WB-aided, integrated nutrition projects in four Indian states

New Delhi, Jan 7: World Bank-aided integrated nutrition projects would soon be taken up in four Indian States on the lines of a similar successful project in Tamil Nadu, according to a latest World Bank report.

The WB-aided schemes would be part of the woman and child development schemes being implemented under the Integrated Child Development Projects, it said adding efforts were on to identify the four states. Claiming that the Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project (TINP II) – taking nutrition and health services to the villages’ was a great success, the report said it was able to generate broad-based participation. TINP I’, despite helping to bring down severe malnutrition among children six months to five years old, by half, could not have the desired impact on moderate malnutrition.

The report said a strategic change during tinp ii’ was the focus on expectant mothers and addition of pre-school education to the programme. According to the World Bank, more than half, of all children under fiveyears in India are severely or moderately malnourished as compared to 30 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"Many women are chronically undernourished and anaemic and almost one-third of all babies have a birth weight lower than normal", the report said. Malnutrition was the leading or associated cause of 75 per cent deaths among children under three, in Tamil Nadu in 1994.