Sustainable Agriculture Systems and Technologies. Группа авторов

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Figure 1.5 Comparison of socioeconomic indicators of states with higher rate of stunting with those having lower prevalence.

The indirect effect of a policy includes change in consumption pattern, food security, income security, food safety, and health care. And in order to make it effective it is necessary to do surveillance of implementation, research and development, extension of knowledge, and awareness programmes. The history of policy shows that there was Special nutrition programme which started in 1970–1971 to provide Supplementary feeding to children, pregnant, and lactating mothers. Also Balwadi Nutrition Programme started in the same time period. In 1975, came Integrated Child Development Services, that focused upon Supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check‐up. Day Meal Programme 1962–1963, Integrated Child Development Services 1975, Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Programme 1980, Wheat‐based supplementary nutrition programme 1986, Mid Nutrition Anemia Prophylaxix Programme 1970, National Diarrhea Disease Control Programme 1978, National Goiter Control Programme 1992, National Nutrition Policy 1993, Targeted Public Distribution System 1997, National Health Policy 2002, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme 2005, National Food Security Mission 2007, National Rural Drinking Water Programme 2009, Matritva Sahyog Yojana 2010, SABLA for adolescent girls 2011, National Rural Livelihood Mission 2011, National Policy for Children 2013, National Food Security Act 2013, and National Health Mission 2013, including Janani Suraksha Yojana, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan 2014. The national food security act (NFSA) shifted the approach from welfare to right based. The act legally entitles up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized food grains under Targeted Public Distribution System (nfs.gov). And under the act, the eldest woman of the house of age 18 or above is entitled as the head of the house and the ration card is issued in her name, thus empowering women too. At present, around 80 crore persons have benefitted from the act. The NFSA has a life‐cycle approach in which the nutrition is provided as per the life stage of the beneficiary. It provides prenatal care and postnatal care by entitling the pregnant women and lactating mothers to receive nutritious meal free of cost through Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centers, called Anganwadi Centers and to children through mid‐day meal scheme. Under NFSA, the foodgrains are made available at a subsidized price of rice at Rs 3/kg, wheat at Rs 2/kg, and coarse grains at Rs 1/kg. Mid‐day meal scheme was launched in 1962–1963 in which meal of one time (i.e. lunch) is given to children of class 1 to eighth in government primary schools. This helps to improve the school attendance of children by avoid dropping out of school and ensuring child nutrition (Laxmaiah et al. 1999; Si and Sharma 2008; Singh and Gupta 2015). Especially in the case of situations like drought, this scheme acted as a safety net for child nutrition (Singh et al. 2014). And at present 11.59 crore children have been enrolled under mid‐day meal programme and it has provided employment to 25.95 lakh cook‐cum‐helpers (mdm.nic). The gloomy picture of prevalence of undernutrition shows that despite such multipronged schemes, lags existed. Studies have shown that distribution of subsidized food does not ensure nutrition (Desai and Vanneman 2015). In future of 2050s, the population of India will increase and there will be need to develop transportation and storage infrastructure as, at present, the buffer stocks maintained are not evenly distributed across the country (Chakraborty and Sarmah 2019). Similar drawbacks in not able to provide proper nutrition were observed in mid‐day meal scheme (Chhabra and Rao 2014; Prakasam 2019).

1.5 Policy Implication

      The situation of having sufficient amount of calories for the Indian population and yet evidences of significant lack in children and women shows the gap between demand and supply. The scattered distribution of prevalence of malnutrition across the states indicates that there is a need to classify the regions as per the gravity of the situation. There was more percentage of affected children in rural area as compared to urban area, suggesting that the focus needs to be more toward the rural beneficiaries. The surrounding environmental conditions in rural area are less clean and hygienic than those of urban area, hence the implementation of Swachh Bharat and village sanitation should be done more efficiently than that at present state. The situation of other socioeconomic indicators shows that there is need of a holistic approach toward improving the nutrition as well as education, awareness, and hygiene of the vulnerable states. The vulnerable sections need to be identified and then ways to tackle them need to be devised at localized scale rather than with a single policy at national level. There is a need to develop smooth transit of quality agricultural produce to different regions as the supply is the issue and not the availability. The focus needs to be more on raising the standard of living of vulnerable sections rather than increasing the growth rate of the state, as it does not indicate equitable distribution of income. Agriculture can help in improving the situation provided the focus shifts from production centric to profit‐centric agriculture. Make sure that the implementation is done properly through better monitoring and strict evaluation.

1.6 Conclusion

      Green revolution ensured the food security of the nation. But if looked into details, food security and nutrition security although sound similar but are dimensionally different aspects. Nutrition security is more concerned about the nutrient intake and then the absorption of the quality nutrients by the child and mother, while food security deals with availability, access, and affordability of quality food. India has gained paramount success in increasing the production, productivity of agricultural crops, and allied activities. But, the status of nutrition in children shows that this production has not been able to fulfill the calorie requirement of the children. This indicates a disparity between the production and consumption of the food items along with its equitable distribution. The SDG 2 – Zero hunger targets to end hunger, end malnutrition, increase agricultural productivity by 2030. When observed, undernutrition in India is a serious issue that needs immediate attention. This is because it starts from the health of the mother and then the nutrition of the child, thus, improvement in this status is a time consuming task. In states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand one out of every two children is stunted and is suffering from undernutrition. These are states with dominance of agriculture and tribal population (Agricultural statistics at a glance 2018). The AARR of stunting in India is 2.2% which means till 2030, the prevalence will be reduced up to 33%, if the situation remains the same. This is a positive pace but slower in speed because the target of SDGs is to reduce the stunting prevalence by 50% by 2030 from the level of 2012. There is a dire need of research intervention on effect of socioeconomic factors, climate change, etc. on malnutrition. Investments will be needed to strengthen agriculture, improve food quality and nutrition, enhance overall food availability and access to all population segments, and to improve child nutrition and mortality outcomes.

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