STOP STUNTING, GIFT EVERY CHILD A GREAT START IN LIFE

Care India Fund Raising Campaign: poor and marginalized mothers and their children health

Despite the vast financial outlay, India faces persistently high levels of maternal and child undernutrition, with 38.4% of children stunted and 21% of children wasted and 53.1% of women in India are anemic. Stunting, which is low height for age, generally occurs before age two. Its effects are largely irreversible and include delayed motor development, impaired cognitive function, and poor school performance. Wasting, or low weight for height, is a strong predictor of mortality among children under five.
Several states in our country have good economic indicators but are challenged in pockets with the scourge of malnutrition. To compound the problem, Anemia among women is a significant public health challenge over the last decade, and sustained efforts are often inadequate to bring down the numbers considerably.

CARE India is working in several states of India like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu to reduce stunting and severe wasting among children, thereby saving lives by improving health, nutrition and hygiene outcomes among pregnant and lactating women and children under five years.

The immediate causes of child malnutrition are inadequate dietary intake and diversity and disease. Factors influencing women’s nutritional status include inadequate ante-natal and postnatal care for effective counselling on diet, lifestyle, and low adherence to iron and folic acid supplementation during pregnancy. These are further enhanced by social norms disempowering women from making decisions about their own nutrition and health. Also, inconsistent service delivery, inadequate behaviour change at multiple levels are barriers for the adoption of nutrition-positive practices and behaviours.

To achieve this, we will reach out to lakhs of children and pregnant and lactating mothers for regular health check-ups, timely initiation of breast feeding, ensuring minimum acceptable diet, deworming and diarrhoea among children, iron supplantation for mothers, compulsory immunisation, complimentary feeding and much more.

We need your support to improve health of poor and marginalised mothers and save lives of their children to ensure that they grow up to be healthy and educated living life to their full potential.