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Nourishing India's future: Investing in child nutrition for long-term development
Express Healthcare
|October 2025
St John's Medical College, Bengaluru stresses that investing in nutrition from conception through early childhood is both a health obligation and an economic investment
India has made measurable progress in raising awareness around nutrition and its successful policies such as The POSHAN Abhiyaan and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and the National Food Security Act are successfully covering over 800 million people¹, over 90 million children and mothers² and are promoting locally produced protein foods, and behavior change communication. Unfortunately, India still lies at the center of the nutrition paradox with urban areas experiencing rising rates of obesity and overnutrition and rural regions continuing to struggle with persistent undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in children and women. In 2025, around 12 per cent of the population is undernourished, while nearly 43 per cent cannot afford a healthy, diversified diet as food prices have risen.³ According to the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), more than one-in-three children under five are still stunted and wasting persists, while anemia remains endemic among children and women.⁴ Tackling malnutrition during pregnancy and in the first 1,000 days of life is therefore an urgent health priority, not only for survival but to secure cognitive development, schooling outcomes, and future economic productivity.
The first 1000 days: The crucial point
This story is from the October 2025 edition of Express Healthcare.
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