CSR: Reducing The Malnutrition Figures For Children
India has the world’s highest burden of child malnutrition. The main reason has been income for the primary cause of the issue of malnutrition. Although investments are made and money is directed towards child welfare, there is only a marginal growth. Previous studies indicate that countries that have higher gender inequality have poorer health outcomes for women and children. India with its dominant patriarchal structure is having a fairly bad outcome for women and children.
Narendra Modi’s vision of “Kuposhan Mukt Bharat” — in line with his ideas of Swachh Bharat and Swasth Bharat; has seen some progress through its schemes and programmes but has failed to make a substantial impact. According to the National Family Health Survey estimates, only an estimated 170,000 children receive the treatment they need out of a total of 930,000 children who have severe acute malnutrition (SAM) with medical complications.
Horlicks launched the ‘Horlicks Mission Poshan’ with actor Amitabh Bachchan as the campaign ambassador. The focus on is that on the first 1000 days of a child, they will be addressing the issue of malnutrition, stunting and infant mortality.
India has the maximum number of children in the world suffering from malnutrition and the claimed aim is to increase awareness on the issue. The first 1000 days of a child are critical for cognitive development, physical growth and immunity.
Amitabh Bachchan said online on Twitter & Facebook, ‘Do you know that 50% of world’s undernourished children are in India! The fight against undernourishment needs to start NOW. I am taking the first step with @MissionPoshan, a partnership of Horlicks and Network18 in line with the PM Modi’s RashtriyaPoshanAbhiyaan to make India’s Bhavishya Roshan.”
Navneet Saluja, Managing Director, GSK Consumer Healthcare said “Our initiative has a singular goal – to help promote the need for nutritional needs across rural and urban India. We are committed to dialling up mass awareness around malnourishment and working with the civil society towards its eradication.”
Priyanka Kaul, President- Marketing, Network18 said, “We are proud that every day hundreds of our journalists are out on the field telling the stories of ordinary and extraordinary Indians working to transform our lives for the better. We believe that it’s important for us to come together as a nation to help solve these crucial issues, and as a media organisation we have committed ourselves to these initiatives. We feel ensuring the nutrition of our next generation is key to India’s future. ”
Individuals need to connect and reach far and wide as it is critical for mass awareness to bring in the positives change in the society. Not only awareness but also raise funds and actively engage people on-ground to make malnutrition a subject of mass movement.
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The CSR Journal Team
