UNICEF: Almost 2,500 children in India die each day from malnutrition, Gov't disagrees

[Ronan Kelly]

Ministries refuse to file affidavit on hunger deaths
SC Asks Addl Solicitor General To File Reply By Friday
Nitin Sethi TNN


New Delhi: The health and women and child development ministries have refused to give an affidavit to the Supreme Court on how many children die of hunger in India every year.
UNICEF says 50% of all the deaths of children aged below five years are from malnutrition. That works out to 2,438 children dying every day for lack of food. But no one in the government is ready to stick its neck out and say it or differ from these statistics.
This put the Additional Solicitor General appearing for the government in a piquant position on Wednesday when he informed the court that the ministries were unwilling to sign on the affidavit stating such figures. When he requested the apex court to give directions, the SC bench instead asked the ASG to convene a meeting of all the ministries and get an affidavit filed by them by Friday.
For the ministries, the concern would also remain that if the affidavit is filed in their name, they too would be pulled into the case where the government and its bodies have often had to hear harsh words from the apex court and defend their record at solving the child malnourishment problem. It would be a tough task considering that the petitioners have been citing data such as Bangladesh?s much better record despite their much lower economic growth levels.
Earlier, the Planning Commission had pleaded itself into the case defending the government?s poverty line. It had contended that anyone spending more than Rs 20 a day in cities and Rs 15 a day in rural India was not poor as per its formula.
For the government, the court calling for such figures has gained significance and created worries at the highest level. The petitioners in the case had marshaled together such information to demand that the government universalize the distribution of subsidized food in the 150 poorest districts. They have been asking for a wider food security net while the government has been taking a more minimalist approach keeping the fiscal subsidy burden in mind.
The government in its ongoing tussle with the National Advisory Council has already once rejected this proposal.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Defa...eLabel=11&EntityId=Ar01100&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: UNICEF: Almost 2,500 children in India die each day from malnutrition, Gov't disagrees

Odisha

UNDER-NUTRITION MAIN CAUSE OF CHILD DEATH?
Wednesday, 10 December 2014 | PNS | BHUBANESWAR | in Bhubaneswar

More than one-third of the world?s malnourished children live in India. As per the National Family Health Survey (NHFS-3), in Odisha, 39.5 per cent of children under the age of three years are underweight while 43.9 per cent are stunted or too short for their age. Similarly, 23.7 per cent are wasted or measured low weight for height of the children. Mortality among under-five children is a result of infectious diseases and neonatal deaths. And, under-nutrition is an important factor contributing to the death of young children.

?If a child is malnourished, the mortality risk associated with respiratory infections, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, and other infectious diseases is increased,? revealed experts at a State-level dissemination meeting on release of new ?Action Agenda for Nutrition Security in India?, developed by the task force of the Coalition for Food and Nutrition Security in India, here on Tuesday. The event was organised by the NGO Save the Children.
...
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-e...nder-nutrition-main-cause-of-child-death.html

Essential Nutrition Interventions Across the
Continuum of Care

Essential Nutrition Interventions (ENIs) encompasses a continuum of preventive and curative interventions
across the 1000-day window and adolescence. They include the promotion, protection and support of appropriate
Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices, delivery of micronutrient interventions, care for adolescent
girls and women as well as improvement in water-sanitation-hygiene practices. Recommended ENIs are:

(i) Interventions to Improve Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices through interpersonal counseling,
community mobilization (e.g., through VHND), provision of maternity benefits where needed, and provision
of good quality supplementary foods through the ICDS. Specific areas of IYCF to focus on include the
following:

- Breastfeeding
? Immediate and exclusive breastfeeding, within one hour of birth.
? Special feeding arrangements for low birth weight infants.
? Exclusive breastfeeding, without even water, in the first six months of life.
? Continued breastfeeding for up to 24 months or beyond.
? Avoiding the use of feeding bottles.
- Complementary feeding
? Timely introduction of optimal complementary foods after completion of 6 months of age, using local
appropriate foods.
? Age appropriate and nutritionally adequate (in terms of quality, quantity and frequency) complementary
food for children 6-24 months.
? Safe handling of complementary foods and hygiene & hand washing during feeding.
- Feeding during illness
? Age appropriate frequent and active feeding with increased fluid intake including on-demand
breastfeeding during and after illness.

ii) Interventions to Improve Child Health Services and Micronutrient Supplements
- Complete routine immunization and bi-annual vitamin A supplementation along with deworming, twice
a year during the first five years of life (6-59 months)
- Delayed cord clamping and prophylactic iron and folic acid supplementation to prevent anemia. In malariaendemic
areas, iron supplementation should be implemented in conjunction with measures to prevent,
diagnose and treat malaria.
- Diarrhea management with oral rehydration solution and zinc supplementation.

iii) Care of Children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM)
- Timely, optimal and quality therapeutic feeding and care of all SAM children, as required, through facility
or community based interventions.

iv) Care of Adolescent Girls and Women
- Intermittent iron and folic acid supplementation along with deworming among adolescent girls and
women in reproductive age.
- Promotion of iodized salt.
- Calcium supplementation in populations where calcium is low.
- Promote adequate food and nutrient intake during pregnancy to achieveminimum weight gain of 10-12
kg; provision of high quality food supplements through the ICDS.

