Malutrition & Follow Up Action by the Government

Malnutrition amongst women is one of the prime causes of low birth-weight babies and poor growth. Low birth weight is a significant contributor to infant mortality.

Moreover, low birth-weight babies who survive are likely to suffer growth retardation and illness throughout their childhood, adolescence and into adulthood, and growth-retarded adult women are likely to carry on the vicious cycle of malnutrition by giving birth to low birth-weight babies.

Malnutrition in India continues to be at a high level with 42.5% children below the age being underweight and almost 70% being anemic. 22% children are born with low birth weight.

The ICDS programme is one of the largest national development programmes in the world. It reaches more than 34 million children aged 0-6 years and 7 million pregnant and nursing mothers. The government of India intends to universalize ICDS in the near future.

Activities of Food & Nutrition Board include:

• Nutrition Education and Training, both for the masses and for ICDS functionaries
• Training in Home Scale Preservation of Fruits and Vegetables and Nutrition
• Development, production and distribution of nutrition education/training material
• Development and Promotion of locally available Nutritious Foods
• Mass Nutrition Awareness Campaigns
• Food Analysis and Standardization
• Follow up action on National Nutrition Policy

Follow Up Action on National Nutrition Policy

1. Health and Family Welfare,Food and Public Distribution Department has played a main role for re imposing ban on sale of non-iodized salt

2. Provide fortifying wheat flour with iron and folic acid and distribution through PDS

3. Elementary Education and Literacy training by Nutritionist at the district level

4. The Food & Nutrition Board organize five-day Training of Trainers (TOT) courses for orienting CDPOs, medical officers, senior supervisors, LHVs etc on various aspects of nutrition. These master trainers in turn organize two-day Orientation Training Courses for the grassroot level functionaries particularly of ICDS and health besides volunteers from the community.

5. Five-day training course in Home Scale Preservation of Fruits and Vegetables and Nutrition is organized for housewives and adolescent girls (Kisori Balika Training) to promote consumption of fruits and vegetables. This also serves as an income generation activity for the participants.

6. The staffs inspects 11/6 anganwadies per month for supplementary feeding as well as nutrition and health education components and provide nutrition information to the AWW and community.

Sanghi village in Haryana, where Rape and murder of girls are common

There have a village named Sanghi, 100k.m distance from Delhi, where Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was born. Rape and murder by pesticide of teenage girls are common in this village.

Here young women are routinely threatened, abused and killed. Pesticide pills has given to the wayward girls. If a couple runs away, the women in their families run the risk of being raped, gang raped and boycotted.

Till now there have no complaint has registered in police station. According to a teacher in that village, “Yahan izzatdar who hain jo ladki ko marte hain”. This social status has given to the girls in Haryana.

Source: Times of India

Tobacco use and its limitations

Tobacco use is one of the major cause of death & diseases in the world countires.Eliminating the use of tobacco helps protect our health and well-being and reduces the risk of diseases.

The usage of tobacco is an activity that is practiced by some 1.1 billion people, and up to 1/3 of the adult population. Rates of smoking have declined in developed countries , however they continue to rise in developing countries.

Brain:

Nicotine, the drug that makes tobacco addictive, goes to the brain. It makes, feel good when you are smoking, but it can make you anxious, nervous, moody and depressed after you smoke. Using tobacco also causes headaches and dizziness.

Mouth:

Tobacco stains your teeth and gives you bad breath. It also ruins some of taste buds. Tobacco use also causes bleeding gums and cancer of mouth and throat.

Heart:

Smoking increase heart rate and blood pressure and one can’t do hard work.

Skin:

Smoking cigarettes causes dry, yellow skin and wrinkles.

Muscle:

Less blood and oxygen flow to your muscles,

Facts & Statistics

1. Each day, more than 3,500 people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette, and more than 1,000 become daily smokers

2. Each year in Idaho, more than 1,500 people die from smoking-related diseases, an average of four people per day.

3. One in three teens who regularly smoke will eventually die from a tobacco related illness.

4. Annually, tobacco use causes approximately 400,000 deaths and costs the nation approximately $96 billion in annual public and private health care expenditures caused by smoking.

5. In addition, smokers lose an average of 13 to 14 years of life because of their smoking.

The nine components of this comprehensive approach as recommended by the Center's for Disease Control & Prevention are:

1. Community programs to reduce tobacco use

2. Chronic disease programs to reduce the burden of tobacco-related disease

3. School programs

4. Enforcement

5. Statewide Programs

6. Counter-marketing

7. Cessation programs

8. Surveillance and evaluation

9. Administration and management

Malaria deaths raises in Odisha

Malaria deaths in Odisha has now raised to 25% from total malaria death cases in the country. Out of total 7,25,502 malaria deaths, 44% were reported from Odisha and maximum are from the tribal dominated areas.

Due to lack of awareness, shortage of manpower and negligence in health sector , people are deprived from basic health facilities. Government has also distribute special mosquito nets and sprayed insecticides , which are also not reach to the common people. Thats the reason that Odisha is now in top list in malaria toll within the country.

State Government has now set a target to reduce malaria deaths 50% by 2010. Let’s saw how much Odisha Government succeed to reduce malaria deaths in the state.