Country: India

In this podcast, accompanying Field Exchange issue 65, Natalie Sessions (ENN Senior Nutritionist) talks to Sweta Banerjee, Nutrition Specialist for Welthungerhilfe’s India country programme.

They discuss the article Multi-sector nutrition programming: ‘Nutrition Smart Villages’ in Bangladesh and India. 

ENN’s Regional Knowledge Management Specialist for Asia, Dr. Charulatha Banerjee, speaks to Grana Pu Selvi, World Vision India and author of the article in Field Exchange Issue 58 titled Treatment of severe acute malnutrition through the Integrated Child Development Scheme in Jharkand State, India.

Grana shares the difficulties faced in setting up the project and what has been learnt from the experience for implementation ahead. We also briefly speak with Mahesh Nathan from the WASH team of World Vision. Mahesh outlined the organisation’s approaches to including WASH interventions in projects to improve nutrition outcomes.

Two out of every five children in India under the age of 5 are stunted and half of the women are reported to be anaemic. Furthermore, the World Bank data indicates that India has one of the world’s highest demographics of children suffering from malnutrition, reportedly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa. These figures highlight the worrying nutrition situation in the  country and the urgent need for action.

Dr Charulatha Banerjee, ENN’s Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist caught up with Sonali Patnaik, Director of Arupa Mission Research Foundation, to learn more about the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) law in India including how this has the potential to impact on nutrition programming and spending in the country. 

Dr Charulatha Banerjee, ENN’s Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist caught up with Pawan Agarwal, CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Mr Agarwal spoke to us about the progress in food fortification including the newly approved comprehensive food safety standards in India. He discusses the role of the Food Fortification Resource Centre and some of the challenges and opportunities of working in this area.

Dr Charulatha Banerjee, ENN’s Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist caught up with Dr Rajan Sankar, Director of Nutrition at Tata Trusts to understand more about philanthropic business networks in India, and how nutrition fits in with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda. 

Dr Sankar discusses Tata Trusts philanthropic work and shared some opinions on how nutrition NGOs and private sector can work together. He also shared some of the opportunities and challenges that have arisen from the new CSR law introduced in India requiring all corporates to contribute 2% of profits to CSR.

Dr Charulatha Banerjee, ENN’s Asia Regional Knowledge Management Specialist caught up with Ms Mridula Sinha Director General of the Jharkhand State Nutrition Mission earlier this month to understand the evolution of the Nutrition Mission in the state, work done so far and plans for the future.

Ms Sinha has been working in child health and nutrition in Jharkhand for many years. In this interview she talks about the formation of the State Nutrition Mission, the complexities of nutrition governance in India and the architecture of the Mission as an independent body with the power to convene related departments. She presents the challenges faced by Jharkhand State, which is less than 2 decades old, and also the huge potential given the strong political will to render the State malnutrition free by 2030. She mentions the role of the private sector in nutrition in the State as well as the work of UNICEF and other partners to support the State Nutrition Mission’s work. 

Greetings! I am Dr Charulatha Banerjee, one of ENN’s Regional KM specialists working in Asia. 

On the 9th of January I visited the Indian state of Jharkhand to meet stakeholders working in nutrition. Jharkhand is a very recent “member state” of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, joining in September 2016, it is the 3rd Indian state to sign on to this global initiative. Jharkhand joins the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and 58 national governments in Asia, Africa and Latin America that have committed to working towards reducing their high burden of malnutrition.