How this health programme is helping end intergenerational malnutrition in Bharuch | Meta Stories of Strength 2022 News,The Indian Express
Gujarat has a high burden of malnutrition, which necessitates swift action to prevent millions of children and adolescents from suffering the consequences of poor diets.
Gujarat has a high burden of malnutrition, which necessitates swift action to prevent millions of children and adolescents from suffering the consequences of poor diets.
Written by Yogesh Chowdhary and Anuj Ghosh
Nutrition is one of the most fundamental building blocks of good health. It impacts development during childhood and adolescence, and can have long-term effects on productivity, cognitive ability, and quality of life. Still, many children and adolescents do not have access to adequate nutrition in regions across India even today. As a result, levels of acute malnutrition, anaemia and other similar disorders continue to be highly prevalent.
Gujarat has a high burden of malnutrition, which necessitates swift action to prevent millions of children and adolescents from suffering the consequences of poor diets. Here, the lack of nutrition often stems from poor nutrient diversity rather than low access to food. Varied diets are an important contributor to protecting children from illness and fatality related to malnutrition. Often, traditional diets lack diversity, making it important to educate families about the need to incorporate foods that contain adequate protein, vitamins, iron and folic acid and other key micro-nutrients that aid growth.
In Bharuch, government programmes have taken a comprehensive approach to safeguarding reproductive health and child health, as these are complementary. Once the health and nutrition of the mother is ensured, the child is more likely to be born healthy and grow up within adequate health and nutrition parameters. The government machinery actively reaches out to women and girls at multiple stages of their development to safeguard their health.
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