The Status of Initiatives Dealing with the Challenges of Nutrition in India

It is a critical time for India to prioritize nutrition in its health and development agendas. While dismal nutrition indicators persist, and the country‘s levels of hunger are considered ―alarming on an international index. On the Global Hunger Index 2018, India is home to one-third of the world’s stunted children. Around 25.5 million children in the country are wasted. Under-nutrition is higher in rural areas compared to urban. Without a targeted, multi-sectoral approach to nutrition, India will continue struggling to deliver evidence-based interventions during the most important windows of opportunity. This paper explores the current situation of nutrition in India, India’s nutritional challenges and major national initiatives undertaken by the Government of India to improve the situation over the decades. A detailed account of National Nutrition Mission (Poshan Abhiyaan) undertaken by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India to address the burden of malnutrition in the country is examined. Further, we propose a pilot study to explore the status of implementation of National Nutrition Mission and the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) programmatically and on the ground