Pilot programme on control of malnutrition launched

Speaking on the occasion, Thakur said Gujarat was the tenth largest state in the country with a population of 41.3 million which constituted 4.9 per cent of the total Indian population and about 66 per cent of the state’s population lived in rural areas.

Thakur said Gujarat ranked sixth among the low poverty states in the country and basic demographic indicators like infant mortality rate, crude birth rate and crude death rate were comparatively lower than the corresponding all India average.

However, Gujarat was among the states which had a higher proportion of the population suffering from micro-nutrient deficiencies mainly in the marginalised economically and socially weaker sections, he said, adding that therefore, the programme would be of great significance for them.

Thakur said three micro-nutrient deficiencies — iodine deficiency disorder, iron deficiency disorder and Vitamin A deficiency disorder — have affected two million people globally.

In India, not less than 167 million people were at the risk of iodine deficiency, 54 million have goitre, while 6.6 million have neurological defect associated to iodine deficiency.

In Gujarat, 7.6 per cent of children in the age group of0-6 suffer from vitamin a deficiency, he said, adding iron deficiency anaemia has been found to be very high in school-going children and it has also been found to be very high in all other age-sex groups. In this setting, special attention should be given to mitigate the deficiency of iodine, Vitamin A and iron, Thakur said.

He said a national nutrition programme had been started for the targeted group of people on iodine, iron and Vitamin A deficiency, but each one is looked in to as a single issue. However, a multi-pronged approach was extremely essential to combat these micro-nutrient deficiencies, Thakur said.