The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has recognized the harsh reality of malnutrition in India by saying “India‘s “unacceptably high” levels of child malnutrition are a “national shame”. Our State women and child welfare minister Varsha Gaikwad in the Assembly’s winter session last year in Nagpur admitted on the floor of the house that only 68 children were dying daily in Maharashtra , and now our State Health Minister, Suresh Shetty walks “ 1000” steps against Malnutrition. (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-25/mumbai/31236503_1_priya-dutt-tara-sharma-mothers)
Last Saturday, on March 24, Mr Suresh Shetty with his z- security men, Page 3 celebrities and Bollywood stars came together in their best dresses after a hearty breakfast at the posh area of South Mumbai, Nariman Point‘s NCPA complex to participate in the 1000 Steps walk sponsored by Nestle and Times to India , to underline the importance of nutrition for mothers and their children, right from conception to the first two years of life. Usually, one will not find a soul on a Saturday mornings, except building guards. The people who reached were the elite living around Nariman Point, Colaba, Marine Drive. But who were they walking for ? Were those people there ? How absurd can you be, holding a march against malnutrition at Nariman Point ?
A walk sponsored by Nestle, what am I missing here? Were they sponsoring Cerelac and Lacotgen for the participants ? Did our Health Minister not know that on March 19, a Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate has charged Nestle India for violating the law (Infant Milk Substitutes Feeding Bottles, and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act.) in advertisements and labelling of its infant food products. Does our Health Minister know that it is important to enforce this law to protect mothers and children from the commercial influence? The Infant Milk Substitutes Act was brought in to regulate production, supply and distribution of infant milk substitutes, feeding bottles and infant foods to protect and promote breastfeeding and ensure the proper use of these food products.
Nestle through their products – Lactogen and Cerelac – had violated several sections of the Act by not printing the notice ‘mother’s milk is best for your baby’ in Hindi and also by not printing the warning that ‘Infant milk substitute or infant food is not the sole source of nourishment for an infant’ on the containers of Lactogen. The warning was not printed in the size prescribed and all the mandatory information was not present in advertisements .
The march if at all , should have been diverted to Govandi, as same day same time there was a huge public meeting on the issue of Malnurtition co organised by Anna Adhikar Abhiyan, Maharashtra, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Jan Arogya Abhiyan, there. Govandi where more than 75 per cent of its population lives in slums and the Human Development Index (HDI) is the lowest in the city, at a mere 0.2. Healthcare is inadequate; the population per hospital is nearly 66,881. It has the highest infant mortality rate (IMR) in the city — nearly 66.47 deaths per thousand births, where Mumbai’s average is 40 per 1000 births.
45000 children die of malnutrition every year in the State, according to a report on nutritional crisis in Maharashtra by the Pune-based organisation Sathi-Cehat. One-third of adults are underweight, and 15 per cent are severely underweight. The report points out that chronic hunger is not confined to rural areas, as is popularly believed; urban populations in coastal regions, including the city of Mumbai, have the highest prevalence of calorie deficiency (43%) in the state. Calculations made using the per-consumer-unit-calories norm of 2,400 in rural areas and 2,100 in urban areas reveals that the incidence of calories-based poverty is 54 per cent in rural areas and 39.5 per cent in urban areas
The Maharashtra government had planned to bring down the number of malnourished children in the state by providing them with packaged food. The idea might have been noble but the government, it seems, forgot to run quality checks. As a result, the food supplied is substandard and the number of children dying of malnutrition has gone up substantially. The State government statistics peg the number of children (0-6 years age group) who died of malnutrition between January and August 2011 as 18,486. The figure for the same period in 2010 was 12,792. So, this means 5,694 more babies died last year.
More facts. Rs 300 crore were spent in Maharashtra for Take homes Ration ( THS ) scheme and the returns? 40 per cent of children in Mumbai have low birth-weight.
Take Home Ration (THR) scheme has been a failure. Health workers mostly pay out of their pockets to clear unused THR. The food packets supplied as THR (Take Home Ration) are devoid of any nutrition and taste. Children and parents are reluctant to take these raw food items home, as they are made of low-grade ingredients, which get spoilt in a short period of time. Last month these packets were thrown by people in garbage after finding fungi and termites in them.
THR scheme is way short in calories, also children between six months and three years can barely accept food: sheera, upma, sattu and sukhdi (meant for adolescent girls). Of the four, sheera is the most important as it is recommended for and given to severely malnourished children at least thrice daily. In one of the series on malnutrition it was reported by DNA ” A nutritional analysis test on the food provided by Anacon Laboratories Pvt Ltd, Nagpur, showed 3g of protein and 42 calories less (sample size was 100g) than the amount mentioned on the packets. Upma and sukhdi had 75 and 70 calories less.”
So, instead of walking 1000 steps, Mr Suresh Shetty you should provide home cooked food to children between age of 0 -6 in Angawadis, Disband the THR Scheme and Implement the ICDS scheme for children, in true letter and spirit. and I hope next time , MP Priya Dutt and Bollywood stars like Konkona Sen Sharma and Tara Sharma , will accept any invitation like this for reasons other than tokenism.
Kamayani Bali Mahabal is a clinical psychologist, lawyer and human rights activist who pitches for human rights , health rights, women’s health and women’s rights, and other issues of social justice. She blogs at http://kractivist.wordpress.com/