COMMUNITY

NUTRITION
PROGRAMMES
• The Government of India have initiated several largescale
supplementary feeding programs, and programs aimed at overcoming
specific deficiency diseases through various Ministries to combat
malnutrition.
• They are as shown in Table
Nutrition programmes in India
1. Vitamine A prophylaxies
programme
• One of the components of the National Program for Control of
Blindness is to administer a single massive dose of an oily preparation
of vitamin A containing 200,000 IU (110 mg of retinol palmitate) orally
to all pre-school children in the community every 6 months through
peripheral health workers.
• This program was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare in 1970 on the basis of technology developed at the National
Institute of Nutrition at Hyderabad.
• An evaluation of the program has revealed a significant reduction in
vitamin A deficiency in children
2. Prophylaxis against nutritional
anaemia
• a national program for the prevention of nutritional anaemia was
launched by the Govt. of India during the fourth Five Year Plan.
• The program consists of distribution of iron and folic acid (folifar)
tablets to pregnant women and young children (1-12 years).
• Mother and Child Health (MCH) Centres in urban areas, primary
health centres in rural areas and ICDS projects are engaged in the
implementation of this program.
• The technology for the control of anaemia through iron fortification of
common salt has also been developed at the National Institute of
Nutrition at Hyderabad.
3 . Control of iodine deficiency
disorders
• The National Goitre Control Programme was launched by the Government of
India in 1962 in the conventional goitre belt in the Himalayan region with the
objective of identification of the goitre endemic areas to supply iodized salt
in place of common salt and to assess the impact of goitre control measures
over a period of time.
• Surveys, however, indicated that the problem of goitre and iodine deficiency
disorders was more widespread than it was thought earlier, with nearly 145
million people estimated to be living in known goitre endemic areas of the
country.
• As a result, a major national programme - the IDD Control Programme - was
mounted in 1986 with the objective to replace the entire edible salt by iodide
salt, in a phased manner by 1992 (
4. Special nutrition programme
• This program was started in 1970 for the nutritional benefit of children below 6 years of
age, pregnant and nursing mothers and is in operation in urban slums, tribal areas and
backward rural areas.
• The supplementary food supplies about 300 kcal and 10- 12 grams of protein per child
per day.
• The beneficiary mothers receive daily 500 kcal and 25 grams of protein. This
supplement is provided to them for about 300 days in a year.
• This programme was originally launched as a Central programme and was transferred to
the State sector in the fifth Five Year Plan as part of the Minimum Needs Programme .
• The main aim of the Special Nutrition Programme is to improve the nutritional status of
the target groups.
• This programme is gradually being merged into the ICDS programme.
5. Balwadi nutrition programme
• This programme was started in 1970 for the benefit of children in the age group
3-6 years in rural areas. It is under the overall charge of the Department of Social
Welfare.
• Four national level organizations including the Indian Council of Child Welfare are
given grants to implement the programme.
• Voluntary organizations which receive the funds are actively involved in the day-
to-day management.
• The programme is implemented through Balwadis which also provide preprimary
education to these children.
• The food supplement provides 300 kcal and 10 grams of protein per child per day.
• Balwadis are being phased out because of universalization of ICDS.
6 . ICDS programme
• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program was started in 1975 in pursuance
of the National Policy for Children.
• There is a strong nutrition component in this program in the form of supplementary
nutrition , vitamin A prophylaxis and iron and folic acid distribution.
• The beneficiaries are preschool children below 6 years, and adolescent girls 11 to 18
years, pregnant and lactating mothers.
• The workers at the village level who deliver the services are called Anganwadi workers.
Each Anganwadi unit covers a population of about 400 to 800 and mini anganwadi centre
about 150 to 400.
• A network of Mahila Mandals has been built up in ICDS Project areas to help Anganwadi
workers in providing health and nutrition services.
• The work of Anganwadis is supervised by Mukhyasevikas. Field supervision is done by the
Child Development Project Officer (CDPO)
7 . Mid-day meal programme
• The mid-day meal programme (MDMP) is also known as School Lunch
Programme.
