2019 – Posted in: Press Information Bureau – Tags: malnutrition

Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh

Ministry of Women and Child Development

WHAT

Union Government announced Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh, a repository of diverse crops across 128 agro-climatic zones in India, for better nutritional outcomes and to fight malnutrition.

Ministry of Women and Child Development has collaborated with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for this project.

AIM

The Kosh aims at reducing malnutrition through a multi-sectoral results-based framework, including agriculture, among women and children across the country.

SIGNIFICANCE

The Bharatiya Poshan Krishi Kosh seeks to promote healthy dietary practices and tackle under-nutrition in a sustainable manner.
The initiative will be built on an essential understanding of social, behavioural and cultural practices that promote and reinforce healthy dietary behaviours both at the individual and community level.

HIGHLIGHTS

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates praises India’s efforts to tackle malnutrition.
Dr. M S Swaminathan, Father of Green Revolution, underscored the five-point action plan to make India nutrition secure. The five points include:

Ensuring calorie-rich diet to women and children
Ensuring high protein diet
Eradication of hidden hunger by deficiency of micro- nutrients
Ensuring clean drinking water supply
Spreading nutrition literacy across the country

The project team will select around 12 high focus states which are representative of the geographical, social, economic, cultural and structural diversities of India.

In each of the states the team will identify a local partner organization which has relevant work experience in Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) and nutrition for developing the food atlas.

NUTRITION

Nutrition is the supply of materials that organisms and cells require to live. Nutrition is a critical part of health and development.

Better nutrition is related to improved infant, child and maternal health, stronger immune systems, safer pregnancy and childbirth, lower risk of non-communicable diseases (such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease), and longevity.

MALNUTRITION

Malnutrition, in all its forms, includes undernutrition (wasting, stunting, underweight), inadequate vitamins or minerals, overweight, obesity, and resulting diet-related noncommunicable diseases.
1.9 billion adults are overweight or obese, while 462 million are underweight.
52 million children under 5 years of age are wasted, 17 million are severely wasted and 155 million are stunted, while 41 million are overweight or obese.
Around 45% of deaths among children under 5 years of age are linked to undernutrition. These mostly occur in low- and middle-income countries. At the same time, in these same countries, rates of childhood overweight and obesity are rising.
The developmental, economic, social, and medical impacts of the global burden of malnutrition are serious and lasting, for individuals and their families, for communities and for countries.

Source: PIB