COVER HINDI - Ministry of Women and Child Development

Food and Nutrition Board
5.1 The importance of nutrition for human resource
development, productivity of the people and economic
growth of a nation is increasingly being recognised all
over the world. Studies reveal that various forms of
malnutrition like anaemia result in reducing Gross National
Product of the countries. What is not commonly or fully
recognised is the impact of nutritional status of population
on economic development.
5.2 Micronutrient deficiencies afflict all age groups and
both sexes. Its cost to the economy of the nation is
extremely high. The three micronutrient deficiencies of
public health significance namely vitamin A, iron and
iodine alongwith under nutrition has shown to reduce
India’s GDP by 3-9% during the year 1996 [Administrative
Staff College of India (ASCI), 1997]. The cost of treating
malnutrition is 27 times more than the investment required
for its prevention.
5.3 The current nutrition interventions have often been
consumption oriented which can temporarily address
problems of certain population groups, but to realize longterm
goals of optimum nutrition, human resource
development, productivity and economic growth, it is
necessary to complement these efforts by addressing the
root causes of malnutrition. In order to achieve sustainable
improvement in nutritional status, nutrition needs to be
recognized and addressed within the context of overall
development policy.
5.4 The National Nutrition Policy adopted in 1993
identified a series of actions in different spheres by different
sectors of the Government. A number of initiatives in the
area of nutrition advocacy and sensitization of policy
makers at Centre and State levels, addressing infant and
young child nutrition, district-wise disaggregated data on
food and nutrition situation, nutrition monitoring, mapping
and surveillance have been taken up by the Food and
Nutrition Board (FNB) of Ministry of Women & Child
Development.
CHAPTER-5
5.5 The FNB infrastructure comprising of a technical wing
at the Centre, 4 Regional Offices and Quality Control
Laboratories at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai and
43 Community Food and Nutrition Extension Units
(CFNEUs) located in 29 States/UTs has been engaged in
the following activities during the year 2006-07:
— Capacity Building of Trainers on Nutrition
— Nutrition Orientation of Field Functionaries and
Volunteers
— Training in Home Scale Preservation of Fruits and
Vegetables and Nutrition
— Nutrition Education Programme in Rural, Urban and
Tribal Areas
— Mass Awareness Campaigns on Nutrition
— Development and Production of Nutrition Education
and Training Material
— Monitoring ‘Supplementary Feeding’ Component
of ICDS.
— Food Analysis and Standardization
—· Promoting Instruments of National Nutrition Policy
5.6 The performance of Community Food & Nutrition
Extension Units (CFNEUS) in respect of Nutrition
Education & Training Activities during the year 2006-07
(up to November 2006) is given in the Annexure
XXXII .
5.7 The FNB is primarily engaged in empowering the
field personnel as well the public with basic knowledge
of nutrition and health with a view to improve nutritional
status of the people with special focus on women and
children. The CFNEUs are organizing various nutrition
Food and Nutrition Board 85