National Nutrition Policy 
        •  The need for a National Nutrition Policy is implicit in both the paramountcy of nutrition in 
           development as well as in the complexity of the problem.
        •   This general problem of under-nutrition should be seen as a part of a larger set of processes that 
           produces and consumes agricultural commodities on farms, transforms them into food in the 
           marketing sector and sells the food, to customen to satisfy nutritional, aesthetic and social needs. 
        •  Within this set, there are three sub-sets of issues, within the broad sectors of agriculture, food 
           and nutrition, with various linkages among them. In fact, the third subset, viz. Nutrition, is the 
           net- result of the other two subsets.
        •  It is both possible as well as necessary to devise policy interventions for influencing the working 
           of these sets and thereby improving the nutritional status of the society. The nature of linkages 
           determine the fate of such interventions.
        •  Malnutrition is a serious problem in India. The statistics regarding malnutrition is appalling. 
        •  The National Nutrition Strategy was released by the NITI Aayog in 2017.
        •  The strategy talked about the negative impact of malnutrition on the productivity of the 
           population, and its contribution to the mortality rates.
        •  It laid out objectives for the country to achieve in reducing malnutrition rates.
        •  Malnutrition
        •  Malnutrition in children implies that they are either too short or too thin according to their 
           age.
        •  Stunting: Stunting indicates a child’s height is lower than the average for his/her age.
        •  Wasting: Wasting indicates a child’s weight is lower than the average for his/her height.
        •  Underweight: An underweight child’s weight is lower than the average for his/her age.
   • Malnutrition in India
   • As per data given by the UNICEF, India was at the 10th spot among countries 
    with  the  highest  number  of  underweight  children,  and  at  the  17th  spot  for  the 
    highest number of stunted children in the world.
   • Malnutrition  adversely  impacts  children’s  chances  of  survival,  enhances  their 
    susceptibility to illness, decreases their ability to learn, and causes them to be less 
    productive in life later on.
   • Malnutrition is also estimated to be a contributing factor in 1/3rd of all deaths of 
    kids below the age of five years.
   • The graph below shows the rate of malnutrition in India for kids under the age of 5:
  Rate of malnutrition in India for kids under the age of 5:
    •  Although the rates of underweight and stunting have improved, there has been 
       an increase in wasting rates.
    •  The prevalence of underweight children was found to be more in rural areas than 
       urban areas.
    •  For 19% of the kids born in India, the national average birth weight is under 2.5 
       Kg. This is a worrying figure because according to the WHO, newborns weighing 
       under 2.5 Kg are twenty times more likely to die than heavier babies.
    •  In addition, more than half of the children in the country are anaemic, implying 
       an insufficient amount of haemoglobin in the blood. This is caused by a nutritional 
       deficiency of iron and other essential minerals, and vitamins in the body.
    •  Another trend observed in India is that malnutrition is observed not only in 
       children,  but  also  in  adults. About  20%  of  men  and  23% women in India are 
       considered undernourished.
    •  However, 19% of men and 21% of women are obese.