VEDANTA KHUSHI - TIMES OF INDIA - GOVT SETS TARGET FOR CHILD IMMUNIZATION

TIMES OF INDIA

28th December, 2014

In a bid to accelerate immunization coverage, the health ministry has set a target of over 5% to vaccinate children every year.The ministry has launched `Mission Indradhanush' to cover all children who are either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated against seven vaccine preventable diseases which include diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B.
In 2009, immunization coverage was estimated at around 61% and by 2013 it increased to 65%, indicating only 1% increase in coverage every year.

“The Mission mode has been adopted to achieve target of full coverage by 2020,“ health minister J P Nadda said.

The mission logo, depicting the seven colours of the rainbow, was launched on Good Governance Day to mark the birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Shri Madan Mohan Malaviya and birthday of Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In the first phase of the mission, the ministry has identified 201 high focus districts in the country with nearly 50% of all unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children. “These districts will be targeted by intensive efforts to improve the routine immunization coverage,“ Nadda said. Of the 201 districts, 82 districts are in just four states of UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as nearly 25% of the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children of India are in these 82 districts of four states.

Under the mission, the ministry plans to conduct four special vaccination campaigns between January and June 2015 with intensive planning and monitoring of these campaigns.

According to Nadda, the learnings from the successful implementation of the polio programme will be applied in planning and implementation of the mission.

While 201 districts will be covered in the first phase, 297 will be targeted for the second phase in the year 2015.

The ministry will also seek technical support from WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International and other donor partners.

VEDANTA KHUSHI - TIMES OF INDIA - 80% IN RURAL INDIA DON'T GET REQUIRED NUTRITION

TIMES OF INDIA
27th December, 2014

In the past two decades, India's eating habits have changed but the nutritional level seems to be the same, a recent survey has found. Across the board, people are eating less cereals, replacing them with more fat and snacks, beverages and processed foods. Protein consumption has declined in rural areas and remained the same in urban areas.

The average calorific val ue of food consumed was 2,099 kilocalories (Kcal) per person per day in rural areas and 2,058 Kcal in urban areas in 2011, according to the survey report released last week by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).This is less than the nutritional value in 1993-94, when a similar survey had found the levels at 2,153 in rural areas and 2,099 in urban areas.

The National Institute of Nutrition, ICMR, recommends 2,320 Kcal a day for a man aged 18-29 years, weighing 60kg and in a sedentary job. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have nutritional levels that are almost 10% lower than the national average for rural areas while UP, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have levels 10 to 20% higher, according to a National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey .

Another shocking aspect is the huge difference in nutritional intake of the poor and the rich. In rural India, a person belonging to the poorest 10% of population has a daily calorie intake of less than 1,724 Kcal, which includes 45g of protein with protein consumption at about 45g and 24g of fat. At the other end, a person from the richest 10% segment consumes more than 2,531 Kcal every day , almost 47% more than the poor person. A similar chasm can be seen in protein and fat consumption too.

In urban areas, this gap is worse. The poorest people get less than 1,679 Kcal per day while the richest get over 2,518 Kcal each -a difference of nearly 50%.

Almost 80% of rural people and 70% of urban people are not getting the government-recommended 2,400 Kcal per day worth of nutrition, a situation that has very harmful health implications, apart from its sheer inhumanity .

At the national level, daily protein consumption dipped from 60.2g for a person in 199394 to 56.5g in 2011-12 in rural areas and from 57.2g to 55.7g in urban areas. Oil and fat consumption increased from 31 to nearly 42g in rural areas and from 42 to 52.5g in urban areas.

The shares of items like fruits and vegetables, dairy products and egg, meat and fish was about 9% in 1993-94 which has marginally changed to about 9.6% in 2011-12.

The only food item that has seen a substantial jump in intake is classified as `other' in the survey and consists of various hot and cold beverages, processed food like chips, biscuits etc. and snacks. In 1993-94 these made up just 2% of a rural person's nutritional intake but rose to over 7% in 2011-12. In urban areas, this was 5.6% earlier and increased to about 9%.

The report also estimates that the survey would have counted food bought and prepared in a household but eaten by visitors or employees. If this is accounted for, calorific values get reduced by as much as 15-17% in rural areas and 5-6% in urban areas.

