Women and Child Development, was a thoughtful response to the formidable challenge of the unacceptable levels of malnutrition in MP. The workshop brought together the departments of Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, Panchayat and Rural Development, State Planning Commission, Public Health Engineering, Women and Child Development, Public Health and Family Welfare, and School Education on a common platform to confront the issue from an integrated policy perspective. In addition, all development partners, representatives from civil society, and health and nutrition experts from the State joined in the deliberations. Experts from leading institutions were also invited to share their analyses of the existing gaps in the State’s Nutrition Policy and its implementation and participate in much-needed brainstorming on new interventions and strategies. Some of these institutions were the National Institute of Nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, International Food Policy and Research Institute, among others, the experts committed themselves to continuing their support even beyond the consultation.
Ms. Tinoo Joshi, Principal Secretary, Women and Child Development, presided over the consultation saying that everyone had assembled “to find out what went wrong” and how policies, planning, and implementation can be improved.
In the true spirit of collaboration, heads of departments at the workshop agreed on measures to make nutrition an integral part of their programmes. Some significant measures included the Department of Food and Civil Supplies to target food distribution in high-malnutrition areas, Panchayats to have an award scheme for malnutrition-free Gram and Zilla Panchayats; and the Department of Public Health & Family Welfare to ensure that all acute malnourished children requiring medical treatment are rehabilitated.
Mothers who breast feed increase the nutrients their babies get. Breat feeding also helps to increase the weight of the new born babies The State Planning Commission offered to assist in setting clear goals for the Nutrition Policy, as well as guiding resources to the Department of Women and Child Development and other departments which will impact the reduction of malnutrition in the State. Participants of the workshop agreed to allocate Rs. 20 crores as pooled funds to the nodal department.
The consultation brought out clearly that the nutrition strategy should include both evidence-based short-term interventions, such as exclusive breast feeding and appropriate complementary feeding, along with long-term interventions like the prevention of early marriage and an increased family planning measures to reduce under-nutrition.
The consultation sensitized policy makers and heads of departments that the issue of under-nutrition is multifaceted and accelerated reduction (by 50% over the decade) calls for combined efforts and working together on a commonly agreed framework of action.