• This programme has been in operation since 1961 throughout the
country.
• The major objective of the programme is to attract more children for
admission to schools and retain them so that literacy improvement of
children could be brought about.
• In formulating mid-day meals for school children, the following broad
principles should be kept in mind.
• (a) the meal should be a supplement and not a substitute to the home diet;
• (b) the meal should supply at least one-third of the total energy requirement,
and half of the protein need;
• (c) the cost of the meal should be reasonably low;
• (d) the meal should be such that it can be prepared easily in schools; no
complicated cooking process should be involved;
• (e) as far as possible, locally available foods should be used; this will reduce
the cost of the meal; and
• (f) the menu should be frequently changed to avoid monotony.
A mid-day school meal
• The National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad has prepared model recipes
for the preparation of school meals suitable for North and South Indians.
• Copies of these publications can be had gratis on request. The National
Institute of Nutrition is of the view that the minimum number of feeding days
in a year should be 250 to have the desired impact on the children.
• School feeding should not be considered as an end in itself.
• The important goals to be accomplished are : reorientation of eating habits;
incorporating nutrition education into the curriculum; encouraging the use of
local commodities; improving school attendance as well as educational
performance of the pupils.
• Since the number to be fed are in millions, the problem is one of balance
between the resources and the number to be fed .
• The mid-day meal programme became part of the Minimum Needs
Programme in the Fifth Five Year Plan
8. Mid-day meal scheme
• Mid-day meal scheme is also known as National Programme of Nutritional Support to
Primary Education.
• It was launched as a centrally sponsored scheme on 15 th August 1995 and revised in
2004.
• Its objective being universalization of primary education by increasing enrolment,
retention and attendance and simultaneously impacting on nutrition of students in
primary classes.
• It was implemented in 2,408 blocks in the first year and covered the whole country in a
phased manner by 1997- 98.
• The programme originally covered children of primary stage (classes I to V) in
government, local body and government aided schools and was extended in Oct. 2002,
to cover children studying in Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and
Innovative Education Centres also.
• The central assistance provided to states under the programme is by
way of free supply of food grain from nearest Food Corporation of
India godown at the rate of 100 g. per student per day and subsidy for
transport of food grain.
• To achieve the objective, a cooked mid-day meal with minimum 300
Calories and 8 to 12 grammes of protein content will be provided to
all the children in class I to V.
Some suggesstions for preparation of nutritious
and economical mid-day meals are as under :
• - Foodgrains must be stored in a place away from moisture, in air tight
containers/bins to avoid infestation.
• - Use whole wheat or broken wheat (dalia) for preparing mid-day meals.
• - Rice should preferably be parboiled or unpolished.
• - 'Single Dish Meals' using broken wheat or rice and incorporating some
amount of a pulse or soyabeans, a seasonal vegetable/green leafy
vegetable, and some amount of edible oil will save both time and fuel
besides being nutritious.
• Broken wheat pulao, leafy khichdi, upma, dal-vegetable bhaat are some
examples of single dish meals
• - Cereal pulse combination is necessary to have good quality protein. The cereal
pulse ratio could range from 3:1 to 5:1.
• - Sprouted pulses have more nutrients and should be incorporated in single dish
meals.
• - Leafy vegetables when added to any preparation should be thoroughly washed
before cutting and should not be subjected to washing after cutting.
• - Soaking of rice, dal, bengal gram etc. reduces cooking time. Wash the grains
thoroughly and soak in just sufficient amount of water required for cooking.
• - Rice water if left after cooking should be mixed with dal if these are cooked
separately and should never be thrown away.
• - Fermentation improves nutritive value. Preparation of idli, dosa, dhokla etc. may
be encouraged.
• - Cooking must be done with the lid on to avoid loss of nutrients.
• - Over cooking should be avoided.
• - Reheating of oil used for frying is harmful and should be avoided.
• - Leafy tops of carrots, radish, turnips etc. should not be thrown but
utilized in preparing mid-day meals.
• - Only 'iodized salt" should be used for cooking mid-day meals.