Tackling malnutrition among adolescent girls

By Santosh Jain Passi and Akanksha Jain

Adolescence – the transient phase of life from puberty to adulthood comprises rapid physical growth coupled with fast-paced psychosocial, cognitive and emotiol development. India has nearly 253 million adolescents (constituting >1/5th of total population) who are in dire need of appropriate nutrition, education, counseling and guidance (Census, 2011). Health of an adolescent girl indicates her health status during later years of life.

Several adulthood diseases have their roots in adolescence; many of the premature adolescent mortalities are either preventable or treatable and in many cases, the adolescents may suffer from life-long chronic illnesses/disabilities. Major health issues of the adolescents include nutritiol deficiencies, mental-health problems, early pregncy/child-birth, HIV/sexually transmitted infections, other infectious diseases, violence, unintentiol injuries and substance abuse. WHO has reported that during 2012, nearly 1.3 million adolescents had died from preventable/treatable illnesses.

Since 1950, every year, 7th April is observed as World Health Day – an opportunity for drawing worldwide attention to the important issue of global health.  The day is acknowledged by various governments and the NGOs interested in public health issues wherein, several intertiol, regiol and local events are organized on a particular theme. This year’s theme is – ‘Depression: Let’s talk’.

Globally, India has the maximum number of adolescents. Considering the huge potential of this demographic and economic force in tiol development, it is crucial to invest in their education, health and development. The investments in adolescent reproductive/sexual health alone can yield enormous dividends in terms of delayed age at marriage, reduced incidence of teege pregncies, meeting the unmet contraception needs, reduced materl mortality and lowered prevalence of HIV/STI.

In view of rapid growth spurt and increased physical activity, nutritiol requirements of the adolescents are rather high, particularly in terms of energy, protein and various vitamins/minerals. On the other hand, adolescents are highly prone to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and binge eating. Unhealthy dietary habits with greater reliance on junk foods, poor lifestyle practices and physical ictivity are the major cause of nutritiol disorders; during this phase, idequate nutrition can lead to stunted growth and delayed sexual maturation. Teege Image result for poor Indian adolescents pregncy/childbirth complications are the second most important cause of mortality among 15-19 year olds; both the mothers and their newborns are at an increased risk. Babies born to mothers aged < 20 years  face  a  far higher  risk   of   being still-born  or  die within the first  week of life. There is a greater likelihood of such children being low birth weight and suffer from the risk of long term health effects. However, many of these issues can be addressed by routine screening followed by nutrition/health education.

The Government of India has recognized the importance of influencing health-seeking behaviour of the adolescents and has, thus, initiated a number of schemes and programmes; however, the age-groups covered under these vary. Various schemes/programmes include:

Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) – directed towards holistic development of the adolescents, was launched by the MHFW in January 2014. Rather than being limited to sexual & reproductive health, the programme addresses issues relating to nutrition, non-communicable diseases, injuries, violence, mental health and substance misuse with a special focus on health promotion. By reorganizing the existing public health system, it is expected to reach out to 253 million adolescents – particularly those from margilized households, through community based interventions, facility based counselling, social & behaviour change communication and by strengthening the adolescent friendly health clinics.

As part of RCH-II, Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH) programme proposes to ensure improved service delivery for adolescents through routine sub-centre clinics as well as on fixed days/timings at the PHCs and CHCs. Under outreach activities, the package of services comprises preventive, promotive, curative and counselling services for addressing their reproductive and sexual problems. Under School Health Programme, emphasis is laid on nutritiol interventions, promotion of healthy lifestyle, counseling and immunization. Adolescence Education Programme of the MHRD envisages to impart age-appropriate and culturally relevant accurate information to the adolescents. In addition, it promotes healthy attitudes and development of appropriate skills through curricular/co-curricular activities for empowering them to face the real life situations.

tiol Program for Youth and Adolescent Development by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is a merger of four centrally sponsored schemes (earlier med as Promotion of Youth Activities & Training, Promotion of tiol Integration, Promotion of Adventure and Development and Empowerment of Adolescents). Apart from inculcating leadership qualities and persolity development, it motivates the youth to channelise their energy for tion building.

Some of the programmes particularly directed towards adolescent girls are: Kishori Shakti Yoja which aims at improving health, nutrition and educatiol status of girls aged between 11-18 years. The major aim of Balika Samridhi Yoja is to raise the age at marriage of adolescent girls; the programme envisages to achieve this goal by bringing about improvements in enrolment and retention of the girls at school.

Another programme - primarily for out of school adolescent girls (11–18 years), is Scheme for Adolescent Girls. Under this, the adolescent girls are provided iron-folate supplementation, nutrition/health education, adolescent reproductive/sexual health and life skill education; and for older girls (>16 years) vocatiol training is imparted as part of tiol Skill Development Programme. In December 2016, a joint initiative ‘Swasth Bacche Swasth Bharat’ was launched by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation for achieving higher levels of cleanliness and hygiene. Apart from these, issues relating to adolescents are also covered under various other schemes directly or indirectly addressing the nutrition and health aspects of the population at large.

For breaking the inter-generatiol cycle of malnutrition, nutrition and health concerns of adolescent girls – the future mothers, need to be addressed urgently and effectively. (PIB)