Gain valuable insights from Alok Kumar, IAS, Advisor at NITI Aayog, as he shares his expertise and perspectives. Explore his thoughts on important policy matters, developmental initiatives, and the role of NITI Aayog in shaping India's future.
#Poshan #OutlookPoshan #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
#Poshan #OutlookPoshan #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hi, my name is Alok Kumar, I am advisor health and nutrition in NITI Aayog.
00:07 The Poshan Abhiyan is essentially based on multiple pillars.
00:19 The first pillar is convergence where we try to bring multiple ministries and multiple programs
00:24 to act together to tackle malnutrition because malnutrition is a multi-dimensional problem.
00:32 The second is about leveraging the technology to have data, real-time data on how the programs
00:46 are reaching mothers and children and trying to ensure that every mother and children is covered
00:51 and that the quality of the interventions are good.
00:55 The third pillar is focusing on the package of interventions which make the most impact
01:02 and that is relating to first thousand days of the life of a child.
01:14 By design, Poshan Abhiyan encourages all the stakeholders to come together and try and attempt
01:22 all the relevant programs, the package of interventions which we have prioritized
01:29 to make sure that it reaches every woman and every child.
01:38 The prevalence of anemia is over 50%, so every second mother, second woman in the age group 15-49 is anemic.
01:47 And if you look at the children age group 1-5, again the anemia levels are 60% or there and thereabouts.
01:56 So it is a major public health concern and what we are doing here is in terms of the program
02:07 there is a new program which is called Anemia Mutt Bharat which has been launched
02:11 and which really is looking at testing and treating.
02:16 So testing people's blood and finding out where the iron is short and trying to supplement it
02:22 by iron tablets and folic acid supplements.
02:32 A couple of things, so aspirational districts are those districts which are poor in social indicators
02:37 that is how by design they have been selected.
02:40 And what we have done is we have placed almost 60% of the weightage on health, education and nutrition.
02:48 Therefore this has brought unprecedented focus on nutrition as a subject.
02:54 Besides what we have done is we have tied up with philanthropies to provide support
02:59 to the district administrations in running the Poshan Abhiyan better.
03:04 And I think these two measures are going to, thirdly one other thing which I just wanted to say,
03:12 we are also trying to build a lot of corporate social responsibility funds to supplement the efforts
03:19 in these districts, nutrition efforts in these districts.
03:21 So these are the three ways by which we are trying to address aspirational districts.
03:27 What are the challenges in designing Poshan Abhiyan?
03:32 As long as there is alignment in the efforts of the government and the development partners
03:40 and to my mind the way we are operating in Poshan Abhiyan fortunately we have a very very strong sense of alignment.
03:48 And I think as I said in the aspirational districts and beyond it in terms of designing the guidelines,
03:55 designing the interventions, there is a lot of consultation between the relevant stakeholders.
04:02 And at this moment I seem to be, I am quite hopeful that the way things are working
04:08 we should see a major fillip in this battle against malnutrition.
04:15 What are the challenges in designing Poshan Abhiyan?
04:21 So there are two forms of malnutrition, one is the undernutrition and one is the overnutrition.
04:28 So undernutrition again is two parts, one is calorie deficiency which is about providing energy dense foods
04:35 and B is micronutrient deficiency which is about vitamin A, vitamin D, iron, zinc and those kind of things.
04:42 So for the undernutrition the Poshan Abhiyan as I said already is happening.
04:47 Now for the overnutrition people are consuming more sugar than they should,
04:53 people are consuming more fats than they should, people are consuming more salt than they should.
04:58 And as you are aware that is a much larger problem but there are two things that the government is trying to do.
05:05 One is the health and wellness centers which we are opening up 1,50,000 which are primarily focused on
05:12 apart from infectious diseases about NCDs and the primary ones among them are hypertension, diabetes, chronic pulmonary diseases.
05:24 So the idea is to screen population and try and target and treat them early
05:31 and also instill healthy eating habits and lifestyles because these are diseases which are generated out of the lifestyle.
05:40 What is your outlook on nutrition?
05:45 I am really glad that outlook is doing this because nutrition as a subject doesn't exactly invite too much media attention.
05:59 If for instance there is a death by hunger in any one of the states,
06:05 a huge media outcry and the democratically elected governments are held accountable and rightly so.
06:11 But this slow withering away of the child which is almost in your face but almost appears to be normalized
06:18 because it is very very slow and gradual process of withering away of the child.
06:22 But we are losing our next generation because a child who is stunted at his childhood,
06:27 research study shows that by the time they grow up they are mentally as well as physically less developed
06:35 and therefore they do not achieve the full potential of what they could have.
06:41 And therefore we welcome this initiative by outlook to give this kind of a focus on nutrition.
06:49 I am told that there is a large number of series of events and series of articles have been published in and around.
06:59 And that I think because to get community engagement the message that this is probably to my mind
07:07 the single most important challenge for India.
07:10 I think it is an extremely welcome move and I wholeheartedly laud this initiative which has been initiated by outlook.
07:18 should they help.
07:19 (upbeat music)