There are some fundamental issues that need to be understood about the nutrition paradigm in India. First, two fundamental driving forces for good, and growth is the development and participation of women in the workforce and national decision-making, and the healthy progress of a young population, boys, and girls. Then, the question arises, what kind of starting blocks are needed to ensure these women and children, at birth, and otherwise, get the support they deserve?
In public policy, we have always said that if you want a nation to prosper, educate girls. In India, with its traditional challenges, we must begin a step before—if you want the nation to prosper, give nutrition to girls—and boys, including, importantly, their mothers. Since 2018, the Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) Abhiyaan has attempted to address this question of nutritional needs for women and children through a three-sixty-degree approach. Poshan 2.0 has now been launched and it connects all the dots—from use of technology to underlining the importance of breast-feeding in the first thousand days after birth of a child, to the importance of local production of clean at the heart of the conversation on nutrition.
Take for instance, the last idea, of ‘Poshan Vatikas’, literally kitchen gardens grown locally by planting medicinal and nutritional plants. Such an idea applied alongside aaganwadis and even schools would have a natural beneficial impact on dietary patterns. It follows the simple logic, that has been validated around the world, that often when food is grown locally and consumed locally, it is grown more sustainably and consumed more care, thus, the nutritional benefits rise.
But moving food away from being looked at as a commodity is only one part of the solution. The other is emphasising local food like millets, sattu, ragi and others which facilitate a return to a more balanced—and less processed food—diet. This is critical to avoid scenarios where food intake is mostly of cheap processed food and drink of negligible nutritional value. Distributing such food, and information about these kinds of food, therefore, is a key part of the activities that help push the idea that a better diet is equal to better health.
This is particularly urgent also because especially in rural areas the penetration of processed food and drink fronted by heavy marketing is having an adverse impact on dietary patterns—this is true in almost every part of the world. Therefore, local, more nutritious food needs all the help it can get.
Tracking nutritional progress through technology at the grassroots is also a very significant part of the journey as one of the critical elements is data—knowing where malnutrition exists, measuring it to find out its extent, and then formulating relevant policy.
Alongside these community kitchens to serve local, nutritious good food to children who are most affected by nutritional-deficiencies is being rolled out to ensure that the supply-side is not constrained.
The final piece of the puzzle lies in proper exercise and in this yoga is invaluable. It allows the body to develop in the best manner possible following a nutritious diet.
All these things, as detailed above, has been the focus for the whole of this month as Poshan Maah or the month to highlight work on nutrition and how remaining challenges could be resolved.
The focus on nutrition and connecting this task to use of technology in monitoring, and—most importantly—to the treasure of indigenous food and fitness traditions that India has traditionally had is very important.
It is important because it allows people to see what solutions lie around us in our own homes and backyards. It allows solutions to emerge from food that has a history of being traditionally grown in various parts of the country. It allows solutions of nutritionally problems to arise from the local context in which they occur.
Think of the emphasis on locally grown, nutritious food as the nutrition equivalent of what is known as supply chain resilience in business parlance. The world needs, above all, health. Especially children who are being born today, and women about to become mothers, are two categories that need best quality food urgently. But we live in a world of contamination and therefore eating fresh, local, and clean is of paramount importance.
All this is ever more important in a world struggling—still—to contain the Covid-19 pandemic completely. There is a palpable sense that the virus, in some shape or the other, will forever be with us, and if not, other, maybe even more virulent diseases and viruses might emerge.
The future of health lies in sustainable food and sustainable physical exercise that can work across age groups and build that elemental thing that we have learnt to respect over the last two years—immunity.
The writer is Vice President and Head of Research at Invest India, the national investment promotion agency. Views expressed are personal.