NFHS – 4 provides, for the first time a district level data on nutritional status of children below the age of 5 years. This provides an excellent and timely opportunity to plan for eradication of child malnutrition at the district level. A quick preliminary analysis of the district level child malnutrition levels, reveals certain important aspects. This is presented below.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is an important source of information on the periodic progress made on several key health indicators. Among other things, the survey tracks nutritional status of mother and child and the quality of antenatal and post-natal services at the state and district level. Recently, the NFHS 5 data (Phase-1) was released for select states and their districts facilitating for the first time a panel data analysis at the district level.
This note analyses the data on preterm births in Jharkhand as available from the HMIS (Health Management Information System) data for the three pre-pandemic years 2017-18 to 2019-20. This data is important, both as surrogate for maternal health as well as early warning system for handling the burden of child malnutrition. We examine the consistency of the data, the burden and incidence of preterm births, and regional clusters, if any. It emerges that the districts – Gumla, Paschim Singhbhum and Purbi Singhbhum have high prevalence of preterm births. The analysis also reveals the need to pay attention to the tribal districts.
African-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay today inaugurated an international online training programme on “Food and Nutrition Security in a Post-Pandemic World”. The online
training will be held between 14th to 23rd September, 2021.
Finally, the Government of India has bitten the bullet – by setting a goal of Malnutrition free India by 2022. The Prime Minister himself launched the National Nutrition Mission at Zunzunu on 8th March. He interacted with District Magistrates (DMs) of the aspirational districts.
Lagaan was a path-breaking movie. It showed how an underdog can emerge victorious against all odds given unity, focus and right skills or training. It was also path breaking as a communication tool using a one-day cricket narrative, for a pre-independence era story. We could fruitfully use this narrative to plan for a malnutrition free India
We examined birth seasonality trends in India by plotting monthly data, between FY18-FY20. The data has been tested for its consistency across three years and the data is found to be reasonably consistent across states, and for rural and urban areas as well.
Majhi, A., Joshi, A., Agnihotri, S. B., & Mondal, A. (2021, May).
An android based quiz app was designed, following AWWs training modules’ content and need assessment results. The study investigates the quiz app’s effectiveness and compares it with conventional classroom instruction, with a group of AWWs, and discusses ways to make it an adequate substitute.
A quick preliminary analysis of the district level NFHS – 4 data on child malnutrition levels, reveals certain important aspects.