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)
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