1. Nourish to
Flourish:
Reducing
Malnutrition
For each child that goes to bed hungry,
For each child who is deprived of a healthy life,
For an equal opportunity of brighter future for
all the children,
Let us all pledge,
To eradicate Malnutrition.
By putting food aside once in a while for the
hungry stomachs,
By not wasting food and giving away the extra
to these innocent souls,
By not tolerating discrimination
By lending a helping hand ever so often,
By promising ourselves to do our bit for the
future of our country.
Submitted By-
Aditi
Amogh Sharma
Juhi
Shristi Sinha
Shubhangi Malvika

2. MALNUTRITION:
A Social Contagion
• Malnutrition is a major challenged faced in the scientifically ever growing
world today.
• With billions added to the population each year and insufficiency of basic
needs leads to lack of healthy life ... for millions.
• Nutrition deficiency leads to stunted growth, impedes neurodevelopment
and learning, and ultimately the ability to work and earn a living.
• Statistics reveal :
 India houses 23 crore hungry people.
 33 % of the world’s malnourished children reside in India.
 About 50 % childhood deaths are primarily due to malnourishment.
 Under the age of 5, 48 % of the children have stunted growth and 43 % are
overweight.
 75 % of adolescent pregnant women in the country puts on weight of only 5kg which
is half of the world wide average of 10kg.
 Malnutrition costs Indian economy about 2.95% of GDP annually.

3. Malicious Malnutrition
Malnutrition claims thousands of children each year or leaves its scar in the
form of permanent physical and mental impairments. A salient
emergency, malnutrition needs a lot of attention and drastic steps to
conquer it. With the country being the highest producer of food grains, it
is a highly flagrant to have double the malnutrition cases than the Sub-
Saharan Africa.
• ISHI 2008 scores for Indian states range from 13.6 (“serious”) for Punjab to 30.9 (“extremely
alarming”) for Madhya Pradesh, indicating substantial variability among states in India. Punjab is
ranked 34th when compared to the GHI 2008 worldwide country ranking, while Madhya Pradesh is
ranked 82nd. In this state more people suffer from hunger than in Ethiopia or Sudan. 60 percent of
the children are undernourished.
• All 17 states have ISHI scores that are well above the “low” and “moderate” hunger categories.
Twelve of the 17 states fall into the “alarming” category, and one into the “extremely alarming”
category.
• ISHI scores are closely aligned with poverty, but there is little association with state level economic
growth. High levels of hunger are seen in states that are performing well from an economic
perspective.
• Inclusive economic growth and targeted strategies to ensure food sufficiency reduce child mortality
and improve child nutrition are urgent priorities for all states in India.

4. Combating Malnutrition
Government Of India has undertaken various Acts to
ameliorate the prevalent problems of malnutrition-
• Midday Meal Scheme in Indian Schools (MDM)
• Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
• National Children’s Fund (NCF)
• National Plan of Action for Children
• United Nations Children’s Fund
• National Health Mission
• Janani Suraksha Yojana
• Food Security Ordinance

5. Midday Meal Scheme in Indian
Schools
About
• Started in 1953 in Uttar Pradesh
• A brilliant scheme, provides meal, rich in nutrients, of one time to children of age
6-14 years.
Issues Faced
•Irregularity in serving meals.
•Irregularity in supply of food grains to school
•Caste based discrimination in serving of food.
•Poor quality of food
•Poor hygiene
•Poor coverage under Health Programme and poor infrastructure.
Reforms
•The requirement of the meals should be met on time and it must be taken care of that
the children are provided with enough nutrients.
•Discrimination of any kind must not be tolerated and children should be treated care.

6. Integrated Child Development
Scheme
(ICDS)
About
• Started in 1975, it is a Government Of India sponsored programme.
• Tackles malnutrition and health problems of children below the age of 6 years
and their mothers as well as pregnant women.
• The gender promotion of the girl child by trying to bring her at par with the male
child is a key component of the scheme.
Shortcomings
•Inability to target the girl child improvements.
•Participation of wealthier children more than the poorer children.
•Lowest level of funding for the poorest and the most undernourished states of India.
Reforms
•Girl child could be given extra privilege.
•The economic condition of the children should be taken into account while facilitating
them.
•More funds must be allocated to states with more cases of malnutrition.

7. National Children’s Fund (NCF)
• NCF was created during the International Year of the Child in 1979
under the Charitable Endowment Fund Act, 1890.
• This Fund Provides support to the voluntary organisations that
help the welfare of kids.
National Plan of Action for Children
• The Department of Women & Child Development has formulated
a National Plan of Action on Children to implement the 27 survival
and development goals laid down by the World Summit on
children 1990.
• 15 State Governments have prepared State Plan of Action on the
lines of National Plan of Action specifying targets for 1995 as well
as for 2000 and spelling out strategies for holistic child
development. The rest of the states must also participate in this
plan.

