‘Malnutrition afflicting Indian women’

hyderabad: around 30 per cent of the infants born in the country are of low birth weight. according to deputy director of national institute of nutrition, p bhaskaran, this is mainly because of intrauterine malnutrition. she was speaking at a state-level workshop on 'break the cycle of malnutrition - improve women's health' at the indian institute of health and family welfare at vengal rao nagar.the workshop is being organised by the food and nutrition board, department of women and child development and unicef. bhaskaran said adolescent girls in india suffer from chronic energy deficiency, iron deficiency, iodine deficiency disorders and low calcium intakes compromising the deposition of critical bone mass. even well-to-do adolescent girls fail to meet the international standards for growth, she said. recognising adolescent girls as high-risk group and focussing them for implementing nutrition and health programmes is essential for achieving success in breaking the cycle of malnutrition, bhaskaran said. women development and child welfare director, shalini mishra, said integrated child development services and reproductive health programmes launched by the department were showing good results in improving the health status of the children and women.