Poshan Weekly is a knowledge dissemination tool intended to share research, evidence, policy and programme guidelines as well as tools on Maternal and Child Nutrition with colleagues around India.
Every Indian woman has the right to good nutrition- NFHS-5 analyses shows its about time for double duty actions
UNICEF/2019/Divakar Mani
Dear Colleagues,
Every Indian woman has the right to good nutrition – services, diets and practices. Good nutrition is important for women because it not only protects her health and wellbeing but also is important for healthy pregnancies and well-nourished child(ren).
Too many Indian women enter pregnancy with one or more nutritional risks - one in ten too short (height <145 cm) or too young (<20 years) or too thin (body mass index, BMI <16 kg/m2) or living with obesity (BMI >=25 kg/m2). One in two Indian women suffer from anemia
India has a minimum universal nutrition assessment and services package in antenatal care. However, ensuring universal and equitable coverage of interventions at district level remains a challenge .The focus on screening and management of all nutritional risks (short, thin, young, anemic and obese) is lacking. It is important to include in policies targets or double duty strategies which can support state governments and partners tackle all forms of malnutrition.
The Fifth National Family Health Survey 2019-20 fact sheets are publicly available for all districts of 22 Indian States/UT and provide important insights on key selected nutrition indicators. The Institute of Economic Growth and UNICEF deep-dived on the maternal nutrition relevant indicators to present initial visual presentations in form of slide deck for easy use for state and district programme officers as well as development partners and researchers on- prevalence, trends and projects and existence of co-nutritional risks among women 15-49 years of age as well as coverage of antenatal services.
The 60 slides deck can be accessed here for easy use and propelling data-driven advocacy efforts for double duty actions for women in public funded programmes as well as large scale Jan Andolan efforts by public and private sector
Kind Regards,
Arjan de Wagt
Chief, Nutrition Programme | UNICEF India
