Commitment to Nutrition in India

The National Food for Work (NFFW) Programme of the Government of India is a precursor to the Employment Guarantee Programme which will be launched in 150 poorest districts of the country once the Parliament approves of the Employment Guarantee Bill. The NFFW programme is under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, which has appointed a Commissioner to report on the functioning of the food and nutrition based schemes in a public interest litigation filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties. Recently, in an initiative taken by the well known economist Professor Jean Dreze and a number of NGOs, teams of student researchers were sent recently to eight Food for Work districts in food insecure states. The teams were asked to survey the food for work worksites and observe how closely the guidelines for the Programme were being followed in their implementation. Our team was sent to Palamau district in Jharkhand state where we had been asked to survey Manatu Block which is considered to be one of the poorest Blocks in Palamau as well as in the whole of Jharkhand and where starvation deaths are not a rare 1 1 This preliminary field note has been prepared by Anjor Bhaskar on behalf of the survey team comprising three Delhi University students, Sandeep Rai, Eva Jayshree Keiro and Anjor Bhaskar. The design of the survey was prepared by a coordination team led by Prof. Jean Dreze. Field support was provided by the following; Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (Ashim Ghosh, Ajit Minch and others). Rajinder, Indermani, Ramlal and Devlal of the Vikas Sagyog Kendra, an NGO with a base in Manatu, hosted us, and gave invaluable inputs. Nagender, Islamul and others of Neelambar Peetambar (and NGO based in Tarahsi village) traveled with us to each and every worksite, without caring for the bazing sun above. It would have been impossible to do any work at all without their enormous support. This fieldwork would not have been possible without the help, support and advice of all these persons. We are indeed grateful to them not only for their help but for providing us a glimpse into their work which in turn gives a ray of optimism to what civil society can do in the backward regions of Jharkhand to bolster development.

2015

The Indian state of Odisha has made significant strides to address health and nutrition in the last 25 years. We used public data, policy and program documents, published literature, and interviews with program and policy decision-makers, development partners, civil society members (n=29) and community members (n=45) to analyze these changes. Factors that contributed to scale up of health and nutrition interventions and the food security program included overarching policy support, financing at the national and state level, leadership across sectors from government to civil society and development partners, capacity and stability of tenure of bureaucrats, and state innovations in service delivery interventions. Barriers that may impede further progress include lack of sanitation, low levels of women's education, early marriage in girls, livelihood distress, and uneven progress across social groups.

2019

We would also like to extend our thanks to the Development Corner Consulting (DCOR) team led by Satyanarayan Mohanty who led the quantitative and qualitative data collection in Odisha, contributed to the qualitative data analysis, and produced field reports: all of which informed the content of this report. We are particularly grateful to Satya and to Gopal Krushna Bhoi for their warmth and hospitality in the field. We are equally grateful to the Society for Promoting Education and Rural Development (SPREAD) programme team, particularly to Bidyut Mohanty, Rajkishor Mishra, Jitendra Rath, and Vipul Kumar for their input and support towards the evaluation alongside implementation of the programme. We would also like to thank APPI for funding the evaluation and for their continued valuable input, support, and guidance throughout the process. In particular, we are grateful to

Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy, 2018

The launch of POSHAN Abhiyaan has successfully brought back the focus on one of the biggest challenges India currently faces-the burden of malnutrition. The impact of malnutrition on health, well-being, productivity and longevity is wellknown. It is estimated that for every $1 spent on health and nutrition, the returns are as much as $16. Despite several programmes targeted towards improving the health and nutrition of women and children, we have not been able to solve this persistent problem. The ICDS programme is our primary intervention in this area. However, despite being implemented for decades now, the results of the programme are sub-optimal at best. One out of every third child under 5 years of age continues to be under-nourished, whereas one in every two women is affected by anaemia. In order to secure the well-being of our children, and to fully realize our growth potential and capitalize on the demographic dividend; we need drastic reductions in the prevalence of malnutrition. This paper analyses the reasons due to which under-nutrition continues to remain a threat and presents the current strategy of the government to curb it. It argues that without channelizing cross-sectoral interventions towards the first 1000 days, achieving geographic and programmatic convergence and creating a janandolan, success in this area is highly unlikely.

