Volume 23 Supplement 1

▪ Keyword : micronutrient deficiencies, stunting, nutrition programs, India

▪ Content : Being home to 31% of the world’s children who are stunted and 42% of those who are underweight, and with many children and adults affected by micronutrient deficiencies, India is facing huge challenges in the field of nutrition. Even though the Indian Government is investing vast amounts of money into programs that aim to enhance food security, health and nutrition (the Integrated Child Development Services program alone costs 3 billion USD per year), overall impact has been rather disappointing.

▪ Keyword : micronutrient malnutrition, staple food fortification, India

▪ Content : The burden of micronutrient malnutrition is very high in India. Food fortification is one of the most cost-effective and sustainable strategies to deliver micronutrients to large population groups. Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is supporting large-scale, voluntary, staple food fortification in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh because of the high burden of malnutrition, availability of industries capable of and willing to introduce fortified staples, consumption patterns of target foods and a conducive and enabling environment.

▪ Keyword : school feeding, food fortification, mid-day meal, India

▪ Content : Micronutrient malnutrition is widely prevalent in school children in India. India’s national school feeding program, the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme, is the largest in the world and caters to 120 million children in primary schools. Complementary strategies such as deworming or fortifying meals provided through the MDM scheme could increase the nutritional impact of this program. India’s Supreme Court has directed that only hot, cooked meals be provided in MDM, through a decentralised model.

▪ Keyword : decentralised complementary food production, viability, women empowerment, India, ICDS

▪ Content : Integrated Child Development Services in India through its supplementary nutrition programme covers over 100 million children, pregnant and lactating women across the country. Providing a hot cooked meal each day to children aged between 3-6 years and a take-home ration to children aged between 6-36 months, pregnant and lactating women, the Integrated Child Development Services faces a monumental task to deliver this component of services of desired quality and regularity at scale.

▪ Keyword : infant and young child feeding practices, knowledge, skills, ICDS, Anganwadi Workers, India

▪ Content : Improved infant and young child feeding practices have the potential to improve child growth and development outcomes in India. Anganwadi Workers, the frontline government functionaries of the national nutrition supplementation programme in India, play a vital role in promoting infant and young child feeding practices in the community.

▪ Keyword : universal salt iodisation, iodine deficiency disorders, multi-sectoral, national coalition

▪ Content : Iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) constitute the single most important preventable cause of mental handicap at global level. Recognizing the importance of coordination and synergy of the activities of wide range of universal salt iodisation (USI) stakeholders, WHO/ Unicef/ ICCIDD has prescribed a national multi-sectoral coalition as one of the ten indicators essential for attaining sustainable elimination of IDD at national level.