One of the greatest challenges is the procurement of millets and the requirement for State governments to produce enough millets to meet the demand, said Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani.
Delivering the keynote address from New Delhi at the international conference on “Mighty Millets for Food, Nutrition, and Health Security” hosted by M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) from August 6 to 8, in Chennai, Ms. Irani said: “Make millets a people’s movement, because when one speaks of health security and millets, one should not be restrained and believe that it is only the security of individual health, but it is equally dedicated to the health of the soil and ecology.”
While detailing efforts taken by her Ministry to use and popularise millets for women and child care, she clarified that the Ministry had always insisted that millets be infused in early childhood development care. “Apart from government intervention, there is a pressing need for societal knowledge that requires engagement of young mothers on eating habits that helps engrain the lifecycle of better nutrition in a child,” she said.
NITI Aayog member Vinod Kumar Paul said complementary feeding for babies was equally important. Quoting from the National Family Health Survey data (NFHS-5), he presented analysis showing that irrespective of economic status, children were not fed adequately. The Wealth Index data, he said, showed that just 68% of infants receive exclusive breastfeeding in India (poorest 67%, middle class 69% and richest 68%).
Semisolids introduced in the diet of infants between six and eight months of age stood at 56% for the richest, 51% for the middle class, and 44% for the poorest. “Whether one is rich or middle class or poor, what does not make a difference is terms of how infants are fed in the country, and this could be one of the reasons why stunting is not showing expected changes.”
“There is scope for improvement, as per the NFHS-5 data because there are states that have made positive changes, especially Odisha. Focus on complementary feeding and adequate diets for infants and children below five years must be a collective action and behaviour change is key for progress,” he added.