In this article an attempt is made to evaluate the role of elected women in Panchyati Raj and their knowledge level in reproductive and child health care. The authors on the basis of their direct experience from the field and interaction with the people as NGO professionals and scholars in various geographical pockets of India with special reference to Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh have evaluated the impact of the 73 rd and 74 th Amendment Acts of the Indian Constitution. The women were well respected and always treated as the equal half in the Vedic and Puranic periods. The texts of the Rig-Veda, Athrva-Veda and Manusmriti confirm such facts. However, because of over dominance of male ego geniture, and patriarchy the women were subjugated and lost their individual and gender freedom in the changing phases of the Indian history. Gandhi as pioneer of Indian politics and architect of new India talked about the participation of women in every sphere of life and he also advocated for the decentralization of power from centre to the Panchayat and village levels. His concept of gramswarajya is a major contribution in this respect. Post 1993 the Indian villages and also the women and dalits of India tasted the new form of democracy and started sharing the decision making process in all possible affairs. Health of the child as well as the mother is one of major concerns where women representatives were supposed to respond with their positive concern and attachment. The economic and other issuses are also very important. The proxy voting, dominance of males and the representatives from higher caste and class are, however, very clearly observed in the entire process of Gram Panchayat. The initiatives of the government agencies and Planning Commission in this specific area are also discussed on the basis of the ground reality. The author suggest some meaningful suggestions as well.

2020

While India’s malnutrition rates have dropped dramatically, the country is still home to the largest number of stunted and wasted children in the world. Owing to the cultural and geographical variance across states, combatting malnutrition requires a granular approach. POSHAN Abhiyaan, the government’s national nutrition mission launched in 2017, aims to provide a convergence mechanism for the country’s response to malnutrition. This special report maps India’s nutritional journey, describing past and current nutrition programmes and exploring their successes and weaknesses. It highlights the experiences of India’s northern states in implementing POSHAN Abhiyaan so far, with the aim of finding ways to scale-up innovative techniques adopted by the states. The report concludes with specific recommendations towards reaching the 2030 SDG of eliminating malnutrition. Amongst India’s most serious yet marginally addressed development challenges is malnutrition, which contributes significan...

Emerging as a public health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic also threatened the food and nutrition security of vulnerable populations across the country, including those in Odisha. The Inter-Agency Group (IAG), Odisha, which is comprised of lead national and international non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and UN agencies, conducted a statewide mobile-phone based survey to gauge the impact of COVID-19 on the vulnerable people of the state. The survey focused on the areas of food security, nutrition, livelihoods, social protection, health, WASH and migration. The Food Security and Nutrition sector, represented by Oxfam India, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, Caritas India, Help Age India, UNICEF and WFP worked together to develop the data collection tool and, through their respective partners in the field, collected data through phone interviews. The team from WFP India did the analysis and for the section presented in the "Joint Rapid Needs Assessment". Over 473 households from across 14 districts were interviewed in the first half of April 2020 to produce this report. The report captures early results during the Lockdown 1.0 in the State. Despite the heavy toll exacted by COVID-19, the food security and nutrition of vulnerable populations is maintained across various regions of the state and sections of people. The significant support coming from the Government helped the people in need to navigate the crisis. The succinct findings and the relevant recommendations that follow in the report are still pertinent for helping policy makers to adopt timely and informed decisions and strategies to contain the spread of COVID-19 against the potential negative impact of preventive measures on the economy, employment and income, safety and food security. The strategies will undoubtedly change as the crisis evolves. But the report calls for the key stakeholders to put the right foundation in place now in order to effectively implement the strategies. We acknowledge the contributions of the team IAG and their network of agencies and CSO and in particular, teams from CRS, Oxfam, World Vision, Caritas India, Help Age India and WFP for their able programmatic insights and support along with dedicated efforts in analysing and presenting the data and preparing this report. As IAG is committed to the value of wellbeing of the people of Odisha, we hope these efforts will translate into providing food security and nutrition benefits to the population in Odisha. Lastly, WFP expresses its assurances to continue working with Government of Odisha and providing technical assistance in the joint efforts of the State towards achieving Zero Hunger.