VEDANTA KHUSHI - RAJASTHAN PATRIKA - ARTICLE ON MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN - 19TH SEPTEMBER, 2014

VEDANTA KHUSHI - RAJASTHAN PATRIKA - ARTICLE ON MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN - 18TH SEPTEMBER, 2014

VEDANTA KHUSHI - RAJASTHAN PATRIKA - ARTICLE ON MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN - 17TH SEPTEMBER, 2014

VEDANTA KHUSHI - TIMES OF INDIA - IN NCERT MANUAL - MIDDAY MEALTIME RIGHT FOR TEACHING GREEN BEHAVIOUR

Aug 17 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

The one hour given to midday meals (MDM) in schools is an opportunity for discussing a variety of issues related to sustainable development. The MDM scheme, introduced mainly to encourage kids to enroll and remain in school can be used as teaching aid, argue the authors of a recently-compiled manual on education for sustainable development for elementary schools published by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

`Towards a Green School' says that MDM provides a ready setting for discussing "resource conservation" (fuels used and cooking practices), pollution (type of cooking device), socio-cultural exchanges (types of food and taste), health and others.

Treating sustainability and environment as yet another subject isn't enough anymore.

United Nation's `Decade of Education for Sustainable Development' will be up in 2015 but there's much to be done.

While ESD requires “infusion of environmental and sustainability perspectives into the school curriculum“ what has actually happened, as the manual writers observe, is that “at the school level the responsibility for this lies exclusively with teachers teaching the environmental component, thus limiting it to a subject-centric role.

The manual uses several Delhi government schools as examples of institutions that are doing it right. A government school in Baprola has an `eco-park', a gazebo made of waste pipes and a water harvesting system. The students make compost with the surplus being sold. Government Girls' Senior Secondary School (No. 1) in Tilak Nagar ran a “my plant in my school“ drive-each student sowed a sapling and took care of it. As water at the school was in short supply, some kids brought water from home.

The communal midday meal, however, is one exercise all elementary school children take part in and the manual, preparedly by Kavita Sharma of NCERT's department of elementary education, stresses on using this. Teachers may encourage students taking MDM to inquire into where ingredients are grown, how they are procured, in what quantities and at what costs and even how they are stored and cooked. This, in turn, will help initiate discussions on hygiene, the link between the nature of ingredient and geography and nutrition.

The manual encourages teachers to undertake audits--including natural light, ventilation, cleanliness, ambient temperature, noise, accessibility, seating and water use to find out exactly how `green' their schools are.

View the Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/40324824.cms 

VEDANTA KHUSHI : TIMES OF INDIA ARTICLE : 2.3CRORE KIDS IN INDIA MALNOURISHED

 Subodh Varma

4th August, 2014

Bihar Has Dubious Distinction, Maximum Percentage Of Underweight Kids: ICDS

About 2.3 crore children in India, up to 6 years of age, are suffering from malnourishment and are under-weight, according to a status report on the anganwadi (day care center) programme, officially known as ICDS.

This staggering number amounts to over 28% of the 8 crore children who attend anganwadis across India.

The status report includes state-wise data for underweight children. In Bihar, the proportion of under-weight children is nearly 50%. Andhra Pradesh (37%), Uttar Pradesh (36%), Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh (both 32%) are some of the other large states with a high proportion of children being malnourished.

Delhi reported that a shockingly high 35% of the nearly 7 lakh children who attend anganwadis were underweight. This shows that the extent of poverty and malnutrition amongst the urban poor is comparable to rural areas despite all the advantages the cities offer.

In all the northeastern states except Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya, less than 10% of children were underweight children. Other large states with a comparatively low rate of malnutrition are Maharashtra (11%) and Tamil Nadu (18%).

There has been no comprehensive survey of children's malnutrition in India since the last National Family and Health Survey in 2005-06. That had estimated 46% of children in the 0-3 years age group as underweight after surveying a sample of about 1 lakh households across the country . The data from anganwadis provides a snapshot drawing upon a much larger base.

There were an estimated 16 crore children of ages up to 6 years in the country, as per the 2011 Census. Of these, about half seem to be attending the anganwadis going by the records of the programme. Most of those attending anganwadis belong to poorer sections. But large sections do not get access to it. A 2011 Planning Commission evaluation had said that there is a shortfall of at least 30% in coverage.

There are over 13 lakh anganwadis which look after the kids and provide `supplementary nutrition' to them.

As part of their duties, personnel at each anganwadi weigh the attending kids every month and keep a record.

TOI contacted anganwadi workers from several states to confirm the weighing procedures. Till recently, two weighing instruments were provided for each anganwadi center. 

