Malnutrition- a way forward

Malnutrition is like an iceberg; most people in developing countries live under the burden of malnutrition. In all its forms it includes undernutrition (wasting, stunting, underweight) inadequate vitamins or minerals, overweight, obesity, and results in diet-related non-communicable diseases. The predominant age group that is worst hit by malnutrition is children under the age of 5 years. It adversely affects the health of the children. Scarcity of suitable food, lack of purchasing power of the family, as well as traditional beliefs and taboos on what the child should eat, often lead to an insufficient balanced diet, resulting in malnutrition.

One of the important goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 is Zero hunger (Goal 2); which is to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people especially children have sufficient and nutritious food all year.

Globally, around 149 million children under the age of five are stunted, 45 million are wasted and 38.9 million are overweight or obese. Around 45% of deaths among children under 5 years of age are linked to undernutrition (WHO, 2020).

According to NFHS-5, nationally 35.5% of children under 5 years are stunted (height-for-age), 19.3% are wasted (weight-for-height), 32.1% are underweight (weight-for-age) and 3.4% are overweight. In Karnataka, according to NFHS-5, 35.4% of the Children under 5 years are stunted (height-for-age), 19.5% are wasted (weight-for-height), 32.9% are underweight (weightfor-age), 3.2% are overweight and 8.4% of the children are severely wasted. Undernourished children have fewer nutritional reserves to grow appropriately and fight off infections. So, when they reach adulthood they become undernourished mothers which again results in a vicious cycle of undernutrition by giving birth to the next generation of undernourished children. Therefore, focusing on maternal undernutrition can pave the away forward for improving the nutritional status of children.

In order to reduce the burden of malnutrition, several important steps have been taken by the government at the state and central levels. In compliance to the Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka, directions were given by the Dept. of Health and Family Welfare to the Dept. of Medical Education to jointly conduct weekly health camps at the taluka level to identify malnutrition in children.

Over the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, children were deprived of mid-day meals provided by Integrated child development schemes (ICDS) in the Anganwadi centers. Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka along with coordination of Dept of Medical Education, Dept of Rural Development and Panchayath Raj and Dept of Women and child welfare has initiated conduction of weekly malnutrition camps in a sustainable manner over all the districts of Karnataka. This is the first of its kind and can be easily adopted by others for the betterment of nutrition. In these camps, the nutritional status of children is assessed and health education is given to the parents. Children diagnosed with malnutrition are referred to Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) for further management.

Since malnutrition is a double-edged sword, the focus is given to both undernutrition and overnutrition. The Government of Karnataka needs to be highly applauded for taking this initiative which is essential to achieve the SDG goal of ending all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030.