Nutrition

Hunger, malnutrition, and poor health are widespread, persistent development challenges, especially for developing countries. Despite India’s rapid growth development, it faces a dual challenge with the burden of under-nutrition and communicable diseases on one end of the spectrum, while on the other hand is the challenge of over nutrition and non-communicable diseases. These extremities are the manifestation of the growing inequality- in fact, India has been identified as the country with the highest rates of domestic inequalities in malnutrition. Therefore, it is critical to address this problem at its intersection that can further perpetuate poverty and undermine economic growth. Case in point being, According to Global Nutrition Report, India is among 88 countries that are likely to miss global nutrition targets by 2025. In fact, India to miss targets for all four nutritional indicators for which there is data available, i.e., stunting among under-5 children, anaemia among women of reproductive age, childhood overweight and exclusive breastfeeding. over half (51%) of Indian women of reproductive age (15 to 49 years) are anaemic mostly caused by nutritional deficiencies with six in 10 women in India faces the risk of anaemia, according to the Global Nutrition Report. India is identified as among the three worst countries, along with Nigeria and Indonesia, for steep within-country disparities on stunting, where the levels varied four-fold across communities. The sector is therefore, fundamentally driven by challenges in multiple sectors and there arises a need to develop contextually relevant, high impact strategies to tackle the triple burden of malnutrition, micronutrient deficiency and obesity