Call to do away with malnutrition among children

A Reporter

SHILLONG: The MLA of Mawphlang constituency on Friday said that India has the largest number of malnourished and undernourished population and the recent data indicates that nearly half of all the deaths of children under the age of 5 years are attributed to under nutrition.

Mawphlang MLA SK Sunn made this statement while speaking as the Chief Guest during the inauguration of the Workshop on Digitization of ICDS Reporting System (Establishment of Nutrition Surveillance System), organised by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), National Institute of Nutrition Hyderabad in collaboration with Integrated Child Development Services at the Dorbar Hall at Mawngap. “Lack of nutrition in the first one thousand days of the child may lead to irreversible physical and mental changes that should be avoided with the best of efforts,” he said.

Sunn informed that the government of India is committed to tackle the serious challenge through a specialize work force under the integrated child development scheme.

It may be mentioned that the proposed project will empower the Aganwadi Workers with digital devices like tablets PCs with Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) system to record data at their centre level which would be accessible real time at various levels including at District, State and NIN.

“This timely, reliable and real time data are crucial to enable routine monitoring of the ICDS functioning as well as the well-being and nutritional status of various beneficiaries. This is very essential for taking immediate corrective measures by various stakeholders,” he said.

The National Institute of Nutrition as part of its going project to establish a Nutrition Surveillance System in various states is launching digital reporting system of grassroots level health and nutrition data from Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Centers in Meghalaya