...
http://www.nutritioncoalition.in/pdf/LAA-overview-document.pdf

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare 19-December-2014 15:27 IST

Initiatives taken to Reduce Malnutrition



As per the World Bank Report titled ?Nutrition in India?, India loses over 12 billion U.S. Dollar in Gross Domestic Product due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies in Indian population. It also reports significant direct and indirect economic losses due to under-nutrition associated with direct productivity losses estimated at more that 10 percent of lifetime individual earnings and about 2-3 percent loss of GDP. Indirect losses are due to poor mental development and schooling, and increased costs of healthcare.

As per the comparison from second and third National Family health Survey conducted in 1998-99 and 2005-06 respectively, the prevalence of stunting among children under-three years of age has declined from 51 per cent to 44.9 percent; however the prevalence of wasting among children under age three years has increased from 19.7 per cent to 22.7 percent.

The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition in the country and is implementing several schemes/programmes under different Ministries/Departments through State Governments/UT Administrations, the details being as follows:

• Under multi-sectoral approach for accelerated action on the determinants of malnutrition in targeting nutrition in schemes/programmes of all the sectors. The schemes/programmes include the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), National Health Mission (NHM), Mid-Day Meal Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Schemes for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) namely SABLA, Indira Gandhi MatritvaSahyogYojna (IGMSY) as direct targeted interventions. Besides, indirect Multi-sectoral interventions include Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), National Horticulture Mission, National Food Security Mission, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, National Rural Drinking Water Programme etc. All these schemes address one or other aspect of nutrition.

• The specific interventions targeted towardsthe vulnerable groups include children below 6 years. The main schemes/programmes of Ministry of Women and Child Development which have a bearing on the nutritional status includes the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme which provides a package of six services namely supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition & health education, immunization, health check-up and referral services.

• Under National Health Mission of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the remedial steps taken are as follows:

- Promotion of appropriate infant and young child feeding practices that include early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding till 6 months of age and appropriate complementary feeding after 6 months of age.

- Management of malnutrition and common neonatal and childhood illnesses at community and facility level by training service providers in IMNCI (Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses) training.

- Treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition at special units called the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs), set up at public health facilities. Presently 875 such centres are functional all over the country.

- Specific program to prevent and combat micronutrient deficiencies of Vitamin A and Iron & Folic Acid (IFA) in under-five children, children of 5 to 10 years of age, and adolescents.

- Village Health and Nutrition Days and Mother and Child Protection Card are the joint initiative of the Ministries of Health & Family welfare and the Ministry of Woman and Child for addressing the nutrition concerns in children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

The State wise performance available from surveys and reports received from States of above mentioned interventions in last three financial years is placed below:-
...
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=113725

 

[Ronan Kelly]

1,274 kids died of malnutrition in 10 months in Maharashtra
PTI, Mumbai| Updated: Mar 30, 2015 21:31 IST

As many as 1,274 children died of malnutrition in three districts of Maharashtra in ten months, the legislative council was informed on Monday.

These deaths (of children below 6 years) were reported between April 2014 and January 2015 in the districts of Nandurbar (662), Palghar (418) and Thane (194), said minister of state for women and child welfare minister Vidya Thakur.

Despite various initiatives taken by the Government, malnutrition cases in Bhiwandi area of Thane district doubled in 2014, she said.
...
http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumba...0-months-in-maharashtra/article1-1332212.aspx

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Policy Watch: Why India's data on deaths is so misleading

Monday, 24 August 2015 - 6:30am IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: dna | From the print edition
R N Bhaskar
...
However, some figures can be got from Census reports. Data from Table 2.4 of the 2010 Census Report on MCCD shows the total number of registered deaths to be 4.66 million, 4.76 million and 4.82 million for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. UNICEF’ believes that around 9 million people die annually in India (http://unicef.in/Story/1133/Birth-Re...cture-in-India). This means that almost 50% of deaths go unregistered. Of these, only 20% get medically certified. That translates into just 10% of the dying population in this country getting medically certified.
...
Second, take a look at the classification of the causes of death (see chart). There is no mention of death by starvation or even malnutrition. So were these cases registered as death on account of “natural causes”? Had the cause of death been recorded honestly, someone could have sued the government or even the district collector concerned. Clearly, for almost 45 years, the Indian government has been foisting a deception on its own people, and even to data enumerators of the United Nations.
...
http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/col...deceit-2117347

 

[Ronan Kelly]

80 Infant Deaths in Five Months
By Ratan K Pani Published: 30th August 2015 06:11 AM Last Updated: 30th August 2015 06:11 AM

JHARUSGUDA/DEOGARH:Even as the State Government claims to have been taking several steps to bring down Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Jharsuguda district in Western Odisha has witnessed 80 newborn deaths in the first five months of this year.

According to official reports from Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), of the 3,041 newborns (aged between zero and one year) born during the period from January to May this year, 80 have died. This despite the fact that all the cases were institutional deliveries.

There are five blocks in the district - Jharsuguda, Kolabira, Kirmira, Laikera and Lakhanpur - and IMR is the highest in Lakhanpur. In this block, 29 newborns have died out of 935 born in five months.
...
http://www.newindianexpress.com/sta...-in-Five-Months/2015/08/30/article3000902.ece