Innovative Way to Combat Malnutrition in MP : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-2: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources. Issues relating to Poverty and Hunger.

Key Phrases: International Fund for Agricultural Development, Balanced Meals, Malnourished, Stunted, Undernutrition, Wasting, People-Centred Programmes, Food Fortification.

Why in News?

Recently, the government of MP (Madhya Pradesh) in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) proposed two inexpensive and ingenious ideas to encourage women to cook balanced meals.
- Forty-two percent of children under five are malnourished in Madhya Pradesh. Having not received proper nutrition, they are either stunted or short for their age and deep in tribal areas the numbers only get worse.

IFAD Background:

International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD is an international financial institution and specialized United Nations agency working in the field of poverty eradication in the rural areas of developing countries providing grants and loans with low interest for allied projects.
- It was created in 1977, which is the outcome of the World Food Conference of 1974. It has 177 member countries. India is also a member country.
- For over four decades, IFAD has focused on the smallest unit of the society — the small family farmer — who also actively participates in the formulation of project designs and implementation. More importantly, the beneficiaries get to see the results of the interventions first hand through higher incomes, better yield, nutrition and a higher standard of living.
- IFAD has so far financed over 27 projects in India through 31 loans totalling to a portfolio with an estimated cost of around $2.6 billion. This makes India the largest portfolio of IFAD-supported operations.

Quality Assurance Group:

IFAD’s Independent Office of Evaluation undertakes comprehensive impact assessments as simply comparing the results “before” and “after” implementation of a project. The function of the group includes:
- The function of the group has evolved over time from strengthening IFAD’s design of operational activities to taking on a greater role in helping advance IFAD’s development objectives and making further contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Proposed scheme by IFAD and the MP government:

‘7 days 7 plots’ programme: Where women from the village are taught how to grow different vegetables in their own gardens, seven to be exact, one for each day of the week. By the end of the week, the first plot is ready to be harvested again.
- This way, families get to eat fresh, affordable vegetables that they can consume for longer and in greater quantities, as against buying from the market, and so reduce sickness.
- This scheme is an adjunct to the Tejaswini Rural Women Empowerment Programme implemented by the UN-affiliated IFAD in Balaghat, Dindori, and Mandla, three districts from the tribal-dominated south-east which is the poorest part of MP, and Panna, Chhatarpur and Tikamgarh of the northern parts where gender-inequality is high.
“Tiranga Thali”: To encourage a more balanced meal, the project introduced the concept of the “Tiranga Thali”, where each plate contains ingredients of the three colours from the Indian flag.
- Saffron — all pulses like yellow split peas, pigeon peas, and split red lentils representing proteins;
- White — rice, milk and roti representing carbohydrates; and
- Green — leafy vegetables representing vitamins and minerals.
The project has helped over 110,000 families in remote areas of Madhya Pradesh to cook and eat healthy meals for their children and themselves.

What is Malnutrition:

Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers 2 broad groups of conditions:
- Undernutrition: It includes stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient deficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals).
- Overweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (such as heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, and cancer).

Impact of Malnutrition:

Some Initiatives to tackle malnutrition:

POSHAN Abhiyan: The Mission focusses on improving sanitation and hygiene conditions, anemia, antenatal care and optimal breastfeeding, amongst other issues, for over 130 million children.
National Nutrition Strategy: The Strategy aims to reduce all forms of malnutrition by 2030, with a focus on the most vulnerable and critical age groups. It also aims to assist in achieving the targets identified as part of the SDGs related to nutrition and health.
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS): It targets children up to the age of 6 years, pregnant and lactating mothers and women 16–44 years of age. The scheme is aimed to improve the health, nutrition and education (KAP) of the target community.
Mid -day Meal Programme: The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.
National Food Security Act: It marks a paradigm shift in the approach to food security from welfare to rights-based approach. It is legally entitled up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized food grains under TPDS.

Innovative methods from around the world:

Making fast food expensive or fat tax: In the Indian state of Kerala, as a part of June 2016 budgets, the government proposed a 14.5 percent 'fat tax' on burgers, pizzas and other junk food served in branded restaurants which officials from the quick service industry termed as 'detrimental' to consumption.
Japan implemented the 'metabo' law which included the measurement of waist sizes in 2008 in attempt to overcome increasing obesity rates.
In October 2011, Denmark introduced a fat tax on butter, milk, cheese, pizza, meat, oil and processed food if the item contains more than 2.3% saturated fat.

Conclusion:

We have been hearing for too long that the same farmer who puts the food on our plates struggles to feed his family a proper meal. IFAD’s work reminds us that investing in rural areas is the only long-term solution, and that we must empower them to decide their own future through people-centred programmes.
The project in MP does exactly this, they provide seed kits and train women to irrigate their plots with household waste water. There are nearly 3,000 such trainers, one for each village, who speak passionately about the importance of nutrients like protein and iron. This gives them the power to decide, implement and be active stakeholders.

Sources: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. Despite substantial improvement in health and well-being since the country's independence in 1947, malnutrition remains a silent emergency in India. Discuss. [250 words].