Despite being the world’s fastest-growing major economy aspiring to reach $5 trillion in GDP, India’s nutrition status leaves much to be desired. We may not exactly be food insecure, but we are surely not nutrition secure. Our policies fail to appreciate the nexus between food, nutrition, and health.

It is widely recognised that under-nutrition exerts long-term adverse effects on human health, labour productivity, and general well-being. Perpetual under-nutrition results in low resistance to infections and increased morbidity. Higher healthcare costs and reduced labour productivity are a potently negative combination.

Various determinants of malnutrition include household food insecurity; illiteracy and lack of awareness, especially among women; limited access to healthcare services, availability of safe drinking water, sanitation, and environmental conditions; and purchasing power.

Additionally, early age at marriage (girls); teenage pregnancies that often result in low birth weight of the newborns; poor breastfeeding practices; inadequate complementary feeding; ignorance about nutritional needs of infants and young children; repeated infections; and so on aggravate malnutrition.

The implications for our country are serious, given the age profile of the population.

Roughly, a........

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