First of all thank United Nations for the Decade of Action on Nutrition and for for the opportunity to express our views. In India, poverty eradication is our major challenge. The Article 47 of the Constitution of India states that, “the State shall regard raising the level of nutrition and standard of living of its people and improvement in public health. We have National Mission on Sustainable agriculture (NMSA) under National Action plan on climate change, and National Food Security Mission (NFSM) as the key missions to ensure food security. However our nutrition program also needs to be carried out in a mission/campaign mode as the “Global Nutrition Report 2016” once again demonstrates India’s slow overall progress in addressing chronic malnutrition. Despite having National Pulses Development Project (NPDP) and National Food Security Mission for pulses (NFSM-P) Even though we Have Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) since 1975 and national coverage of the mid-day meal scheme since 1995, the efficacy of this programmes needs to be frequently revisited through time tested monitoring and evaluation techniques through multi-sectoral coordination. As in today’s world food consumptions pattern has changed, hence Policy level interventions such as providing tax benefits to restaurant that cater focused attention on nutritional stuffs will help in larger reachability and meeting objectives of UN-DAN.
Dr. Dhanya Praveen