VEDANTA KHUSHI: TIMES OF INDIA ARTICLE: HUNGRY FOR VOTES, BUT NO NETA TO FIX MALNUTRITION PROBLEM

Rema Nagarajan
15th April, 2014

Politicians Call It A ‘Shame’, But Do Little To Cure Ills That Plague System

In January 2012, PM Manmohan Singh declared half of India’s children were malnourished and that was a national shame. Yet since then, not a single comprehensive national survey was conducted to determine the acuteness of the problem or measure progress, if any, of steps initiated to address malnutrition. Worse, the issue figures in a token manner in the election discourse of political parties and candidates.
The 2005-06 National Family Health Survey was the last one conducted and it found 48% of children suffered chronic malnourishment — of them, 20% acute malnourishment. The survey concluded that over half the women were anaemic and 36% underweight. The Global Hunger Index, released in October 2013, placed India among a group of countries with ‘alarming’ levels of hunger, figuring at the bottom of the heap, below China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and several in sub-Saharan Africa.
Key interventions to boost nutrition levels include the targeted public distribution system (TPDS), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the school midday meal scheme (MDMS).
Despite increased food production and procurement for TDPS, food insecurity persists and is a chronic problem linked to poor delivery. The large number of ineligible or fake ration cards issued — a serious problem in some states, usually those that need TPDS the most — has caused huge leakages. The TPDS has glaring exclusion errors. About 20% of the estimated 90 crore eligible beneficiaries are denied subsidized grain as they have no ration card, while 20% of the not-poor do. TPDS remains restricted to wheat and rice that would alleviate hunger, but not address malnutrition. No recommendation to include pulses, oil and nutritious millets has been implemented. Even the food security Act — that UPA counts among its mega achievements — focuses on rice and wheat. Had the Act included higher procurement of millets, pulses, fruits and vegetables, it would have incentivised production of these, instead of just rice and wheat that are water-intensive crops.
ICDS was meant to counter malnutrition in children between 0 and 6 years and pregnant women. Government allocation, including states’ share, increased from over Rs 5,200 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 13,700 crore in 2013-14 and the number of anganwadi centres (AWCs) has increased from 10.1 lakh to 13.1 lakh in 2012-13.
Though almost 90% anganwadis are operational, the ICDS scheme reaches about 47% of eligible children, reported a CAG audit. Coverage in states varies from about 75% in Odisha to 18% in Bihar. Most AWCs lack infrastructure. In 2011-12, only 57% had drinking water on the premises, 47% had toilets and only 25% had a kitchen.
ICDS is meant to provide supplementary nutrition 300 days a year, or 25 days a month. But the number of days the programme worked ranged from 180-250, a CAG audit found. The audit revealed irregularities such as insufficient monitoring, suspected misappropriation of supplies, badly-trained anganwadi workers and shortfall in expenditure on supplementary nutrition, which meant lower per beneficiary expenditure. For a flagship programme that addresses a “national shame” the ICDS programme leaves much to be desired.
Allocation for the midday meal scheme is up from Rs 6,700 cr to over Rs 10,300 cr between 2007-08 and 2011-12. But many states aren’t meeting yearly targets of number of meals served. The scheme’s plagued by reports of children falling ill from eating poor quality or spoiled food. Many states are yet to achieve standards set to run it: constructing a kitchen shed, timely lifting of grains, proper food storage. Women employed as midday meal cooks remain underpaid.
While proportion of malnourished children has fallen since 2005-06, not only has the decline been slow, from 46% malnourished to about 33% by 2013, it’s been uneven with a few states and districts getting worse. But with poor tracking of the schemes’ implementation, or of the population’s nutritional status, no one seems sure if the situation has become any better or worse. And that’s the national shame.
HUNGER POLITICS | Aug 2012 | Modi quoted in interview blaming malnutrition in Gujarat on its “by and large vegetarian diet”. Because it’s a middle-class state, Gujarat is “more beauty conscious than health conscious”Media reports laid bare the bluff: His contentions didn’t square with data whichever way it was spliced. Haryana, even more vegetarian than Gujarat, has better nutritional figuresNSSO data (2009-2010) showed poverty behind state’s poor nutritional indices.
SERVED DEATH | Scams plague the mid-day meal scheme. Last July 27 village children died in Bihar’s Chapra after having the meal. Nitish Kumar cried conspiracy – that they were poisoned. Fact was, there was no monitoring, and the principal ran a racket, serving kids substandard fare.