According to the World Health Organization (WHO), roughly 7 million children under the age of 5 die each year from preventable causes across the globe. Malnutrition is the underlying cause of 45 per cent of these deaths. In India, malnutrition among children is a major concern too, belying nation’s increasing economic achievement.
According to a recent report by the World Bank, approximately 8 million Indian children suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (very low weight to height ratio). According to the National Health Family Survey, 36 per cent children in India below the age of 5 years are under-weight. The report further states that 38 per cent are stunted, 21 per cent are wasted, 7.5 per cent are severely wasted, and 58 per cent are anemic.
Amway India has launched the ‘POWER OF 5’ campaign to address the rising problem of malnutrition among children in India. This is a community-based campaign targeted at mothers and caregivers of children under the age of 5 years. It aims to improve the nutritional knowledge and practices inclusive of complementary feeding, hygiene practices, growth monitoring, and dietary diversity. The campaign further aims to identify and manage the malnourished children, and those with infections, by developing synergies among the service providers of associated departments (Integrated Child Development Scheme, Health and Sanitation) for improved services and timely referrals.
Part of the program is to mobilize communities to encourage participation and to empower individuals by raising awareness of the services and entitlements among beneficiaries. The company will also work towards sensitizing ASHA workers, ANM & Anganwadi workers to drive the behavior change among the parents and communities to establish synergies for timely inclusive service deliveries to the identified target beneficiaries.
Mondelez India Foods Pvt. Ltd has launched the program ‘Shubh Aarambh’ which focusses on the integrated development of children to foster nutrition/health education, promote education and address social issues impacting young people, gender equality and support young people to become better citizens.
Nestlé India is also working towards improving the nutrition scenario in India with its Healthy Kids Programme. This program has been developed with a focus to provide nutrition education to adolescents. The initiative aims to create and raise awareness regarding good nutritional practices, cooking methods to enhance the nutritional content of foods and physical fitness among students in village schools.
Apart from malnutrition India also suffers from obesity. To tackle both effectively, nutrition education is a must. This way, instead of focusing on quantity, the focus is shifted to the quality of nutrition received by the children.
