Five years ago Sushila Zeitlyn and I co-edited a collection of papers by Indian authors on why undernutrition was so persistent in India and why the government seemed so disinterested in making tackling it a priority. At that time the Prime Minister called undernutrition a “curse”. It must have seemed like that—rapid economic growth and high and stubborn levels of stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies.
Second, there was the Coalition for Food and Nutrition Security, chaired by M.S. Swaminathan, still driving the agenda with a razor sharp intellect and turn of phrase. The Coalition is a group of civil society, government and research organisations and individuals who are fighting for nutrition. I attended the launch of their Action Agenda. The Coalition outlines 5 urgent areas of action; coverage of evidence informed nutrition interventions, equitable access to services provided by sectors related to nutrition, adequate financing, nutrition as a development indicator with regular data collected every 3-5 years and institutional leadership within the offices of the Prime Minister and state Chief Ministers. I like this set of 5, especially the last two as I think they set the tone.
* New headline figures from the yet to be released Rapid Survey on Children (Government of India and UNICEF)—under 5 stunting declines from 48% to 38%
* UP’s Nutrition Mission
* The new Government’s preparation of a National Nutrition Mission
* The new Government focus on sanitation
* The active role civil society is playing: the Citizen’s Alliance, the Coalition and Naandi’s Hungama 2
* Maharashtra, Odisha and Kanartaka’s leadership on nutrition at the state level
* A PDS system that seems to be lurching into life in terms of promoting food security
* UNICEF’s strong partnership of the States
Maybe the curse really is lifting. Maybe India will join SUN. Maybe India will hit the WHA targets by 2025 or even exceed them. We shall see.
Written by: Lawrence Haddad, IFPRI (Source)