Date: 25/11/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Human Resources

Key Phrases: Inter-Generational Nature Of Malnutrition, Social Education Programme, Saksham Anganwadi And Poshan 2.0 Scheme, Accountability Initiative Budget Brief Report, Accountability Initiative Budget Brief Report

Why in News?

• India has ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022 which shows that Indians have less food security than any country in South Asia, save Afghanistan.
• In fact, Sri Lanka (64th), Nepal (81st) and Bangladesh (84th) performed significantly better than India.

Key Highlights:

• The GHI is an important indicator of nutrition, particularly among children, as it looks at stunting, wasting and mortality among children, and at calorific deficiency across the population.
• India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) from 2019-21 also reported that in children below the age of five years, 35.5% were stunted, 19.3% showed wasting, and 32.1% were underweight.

Factors responsible for India’s malnutrition problem and poor delivery by government schemes:

• There are huge gaps in the funding and implementation of the centrally-sponsored schemes that already exist.
• The budgets being allocated are nowhere near the scale of the funds that are required to improve nutrition in the country. For example,
• Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 scheme: The scheme seeks to work with adolescent girls, pregnant women, nursing mothers and children below three. However, the budget for this scheme for FY2022-23 was ₹20,263 crore, which has shown an increase of less than 1% over two years.
• PM POSHAN (Pradhan Mantra Poshan Shakti Nirman): The budget for FY2022-23 at ₹10,233.75 crore was 21% lower than the expenditure in FY2020-21.

Accountability Initiative budget brief report:

• As per the report, over 50% Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) posts were vacant in Jharkhand, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, pointing to severe manpower constraints in successfully implementing the scheme of such importance.
• While PM POSHAN is widely recognised as a revolutionary scheme that improved access to education for children nationwide, it is often involved in controversies around what should be included in the mid-day meals that are provided at schools.
• Moreover, social audits that are meant to allow for community oversight of the quality of services provided in schools are not carried out routinely.

Role of Cash transfers:

• Cash transfers seem to be a preferred solution for several social sector interventions in India today, and targeting the right beneficiaries has become possible with the help of the digital infrastructure.
• Cash transfer has the advantage of expanding choice at the household level, as they make decisions on what to put on their plates, but evidence of the impact of cash transfer on child nutrition in India is limited so far.

Issues with the cash transfers:

• The social factors such as ‘son preference’ continue to be prevalent in India which influence household-level decisions when responding to the nutrition needs of sons and daughters.
• While cash transfers improve household food security, they do not necessarily translate into improved child nutrition outcomes.
• The effect of cash transfers is also limited in a context where food prices are volatile and inflation depletes the value of cash.
• The issue cannot be solved alone by the way of cash transfers and calls for a comprehensive social education programme.
• Further, a study of the Mamata scheme in Odisha that targeted pregnant and lactating women, showed that there were persistent socio-economic discrepancies in the receipt of cash transfers, especially in comparison to entitlements received through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
• Thus, cash may be part of the solution, but on its own, it is no panacea.

Way Forward:

• Cash transfer can play a role in tackling malnutrition in regions experiencing acute distress, where household purchasing power is very depressed.
• Moreover, cash transfers can also be used too in terms of seeking greater institutional support.
• Food rations through PDS and special supplements for the target group of pregnant and lactating mothers, and infants and young children, are essential.
• Persistently under-funded and poorly implemented public programmes which are majorly responsible for India’s malnutrition problem require greater involvement of local government and local community groups in the design and delivery of tailored nutrition interventions.
• A comprehensive program targeting adolescent girls is required if the inter-generational nature of malnutrition is to be tackled.

Conclusion:

• Malnutrition has been India’s scourge for several years now.
• Neither political battles over malnutrition nor thinking in silos is going to help the cause of tackling malnutrition.
• Malnutrition persists due to depressed economic conditions in large parts of the country, the poor state of agriculture in India, persistent levels of unsafe sanitation practices, etc.
• The need of the hour is to make addressing child malnutrition the top priority of the government.
• Not only are key nutrition schemes underfunded, but the funds available are not being spent effectively.
• Fixing these schemes is the obvious answer to addressing India’s multi-dimensional nutrition challenge.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What are the various factors responsible for India’s malnutrition problem and poor delivery by government schemes? Suggest measures in order to tackle the inter-generational nature of malnutrition in India (250 words)