Malnutrition in India is a serious concern.

 India has been suffering at the hands of many corruptions that it has not been able to fix over many five-year plans. Our nation’s economy has been prospering, but we are not able to say that about many of those who continue to live beneath the poverty line. A 2019 UNICEF report extracted from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey released by India’s health ministry recorded 35% of children under the age of five years were stunted, while 17% were wasted and 33% were underweight. This statement ascribed the survey by revealing the “extent and severity of micronutrient deficiencies, information on fat distribution and nutritional risk factors for non-communicable diseases, and links between children’s nutritional status and their cognitive development”.

 These statistics particularly show the critical transformation needed wherein children’s health policies are concerned. Hunger and malnutrition in India amongst its children has increased over the last few years at alarming percentages. Over the years, several state initiatives have been propelled to oppose hunger and malnutrition issues in India, however, concerns regarding malnutrition continue to persist regardless of minor improvements over the years.

Save the Children, NGO working for malnutrition in India, has been at the vanguard to seize the issue of hunger and malnutrition with numerous initiatives:

a) Grassroots Centres have been founded in Tonk, Rajasthan that includes Malnutrition Treatment Centre to address Severe Acute Malnutrition.

b) The Nutrition for Babies campaign was started to implement nutrition rehab to the malnourished and other provisions to mothers, nurses, doctors, and families.

c) Set up in different villages across Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Poshan Vatikas are gardens that grow seasonal vegetables which are watched after by Save the Children-trained school teachers and ‘Aanganwadi Sevikas’.

d) Aaharam, an annex of Mission Nutrition was inaugurated by the NGO’s partner GlaxoSmithKline in Chennai slums to raise collective awareness about undernourishment.

e) The Village Child Development Centre in Maharashtra takes responsibility of malnourished children across 30 Integrated Child Development Scheme Centres, maintained by Anganwadi workers in tribal regions in the Thane district, where children are also watched for malnutrition.

f) Another project to battle hunger and malnutrition in India is the Stop Diarrhoea Initiative that aims to improve WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) levels over slums in Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, through community toilet construction, development and construction of toilets in homes and schools, and provision of hand-washing facilities and access to clean drinking water.

The initiative by this NGO working for malnutrition in India strives to end open defecation, which is a major cause of diarrhoea. These programmes organised and executed by Save the Children to battle hunger and malnutrition in India entails high expenditure.

Children’s health can impact the nation’s growth in monumental ways.

Support NGO working for malnutrition in India; visit https://support.savethechildren.in/ to donate!

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