Economic Survey calls for low cost intervention in maternal nutrition and sanitation

NEW DELHI: Highlighting the need to focus on maternal and child health for a long run growth, the Economic Survey 2015-16 called for early life interventions and low-cost investments in maternal nutrition and sanitation programmes.

Pointing at a high neonatal mortality rate and increasing number of underweight pregnant women, the survey emphasized on the need for nourishment during pregnancy.

Out of all the infants who die in India, 70% die in the first month, primarily because of low birth weight, according to the survey tabled in the Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday.

The survey also highlighted 42.2% of Indian women are underweight at the beginning of pregnancy. Even during pregnancy, they gain only about 7kgs, which is substantially less than the 12.5-18 kg gain as is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for underweight women.

The survey stressed that relatively low-cost maternal and early life health and nutrition programmes offer very high returns on investments.

“Given that maternal health casts a long shadow on an individual’s cognitive development and life changes, investing in maternal health could become a top policy priority of the government,” the survey said, adding programmes targeting younger children are also relatively cheaper investments.

Though the National Food Security Act, 2013 provides for a universal cash entitlement of at least Rs 6,000 for pregnant women in order to improve nutrition during pregnancy, the survey highlighted concerns about getting the government funds into the hands of pregnant women.

It recommended pairing cash transfers with education about pregnancy weight gain.

It also said that breast-feeding illustrates how some investments by the state can lead to tangible changes in social norms in a relatively short period of time. As per the survey, programmes like ‘Janani Suraksha Yojana’ and other schemes under the Integrated Child Development Scheme delivered via anganwadi programme has increased the proportion of breast-feeding mothers to 62%.

The survey said creating a “nudge unit” within the government is a useful way of changing norms.

The survey also endorsed Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Mission and said the success of India’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will largely depend on the pace of reduction of open defecation in rural areas.

According to WHO and UNICEF estimates, 61% rural Indians defecate in the open in 2015, compared with only 32% of rural people in sub-Saharan Africa.

Though the survey found the government built over 80 lakh toilets in last one year, it said the historical rate of decline of open defecation by one percentage point every year has to more than triple and the acceleration has to be sustained for over 15 years to be able to meet the SDG of eliminating open defecation by 2030.