Nutrition
is the intake of food, considered in relation to the body's dietary needs and a
balanced
diet, together with physical activity, is a cornerstone of good health. The
international
organisations are increasingly focusing their efforts on nutrition as they
underscore
the importance of it, not only on at the individual level but as an asset for
the
sustainable
development of a country . As Ban Ki Moon stated: “Nutrition is both a maker and a marker of development.
Improved nutrition is the platform for progress in health,education,
employment, empowerment of women and the reduction of poverty and inequality,
and can lay the foundation for peaceful, secure and stable societies”.
Nutrition is therefore a very complex and multifaceted issue as it encompasses
a broad range of topics and, taken form a Sustainable Development Goals
perspective, can be taken as the focal point from which one can address every
one of those. Unfortunately a big share of the world population faces issues
related to malnutrition, this being defined by the WHO as the condition related
to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or
nutrients. Whilst many western countries are facing a growing burden of Obesity
and overweight individuals, the other side of the coin is represented by those developing
countries affected by undernutrition and micronutrient-related malnutrition,
with 90 per cent of the developing world’s chronically undernourished (stunted)
children living in Asia and Africa.
Under nutrition is defined as the outcome
of insufficient food intake and repeated infectious diseases. It includes being
underweight for one’s age, too short for one’s age (stunted), dangerously thin
for one’s height (wasted) and deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient
malnutrition). According to Unicef, more than one third of the world’s children
who are wasted live in India, with the rural communities having the highest rates
of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Other nutrition issues faced
by many underprivileged communities is Iron-deficiency-Anaemia (IDA), for which
India earned by far the world sad record, and Protein Energy Malnutrition
(PEM). The Indian government recognizes the importance of an adequate nutrition
in order to end the vicious circle of poverty and its paramountcy for
development, as noted in the national nutrition policy. The same document
underlines the importance of nutrition education and the fact that schools are
an ideal setting for that. Reason why the Mid-may meal scheme is been designed.
Unfortunately, as noted in the previous article the shortcomings about the implementation
of the programme are manifest and if we take them from a “nutritional” angle we
notice that the programme failed to provide nutritious food as per programme guidelines.Therefore
the question is:
What can be done to remedy to these
shortcomings?
The ministry of Human Resource Development highlights the importance of community
participation for the successful implementation of the scheme, in order to
ensure
an effective monitoring at the local level and underlining the importance of
the
participation
of NGOs which work at a grassroots level, having a hands-on approach to
such
issues and dealing directly with the problems faced by the communities, thus
creating a dialogue between those and the government.
Therefore NGOs such as
Heeals can be paramount for the remedying of the government shortcomings
regarding the implementation of programmes such as the MDM scheme; tackling
issues such as Infrastructure
implementation, nutrition education and nutritional balanced meal provision. It
is paramount to empower voiceless and unprivileged communities in order to
buttress their rights as the issues that their facing are not an accident or a
natural outcome of their actions, but they are socio-economical phenomena
engendered by asymmetrical power relations and lack of access to the most basic
resources and agency.
As demonstrated by Amartya Sen, hunger and food
insecurity are not related to food availability but to the lack of access to it
on the part of certain individuals, and if we are to support the right to an adequate
standard of living, including adequate food, we have to support and empower those
people whom are more in need, making their voices audible as well as endorsing
a pragmatic solidarity” approach. As Paul Farmer stated, the idea that some
lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong in the world.
- By -Andrea Angeli
WASH Intern
Coordinator
Source
1 Global Panel
on Agriculture and Food systems fo Nutrition;
http://glopan.org/sites/default/files/
SDGPolicyBrief.pdf
2http://ucx3x320eshgjxppibt1rqg0.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SUNMovement-
Strategy-and-Roadmap-Ban-Ki-moon-message.pdf
3 UNSCN;
http://glopan.org/sites/default/files/Downloads/SDGPolicyBriefSummary.pdf
4 WHO;
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malnutrition
5 UNICEF;
https://unicef.in/Story/1124/Nutrition
6 UNICEF;
https://www.unicef.org/progressforchildren/2006n4/undernutritiondefinition.html
7 UNICEF;
https://unicef.in/Story/1124/Nutrition
8 WHO;
http://www.who-seajph.org/article.asp?
issn=2224-3151;year=2018;volume=7;issue=1;spage=18;epage=23;aulast=Rai
; https://
www.hospitalmanagement.net/comment/anemia-prevalence-nears-40-india/;
https://
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/51-of-indian-women-aged-15-49-anaemic-most-in-world-study/
articleshow/61538152.cms
9https://wcd.nic.in/sites/default/files/nnp_0.pdf
10 see “Food
and Hygiene” article.
11Government
of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development; https://
elementaryeducation.tripura.gov.in/mid-day-meal;
see “Food Hygiene” article.
12 Government
of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School
Education and
Literacy; http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website/Files/Guidelines/
3.MDM1%2021.09.2010.pdf
13 Amartya
Sen, “Poverty and famines”, 1981, Oxford India Paperbacks
14ICESCR
15 For the
concept of “pragmatic
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