Recent Program Highlights

Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Founder and President of SARVARTH shared an insightful presentation on theme titled “A Policy Analysis of Nutrition Program (ICDS) in India: An insight from field experience” at TERI SAS. During his detailed presentation, Mr. Kumar articulated that Nutrition is central to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, and at least 12 of the 17 SDGs include indicators relevant for nutrition. The UN Decade of Action on Nutrition expects to achieve the existing global nutrition targets by 2025 and the nutrition-related targets in the Agenda for Sustainable Development by 2030. Mr Kumar said that there is sustained efforts by government of India through various policies at national and state levels, and the constant efforts of several international and national voluntary organizations, including that of bilateral and donor agencies, to reduce the under-nutrition problem among children and women. As per NFHS-5 (2019-21) report, almost 32.1% per cent of children under five years of age in India are underweight and 35.5% per cent are reported as stunted and 19.3 % are still wasted and 67 % children in age group of 5 to 59 months are anemic. The incidence of malnutrition among women in age group 15 to 49 years is quite high as almost 57 % women is anemic and 18.7 % of women Body Mass Index (BMI) is below normal. The government of India is implementing several schemes like Anganwadi Services, Scheme for Adolescent Girls and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme as direct targeted interventions to address the problem of malnutrition in the country. Further, POSHAN Abhiyaan launched on 8th March 2018, aims to reduce malnutrition in the country by adopting a synergized and result oriented approach.