Undernutrition and Public Policy in India: Investing in the Future by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138952966
Goodreads: 26537949
Publisher: Routledge Chapman & Hall
Published: 2015-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

The other initiatives launched in the last five years to improve the health and nutrition situation of women pertain to care of adolescent girls. It has been well recognised that poor nutrition in utero and during early childhood in girls constraints future capacity to support healthy foetal and infant growth and this potential is further diminished by continued poor nutrition throughout the lifecycle.

Since 2002–07, a number of initiatives have been introduced by MHFW and MWCD. A pilot project entitled ‘Nutrition Programme for Adolescent Girls’ (NPAG) focusing on provision of 5 kg of wheat per month, free of cost, to families with adolescent girls weighing less than 35 kg as well as pregnant mothers weighing 40 kg was introduced in selected 51 districts of India. Following an evaluation of NPAG, it was recommended that feeding support to pregnant women with a cut-off weight of 45 kg is critical and therefore should be continued (NFI 2007).

The Adolescent Reproductive Sexual Health (ARSH) of the MHFW and Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG), also referred as SABLA programme of MWCD, offer opportunity to improve nutritional situation of adolescent girls. ARSH aims to educate youth about their sexual and reproductive health and offers youth-friendly services (ARSH 2014). The SABLA programme launched in 200 districts is expected to provide 600 kcals and 18–29 grams protein every day for 300 days in a year for girls 11–14 years of age who are not in school and to all girls 15–18 years. The life skill education to 11–14 years is one of the important components of the scheme (Table 7.1).

Additionally, the Weekly Iron–Folic acid Supplementation (WIFS) programme for adolescent girls, based on global programme experience, is currently being scaled up in the entire country (WHO 2010). The WIFS programme offers an opportunity for imparting education on self and family care to adolescent girls. Such a strategy of combining WIFS with family life education (FLEd) has been successfully piloted in the UMANG project in the state of Uttar Pradesh (Vir et al. 2008).

The launch of the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) approach by MHFW in 2013 is a confirmation of the significance being attached by the Government of India to continuum of care approach (NRHM 2013). These include improving coverage for perinatal, antenatal and postnatal care, health and nutrition care of under-fives, anaemia reduction in adolescents, family planning services and measures for improving the child sex ratio. For addressing the serious implications of folic acid deficiency in early pregnancy on neurological tubular defects (NTD), daily dose of 500 mcg of folic acid prior to onset of pregnancy is recommended in the RMNCH+A approach. However, the operational guideline for reaching women in the pre-pregnancy stage remains to be spelt out.

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