Nutrition Security of Women and Children in India: Opportunity for Building Partnership with Low Income Countries (LIC)

Malnutrition in India is a public health emergency with serious health, academic and economic consequences. Malnutrition, though imperceptible, is in fact an underlying cause in about a third of preventable deaths in children under five years of age.2 Foetal growth restriction, attributed to a great extent to maternal under nutrition, is a cause of more than a quarter of all neonatal deaths. Under nutrition in children is estimated to reduce nation‘s economic advancement by at least 8 % due to direct productivity losses, poor cognition, reduced schooling. 3 Deficiencies of essential vitamins and minerals, though not visible, are widespread in the country and have adverse effects on child survival, growth and brain development. The long term consequences of chronic under nutrition are far more reaching since the adverse impact is not only irreversible but intergenerational