DTMT Network
Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani has said that a humane solution needs to be developed to address the problem of malnutrition in India. She added that for this, the economic benefit of investing in nutrition has to be highlighted and propagated.

Quoting the World Bank Global Nutrition Report – 2018, Irani pointed out that malnutrition costs India at least USD 10 billion a year in terms of lost productivity, illness and death. “It is seriously retarding improvements in human development and further reduction of childhood mortality. POSHAN is an exercise for life for all citizens and should not be limited to women and children,” she further stated.

She informed that her ministry, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Deendayal Research Institute, is developing a POSHAN atlas to map the crops and foodgrain grown in different regions of the country because the solution to tackling malnutrition lies in promoting regional cropping patterns and embracing local food that are rich in protein.

The minister suggested that in order to acknowledge the unsung heroes of the POSHAN Abhiyaan, who work tirelessly and selflessly for the cause of nutrition like the Anganwadi and ASHA workers, a system of ranking of states on health and nutritional parameters may be developed and for this NITI Aayog may develop a framework for the states to rank districts.