A major initiative is taking shape in Tamil Nadu to ensure that all children born in the State are healthy and intelligent. The programme envisages that the newborn children in the State would have the potential to become energetic and intelligent persons who could turn out to be good sportsmen, sportswomen, academicians, bureaucrats and scientists of global standard. This is possible only if the would-be mothers and their children get nutritious food, said the proponents of the initiative.
The programme, Tamil Nadu Nutrition Alliance (TNA) is an initiative by MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, a Chennai based think-tank headed by
eminent agricultural scientist Prof MS Swaminathan, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and a host of Government and non-governmental organisations operating from Tamil Nadu.
“Poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life has a life-long impact on health and development of a person,” said Prof Swaminathan, the nonagenarian agricultural scientist, described as the father of India’s Green Revolution. The Tamil Nadu Nutrition Alliance is
the outcome of the National Family Health Survey-4, which found that more than 55 per cent of women in the 15-49 age groups in Tamil Nadu are anaemic.
“This is the root cause of
all problems associated with
ill-health of children and mothers. We have to ensure that
all girl children who reach
the adolescent phase get
nutritious food throughout their productive years so that the children born to them turn out to be healthy and strong. What we have understood from the NFHS-4 is that more than 55 per cent of females in the 15-49 age suffer from anemic due to a host of reasons,” said Dr Farhat Saiyed, nutrition specialist, UNICEF.
What worries Prof Swaminathan and Dr Saiyed is the finding of the NFHS-4 that more than 50 per cent of the children in the 6-59 months age groups were found to be anaemic.
“Nearly 45 per cent of the pregnant women were anaemic,” said Dr Saiyed quoting from the survey.