During a workshop on the occasion of National Nutrition Week on Saturday Social Welfare department Assistant Director Rajiv Ranjan Kumar felt the collective responsibility of all the citizens in order to eradicate malnutrition from the nation. He said that Social Welfare Department cannot alone eradicate malnutrition wherein collective responsibility of the entire nation can help in getting rid of the disease.
Kumar also spoke on the safe drinking and proper sanitation facilities playing pivotal role in eradicating malnutrition. He added that infants need a balanced nutritional diet including Ragi.
According to the Assistant Director, majority of the people are unware about the benefits of Ragi which is commonly used by the denizens of the State.
The National Nutrition Week is an annual nutrition based event observed in the country from September 1 to 7 every year .The basic objective is to intensify awareness generation on the importance of nutrition for health which has impact on development, productivity, economic growth and ultimately national development.
Nutrition is an issue of survival, health and development for current and succeeding generations. A below weight child is susceptible to impaired immune function and increased risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases. In later part of their lives, they tend to have lower IQ and impaired cognitive ability affecting their performance in school.
Director Health Dr AK Choudhary was the Chief Guest of this programme. Ranchi district Civil Surgeon Dr Gopal Srivastava explained about nutrition counseling. In the technical session Dr AK Choudhary, Professor, Pediatrics, RIMS took class on nutrition, adolescent girls and importance of complementary feeding. He focused on eating behavior of child and adult.
New born baby needs special attention proper immunization is important for every child upto 14 years. He discussed about the reason of malnutrition, like low intake of food, poverty and desire to look slim by avoiding food.