New guideline for severely malnourished children

The women and child development ministry is working on a policy to tackle severe acute malnourishment in children under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. A set of guidelines will be released sometime in October, said secretary Rakesh Srivastava. The policy, he said, will be separate from the revised guidelines for supplementary nutrition which has been submitted and finalised and is expected in the coming few days.

Parameters like recommended diets including the calorie, protein and vitamin intake will be a part of the guidelines, apart from specified indicators that define severe acute malnutrition. To draw up the policy, the ministry has taken in recommendations of the Hyderabad-based National Institution of Nutrition.

“Children who are affected by severe acute malnutrition need special treatment, as food alone cannot tackle the problem,” said Srivastav. Joint secretary Rajesh Kumar said that the mandate of the ICDS scheme is to bridge the gap between the recommended dietary intake and average daily intake of the beneficiary. “The new policy will be the first time the ministry will come with a set of guidelines to manage severe acute malnutrition,” he said.

As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), severe acute malnutrition is defined by a very low weight for height ratio, which lies below -3 of the standard deviations and is visible by severe wasting or by the presence of nutritional oedema.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha in April this year, minister of state for health Faggan Singh Kulaste said that there are over 93.4 lakh children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4. “Out of these, 10% of the children with medical complications may require admission to the  966 Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) across 25 states and UTs across the country,” said Kulaste.

India stands at 67 out of 80 countries in the World Hunger Index, and 44% of Indian children under five are underweight, while 72% infants have anaemia. Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar have high incidences of malnutrition.