Fortifying nutrition

Fortified rice will help reduce malnutrition

The government’s decision to supply fortified rice across the country in phases by 2024 is a welcome move to address malnutrition, which is defying all bids to mitigate it. Though the distribution of highly subsidised and, in some cases, free food grains to a sizable section of the population has managed to banish stark hunger and starvation deaths, undernourishment and imbalanced nutrition are still rampant and, in fact, growing. Going by the findings of the National Family Health Survey, the proportion of anaemic women in the 15-49 age group has gone up from 53 per cent in 2015-16 to 57 per cent in 2019-20. Worse still, the count of under-five children suffering from the deficiency of iron and other essential nutrients has soared to 67.1 per cent, clocking an annual rise of almost 8 per cent during this period. Such nutritional disorders affect the physical and mental growth of children, resulting in a high incidence of “stunting” (short height) and “wasting” (low weight). It is, therefore, least surprising that the Global Hunger Index 2021 ranked India 101st among 116 countries, placing it below its smaller neighbours like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

The scheme to supply iron-doped (fortified) rice, as approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in its last meeting, is expected to reduce stunting and wasting among kids by 2 per cent and anaemia in teenage girls and pregnant women by 9 per cent a year. This rice is proposed to be disbursed through the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the Integrated Child Development Programme, the mid-day meal scheme for school children (now renamed as PM-POSHAN), and other welfare programmes. The entire estimated cost of around Rs 2,700 crore a year, amounting to around 2 per cent of the food subsidy, is proposed to be borne by the Centre. Officials claim this would help save about Rs 50,000 crore in health care expenses. At present, fortified rice is being supplied through the TPDS in one district each of 11 states under a pilot project running since 2019.  

Nutrition experts are, however, not too upbeat about the effectiveness of fortified rice in meeting the desired goal of eradicating anaemia and undernourishment. Their scepticism is owing to issues related to absorption of iron in the human body. This vital nutrient, needed for growth and development, requires various other minerals and vitamins for its absorption in the blood to produce haemoglobin. The problem with most of the ongoing nutrition-oriented government programmes is that they are focused primarily on filling the bellies rather than providing wholesome and nourishing food. Nutritionists of the Indian Council of Medical Research, as also of the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Nutrition, believe that diversity in food intake holds the key to meet the requirement of micronutrients. This can be ensured by including in the diets readily available and more nutritious foods like coarse cereals and millets, such as bajra (pearl millet), jowar (sorghum), and ragi (finger millet), besides pulses, eggs, milk, vegetables, and fruits.

Significantly, the country’s agricultural research network is developing inherently nutrient-rich bio-fortified varieties of various food crops by tweaking their genetic structure through conventional and modern plant-breeding techniques. The inclusion of these nutrition-enhanced grains in the food programmes would be the most practical and cost-effective means to alleviate malnutrition.