Despite the National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) showing an encouraging improvement in child nutrition, India continues to fare poorly in world rankings on child nutrition. Examine (150 Words)
Refer - The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 5 years
KEY POINTS
Improvement in Child nutrition
· Effective implementation of Integrated child Development scheme.
· Dedication of ASHA , Anganwadi workers.
· Effective outreach of Jananai Shishu Suraksha Karayakram.
Exisiting gaps to tackle Child malnutrition
· Lack of Centralised data
· Lack of hygiene in rural areas, slum areas.
· Continuation open defecation practices till now.
· Lack diversity in nutrition.
Measures needed
· The focus must be on the pregnant, breastfeeding mother and the child, especially in the first two years of the child’s life, which is the crucial phase for physical, mental and cognitive development.
· Given the size of the problem (38% of children under five years of age are stunted, according to UNICEF) and budgetary constraints, a targeted approach is needed.
· With the wealth of district-level data made available by NFHS-4, the focus districts can easily be identified. They are concentrated in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
· Pockets where child malnutrition is high should be identified, going down to the tehsil or taluka levels and further down to clusters of Anganwadis located in areas such as urban slums and those with high concentrations of disadvantaged populations.
· We need more public programmes with a direct or indirect impact on nutrition in the selected areas. These should cover important nutrition-specific areas such as maternal nutrition, especially in the nine months of pregnancy and the six months of breastfeeding.
Raj 5 years
Kindly Review. Thanks!!
IAS Parliament 5 years
Good
answer. Try to include reasons for improvement in Children’s health. Keep
Writing.
DVR 5 years
Ans
IAS Parliament 5 years
Try
to include some flaws in administrative frame work. Keep Writing.
Sandeep 5 years
Kindly review thanks
IAS Parliament 5 years
Try
including some flaws in existing administrative framework and few reasons for
improvement in children’s health. Keep Writing.
AP 5 years
Answer.
IAS Parliament 5 years
Good
answer. Try to include some schemes like ICDS (avoid taking extreme stand on
ICDS), JSSY which improved children’s health. Keep Writing.
