Focus on under-nutrition among children at meet on nutrition challenges

New Delhi : The third National Council on India's Nutrition Challenges meet which was held here on Wednesday focused on under-nutrition among children, anaemia and diarrhoea and newer strategies to be brought in under Poshan Abhiyaan to tackle and eradicate them.

The meeting was attended by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda, Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Rajiv Kumar, Secretaries of Health, WCD and Ayush.

Also present were representatives of stakeholder Ministries such as Drinking Water and Sanitation, Food and Public Distribution and representatives of Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar among others.

'Anemia Mukt Bharat' aims at strengthening the mechanism to tackle anemia. A nationwide Intensified diarrhoea Control Fortnight is being implemented every year to control childhood diarrhoea, according to the Health Ministry.

"Over six crore children were covered during IDCF 2018 with 75 per cent coverage," Nadda said.

"Childhood under-nutrition is a serious public health problem which undermines the survival, growth, development of children and diminishes the strength and capacity of the nation," Nadda said.

"India is committed to achieving global nutrition targets by 2025 as set by member-nations in World Health Assembly in 2012. We are on track to achieve the targets for exclusive breastfeeding," the Health Minister said.

The WCD minister said that the target under the Poshan Abhiyaan is to move faster in achieving a malnutrition-free India. "The focus should also be on supply of sufficient nutritious food that should be fed to the children and other beneficiaries of the mission," he said.

According to the health ministry, under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) and Rashtriya Kishore Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK), systematic efforts are undertaken to detect nutrition-deficiency among children and adolescents.