Theo
Can you please enlighten me on what is mal-nutrition?
Traditionally in rural areas families held an oral tradition about the food rota which contained a wide range of wheat, rice,keppai kali, ragi, Cholam, neem leaves, semolina, Ahathi and murungai leaves curry, a wide range of grams etc (some are tamil words) which had all the nutricion in themselves and made the young people very healthy even if you are vegetarian and also in the non-veg families. It is not only the modern knowledge andinformation that brought this balanced diet into our system. Having broken or forgotten this oral granma's tradition and being caught up in the modern medical information for nutrition many families being busy in their jobs struggle to keep a balanced diet of their children. One of the causes of mal-nutrition is not merely due to the lack of money or lack for food. It may be due to lack of information and lack of availability of variesty of food items.
Now the government cannot take up the family role which is supposed to take care of the children. In the case of basic needs being not available the government can engage in helping the basic needs being available to the children. It is essential to make sure that an essential information is available through entertainment and through various media activities. This is why I want the TN government to pass a resolution that if they wish to broadcast in TN the media companies should provide 5% of theirair time at free of cost or at least cheap rate for such information to be provided regularly for all those who wish to provide. In this case NGOs can also engage in providing such information to the public about various food items and also about nutrition.
In many children life it is a matter of food or no food. If you are working among the children labourers in Sivakasi or Coimbatore, you will see their earning is a big income to the family and support other children to go to English medium schools. Some of these children lives are just sacrificed for the sake of others. These folks eat what is provided to them and also what is available to them in the streets and in other places. Many children and families cannot be worried about their nutrition food. In such cases, the education system has to be flexible. I am aware many NGOs are working with these children take education in a flexible ways but they are not concerned about these children's mal-nutrition condition until they become sick. So It is essential for the government to work with such NGOs to work closely with these types of children in order to monitor and support them not only for their education but also for their health.
Another cases can be founded among the tribal children who are often affected by the scarcity of their regular food and so the TN goverment does some charity work among them but it is essential to make sure the local administrators district or Taluk admins to check whether such information is available to them about Mal -nut and also to monitor their children condition. One needs to be careful not to treat the tribal children like Australian aborigines to remove and take care of them. Rather working with the local communities to check these issues.
For me it is not only children but also young and adults too need such kind of information and also support in some places.
This is why I am thinking if we make some of these as mandate for the officials, then some agencies can hold them up responsible for ignoring these children. This is why we need the acts such as right to food and right to primary health.
In this sense Voluteerism such as NGOS and Government and individuals can work together not only in providing information but also provide a system to help and to work with government to bring about some transformation at grassroots level. Here I have given some examples of how to about it there are other ways too.
Traditional foods for infants
Once the child is eating cereal porridge well, mixed foods including cooked cereal, pulse and vegetable(s) could be given. Most traditional foods given to infants in different parts of the country are examples of mixed foods like khichidi, dalia, suji kheer, upma, idli, dokhla, bhaat-bhaji.
Sometimes traditional foods are given after a little modification so as to make the food more suitable for the child. For instance, mashed idli with a little oil and sugar is a good complementary food for the infant. Similarly bhaat can be made more nutritious by adding some cooked dal or vegetable to it. Khichidi can be made more nutritious by adding one or two vegetables in it while cooking.
http://motherchildnutrition.org/india/c ... lines.html
To be fair to the Government of India, it needs help to combat undernutrition. It is such a huge burden (43 per cent of children are malnourished) that the government cannot do it alone. Civil society, business, and the academic community have to help. International donors have an important catalytic role to play. But nutrition is a public good. Leadership has to come from the government. I still do not see it.
(Professor Lawrence Haddad is director of the U.K.-based Institute of Development Studies and president of the U.K. and Ireland's Development Studies Association.)
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article619677.ece
# India lacks a comprehensive nutrition strategy. Various choices for nutrition strategies can be considered. A review of some of the more successful country experiences suggests that all of them implemented complex,
multisectoral actions with more or less emphasis on service-oriented nutrition policies (as in Indonesia), incentive-oriented nutrition policies linked to community or household participation and performance (as
in Mexico), or mobilization-oriented nutrition policies (as in Thailand).
These choices are not mutually exclusive. India now has the opportunity to “leapfrog” toward innovative nutritional improvement based on the experiences of other countries and on experiences within India itself.
# Cooperation for policy actions: To accelerate progress in reducing child malnutrition, India should focus on the following four cross-cutting
strategic approaches:
a. ensuring that economic growth and poverty reduction policies reach the poor;
b. redesigning nutrition and health policies and programs by drawing on science and technology for nutritional improvement, strengthening their implementation, and increasing their coverage;
c. increasing investments and actions in nutrition services for communities with the highest concentration
of poor; and
d. focusing programs on girls’ and women’s health and nutrition.
IFPRI, in collaboration with Indian experts and international networks, could bring much-needed experience with programs and policies around the world to bear on this effort. An evidence-based, research-intensive approach with “learning while implementing”-which has shown success in other countries-is recommended.
There is no time or reason to wait for taking action.
http://www.ifpri.org/publication/accele ... tion-india
Some actions
TheInternationalConference onNutrition developed nine common areas for
action to promote and protect the nutritional welfare of the population:
Promotion and protection of nutritional well-being:
Incorporating nutrition objectives into development policies and programmes
Assessing, analysing and monitoring the nutrition situation.
Caring for the economically deprived and nutritionally vulnerable,
Preventing and managing infectious diseases,
Promoting appropriate diet and healthy lifestyles,
Promoting breastfeeding,
Preventing specific micronutrient deficiencies,
Protecting consumers through improved food quality and safety,
Improving household food security,
Digging into the causes for Effective solutions
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7092108/Prote ... on-Control#
Six 'P' s
By shedding the sectoral perspective and adopting a multisectoral,
multidisciplinary one, it is possible to see the causes of malnutrition in a
different guise. Six determinants of malnutrition are especially important,
although none is usually the only cause of malnutrition or the only discipline that
needs to be involved in nutrition strategies.
· pathologywhich is the medical term for disease, since disease, especially
infection, adversely influences nutritional status.
· polit ic s, as political ideology, political choices and political actions influence
nutrition;
· pov e rt y, which suggests economic causes of malnutrition;
· popula t ion, which refers both to child spacing in a family and also to
population density in a local area or a country;
· pr e se r va tionof food from wastage and loss, which includes the addition of
economic value to food through processing;
· pr oduct ion, mainly agricultural and food production;
The Six P’s causing all the Problems
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7092108/Prote ... on-Control#
Following are the five points from the commission set up by M S swaminathan committee which the state and central govt can heed to...
5. Action at National Level:
Mainstream Nutrition in National Missions
4. Action at State Level:
Coordinating Nutrition Security Initiatives
3. Action at Local Level:
Community food and nutrition security system
2. Learning for Success: Converting the Unique into the
Universal
1. Institutional Structures for Public Policy and
Coordinated Action in Nutrition
http://nutritioncoalition.in/pdf/5Point ... rition.pdf
