In India, if the health of the newborn and infant is to be improved, then there is a great need to pay attention to maternal nutrition for this. The nutrition received by any baby in the first 1000 days is extremely important for its future health benefits. This nutrition taken during 1000 days of an infant depends on three things- pre-pregnancy mother’s nutrition, maternal nutrition and the baby’s nutrition.
Today, India is progressing in other areas of science and technology like space, medicine, nanotechnology, robots etc. But malnutrition of children is still a threat to India. Think of it in such a way that in India, still about 35.5% of the baby’s height is not growing according to their weight and 67.1 percent of the children are suffering from anemia. These two causes account for 68.2% of all infants who die under the age of 5.
A malnourished child also has a low learning capacity. This also affects his performance in school. Later on, he does not even get the means of proper livelihood. Due to this he remains depressed. After this, he also gets diseases of diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Overall we can say that the group of malnourished children gives India a low productive future.
The government has definitely started schemes like the National Nutrition Mission, Poshan Abhiyan and the second edition of Poshan Abhiyaan for the nutrition of mother and child. But even these schemes have not been able to raise the nutritional level of infant and mother in India. It is a matter of relief for India that India has performed well in various health indicators, which is also confirmed by the National Family Health Survey No.5.
This survey shows that the rate of delivery facilities to an obstetrician has gone up to 70 percent, which was only 58.6 percent in the fourth survey. 78.6 percent of women also have their own bank account. 54% of women have their own mobile phone. The number of women who married below the age of 18 has come down from 26.8 per cent to 23.3%. The number of women attending school for 10 years or more has gone up from 35.7% to 41.0%. Additionally, the number of women using clean fuel for cooking has increased from 43.8% to 68.6 percent.
While these figures of the National Family Health Survey present a happy picture, the nutrition figures point to the seriousness of the situation. Think of it in such a way that still 20 to 30 percent of newborn babies do not get proper nutrition in the first 6 months. Why are we not getting success on this front despite all the efforts of the government?
The biggest reason for this is that mothers do not get proper nutrition before and during pregnancy. Apart from this, they also lack awareness.
Now the question is how to deal with this problem?
To deal with this problem, there is a need to formulate a maternal nutrition policy in India. The policy will take a holistic look at the health of mothers in pre-natal, post-delivery and post-delivery. Apart from this, it will also do the work of creating awareness regarding the nutritional-health of the child. For example, in the first 6 months of the child, he should be given only mother’s milk to drink, this policy will work to create awareness through all the means of media. Apart from this, it will also prepare a blueprint for what kind of nutrition the baby should get in the first 1000 days of his life. It will also impose limited restrictions on the production of commercial milk called canned milk. Apart from this, it will also make some changes in the policy of Integrated Child Development Services according to the needs and circumstances of the present times. Even today the mother-child nutrition policy of the 1970s is being followed in India, which is irrelevant in the conditions of today’s country. Therefore, these policies should be changed and today when the scope of media has increased, it should also be used properly for creating awareness in this regard.