COMMUNITY NUTRITION 3 (1+2)

Lesson 14 : Nutrition programme in India

Indirect nutrition programmes

There are programmes which have great indirect effect on prevention of malnutrition. They are as follows:

1. Family welfare programme- Nutrition programmes and programmes for birth spacing are the “two sides of the same coin”. It is an accepted fact that without improvement in the family health, nutrition improvement of the children in impossible. Again there cannot be any family health if the mother in the family conceived year after year a large number of children to take care. The correlation between nutrition and family size has been well documented not only in India but in various parts of the world.


2. Universal Programme of immunization and provision of effective primary health care. It is essential to break the vicious circle between malnutrition and infection. Immunization and timely medical care are definite nutrition promoters.


3. Provision of safe drinking water and improvement in sanitation: these are powerful nutrition promoters in indirect manner. Gastro enteritis is the commonest cause of under nutrition and mortality among children in India and to a large extent it is caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. Provision of safe water and improved sanitation will drastically reduces the incidence of gastro-enteritis and diarrhea and thus improves the nutrition situation of child population.


4. Literacy programme- Illiteracy is a manifestation of poverty. There are evidences to show that malnutrition is more common among the children of illiterate mothers and that in a community the incidence of malnutrition reduces with the introduction of literacy programme. Thus, the programmes which are now in operation in India for removing the massive illiteracy in India and also the functional literacy programme implemented in various parts of India acts as indirect nutrition programme.


5. The public food distribution system- is a very powerful weapon to remove the problem of malnutrition from the weakest, economic sectors. These segments have low food purchasing power and any measure to provide adequate food and of a reasonable quality would greatly enhance their dietary consumption. The food stamps in the United States or subsidized Food programmes in many other countries, the food Rationing System in India are the examples of such programmes.


6. Income generating programmes- as poverty is one of the main factors causing undernutrition, efforts to increase the income of families, especially the purchasing power of women was proved to have definite positive impact in decreasing hunger and undernutrition.