Global Nutrition Report: India is Facing Multiple Burdens of Malnutrition

Public health risk due to malnutrition - including undernutrition and obesity - is a concern for every country, says Global Nutrition Report. The report prepared by International Food Policy Research Institute aims to contribute to country-led efforts to strengthen accountability and accelerate the reduction of malnutrition.

Dr Laxmikant Palo, Health Advisor, Save The Children, a leading organisation for child rights said that, "India need to address the operational challenge in nutrition now. Also, how other sectors such as sanitation, agriculture prioritise the nutrition agenda within their agenda is important," said

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Laxmikant Palo also noted the previous National Family Health Survey was conducted in 2005-06, after which there's no data available, which makes it difficult to understand where the country stands on nutrition. "How to take a decision, this report has some guidelines," he added.

The 2013-2014 Rapid Survey on Children in India suggested a faster improvement in the reduction of malnutrition than anticipated - stunting for under fives may have declined by over 10 million. Yet, India is vulnerable on sanitation and other underlying determinants for undernutrition, with the lowest rank among 100 countries.

The nutrition report also said success stories such as stunting decline in Maharashtra show importance of multi-sector coordination and sustained commitment from government and civil society.

Lawrence Haddad, a co-author of the Global Nutrition Report and a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said that, “The Global Nutrition Report aims to contribute to country-led efforts to strengthen accountability, share learning about what is working, and highlight bottlenecks to progress and how they may be overcome."

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Source-Medindia

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