Child, Adolescent and Woman Nutrition in India: Public Policies, Programmes and Progress

In the last decade, addressing the persistent problem of maternal, infant, young child and adolescent malnutrition in India has gained significant attention. With the well-established serious implications of malnutrition on mortality and morbidity; mental health and cognitive development; activity and productivity and overall economic development, today there is an unprecedented political commitment to improving the grave woman and child nutrition scenario in the country. POSHAN ABHIYAAN (Nutrition Mission) was launched in a Mission mode by the Honourable Prime Minister of India on March 8, 2018, followed by measures for an effective implementation of an integrated nutrition strategy through POSHAN 2.0 in 2022. These developments led to a rapid increase in the interest in the subject of public health nutrition in the country and a higher involvement of various institutions dealing with the subject. The book with 15 chapters tracks history of evolvement of public nutrition policies and strategies, presents an update on the nutrition scenario, analyses the experiences and synthesises emerging lessons in the prevention and control of malnutrition. Additionally, the book includes chapters with details of each of the various government systems such as Health, ICDS, NRLM, PDS, Education/MDM, Water-Sanitation that provide lead in mainstreaming nutrition actions that directly or indirectly impact on accelerating in the improvement of the nutrition situation of Woman, adolescents and children.

The book is intended to be an indispensable reference for teachers and students of nutrition, community medicine, public health and development as well as professionals involved in the formulation and implementation of the nutrition policies and programmes.