8. United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF)
• India is associated with UNICEF since 1949 and is now in the fifth decade of
cooperation for assisting most disadvantaged children and their mothers.
• UNICEF has been supporting India in a number of sectors like child development,
women's development, urban basic services, support for community based
convergent services, health, education, nutrition, water & sanitation, childhood
disability, children in especially difficult circumstances, information and
communication, planning and programme support.
• Awaaz Do is an initiative taken by UNICEF to mobilize Indian society to speak up for
the more than eight million children currently out of school in the country. The
idea behind the campaign is to help more than eight million children in the
country, who are currently out of school, and to provide them formal education.
Launched in 2010, the campaign has received support from citizens through online
social campaign with more than 250 thousand registrations on the official website
and from government and corporate organizations with several corporate and
media houses partnering with UNICEF for the cause.

9. National Rural Health Mission
(NHRM)
• The National Rural Health Mission was created for the years 2005–2012,
and its goal is to "improve the availability of and access to quality health
care by people, especially for those residing in rural areas, the poor,
women, and children.“
• The scheme proposes a number of new mechanism for healthcare delivery
including training local residents as Accredited Social Health
Activists (ASHA), and the Janani Surakshay Yojana (motherhood protection
program). It also aims at improving hygiene and sanitation infrastructure.
• The subset of goals under this mission are:
 Reduce infant mortality rate (IMR) and maternal mortality ratio (MMR)
 Provide universal access to public health services
 Prevent and control both communicable and non-communicable diseases, including
locally endemic diseases
 Provide access to integrated comprehensive primary healthcare
 Create population stabilisation, as well as gender and demographic balance
 Revitalize local health traditions and mainstream AYUSH
 Finally, to promote healthy life styles.

10. Food Security Ordinance (2013)
• The National Food Security Ordinance aims to give right to subsidised food
grain to 67 percent of India's 1.2 billion people, and will ensure food and
nutritional security.
• The salient points of the ordinance are:
 Up to 75 percent of the rural population and up to 50 percent of the urban population will have uniform
entitlement of five kg food grain per month, at highly subsidised prices of Rs.3, Rs.2, Re.1 per kg for rice, wheat
and coarse grains, respectively.
 The poorest of poor households would continue to receive 35 kg food grain per household per month under the
Antyodaya Anna Yojana at subsidised prices of Rs.3, Rs.2 and Re.1.
 State-wise coverage will be determined by the central government.
 There is a special focus on nutritional support to women and children. Pregnant women and lactating mothers,
besides being entitled to nutritious meals as per the prescribed nutritional norms, will also receive maternity
benefit of at least Rs.6,000 for six months. Children in the age group of six months to 14 years will be entitled to
take home ration or hot cooked food, as per prescribed nutritional norms.
 In case of non-supply of food grain or meals to entitled persons, the concerned state/UT governments will be
required to provide such food security allowance to the beneficiaries as may be prescribed by the central
government.
 The central government will provide assistance to the states towards cost of intra-state transportation, handling
of food grain and fair price shop (FPS) dealers' margin, for which norms will be developed.
 The eldest woman in the household, of 18 years of age or above, will be the head of the household for the issue
of the ration card. If the eldest woman is not available, the eldest male member is to be the head of the
household.
 The central government will provide funds to states/UTs, in case of short supply of food grain from central pool.

11. Other Reforms
• Education of Women: A woman is the one who has the major influence over a
child. Thus a household with an educated woman will ensure the proper growth
and development of children. Also people must be acknowledged with the
benefits of having healthy and educated women in the households.
• Eradicating Discrimination: Discrimination on any basis, be it gender-based, caste-
based or religion-based must not be encouraged in any manner. Girl child in India
especially need special attention and their heath must not be ignored neither their
rights for a better future be over-ruled in any manner.
• NGOs and Government Schemes: The various steps taken by the Government
should be encouraged and citizens if possible should themselves be a part of these
schemes or NGOs.
• Public Distribution System: The PDS should be made more efficient so that the
food grains reach the poor people in time rather then being wasted in storages.
Strict anti-corruption rules must be implemented to check the officials.
• Small Acts of Wonder: We all who have enough must not only not waste food but
once in a while offer a little amount of help, in any possible kind. A little help from
everyone can ensure a faster eradication of malnutrition and help lead these
children a healthier life.