Health Watch Malnutrition and child mortality: An appalling picture

It is important to note that malnutrition among children is not affected by food intake alone; it is also influenced by access to health services, quality of care for the child and pregnant mother as well as good hygiene practices. Girls are more at risk of malnutrition than boys because of their lower social status. According to experts, malnutrition in early childhood has serious and long-term consequences because it impedes sensory, cognitive, social and emotional development of the child. Malnourished children are less likely to perform well in school and more likely to grow into malnourished adults, at greater risk of diseases and early death. Around one-third of all adult women are underweight in India. Inadequate care of women and girls, especially during adolescence and specially in pregnancy, results in low birth weight babies. Nearly 30 per cent of all newborns have a low birth weight (< 2.5 kg at birth), making them vulnerable to further malnutrition and diseases. As adult their capacity to do work also goes down and country looses lot of money due to low productivity. Vitamin and mineral deficiency also affects children'ssurvival and development. Their main source are raw vegetable and fruits. Anaemia affects almost 100 per cent children under the age of five, more than 92 per cent of children between 5 to 10 years, 90 per cent adolescent girls and 70 per cent of women (IMA – 2006). Iodine deficiency also reduces learning capacity. It is also widespread because fewer than half of all households use iodised salt in India. Vitamin A deficiency, which causes blindness and increases morbidity and mortality among pre-schoolers, also remains a major public-health problem. Inspite of national progrmme of vitamin A, no impact is seen in the field situation. Parents, teachers, NGOs and civil society have to wake up and inform every household on mission mode. China has done this, why can'twe do it! (The writer is chairperson of IMA'swomen wing.)