One of the most important areas that should be targeted is nutrition. It is the most basic facets of human life. The economic benefits of investing in proper nutrition are several: improving nutritional outcomes would help in controlling diseases, reduce infant and maternal mortality, empower women, break the vicious intergenerational cycle of malnutrition, improve worker productivity, and even improve learning outcomes for students.

In early years of independence, the principal challenge was to be self-sufficient in food production. Due to the green-revolution, this particular challenge was largely met.

A National Mission for nutrition is required for four reasons. First, the current efforts are fragmented. There is a need to bring together all relevant stakeholders on a single platform to enable a synergistic and holistic response to the issue.

Second, the mission sets specific targets related to nutritional outcomes and a timeline in which those are to be achieved. This brings urgency in tackling the problem of malnutrition while demonstrating political commitment towards it.

Third, the mission encompasses a targeted strategy consisting of a plan of actions and interventions. These are designed to help accelerate the improvement in nutritional outcomes.

Fourth, the nutrition mission targets behavioural change through social awareness, and by creating a mass movement through a partnership between go9vernment, the private sector and the public.

Aim of Nutrition Mission:

• The nutritional outcomes have steadily improved over the last 15 years, led by the economic growth. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) between 2005-06 to 2015-16

1. Stunting in children declined from 48% to 38%
2. Proportion of underweight children went down from 42.5% to 35.7%
3. Proportion of women with low BMI went down from 35.5% to 22.9%
4. Anaemia in women declined from 55.3% to 53%

• The National Nutrition Mission aims to accelerate the progress. Decline at
• Child stunting is aimed at 2% per annum. By 2022, it is aimed at reducing it to 25%
• Undernutrition by 2% per annum
• Anaemia by 3% per annum
• Low birth weight by 2% per annum
• All the districts will be covered in a phased manner.

Key implementation strategies:

The core strategy of the mission is to create a decentralised governance system.

• Outcome orientation: orientation will promote accountability. It would be done through universal monitoring of parameters of the beneficiaries and real-time tracking of the progress made. Ranking based on improvement allows for competition between different villages, districts and states to do better than each other and come out on the top.
• Incentives based on outcomes: The states, districts and Panchayats showing the largest improvements would be incentivised.
• Data collection and monitoring: An Information and Communication Technology driven data collection system would provide real time information allowing tracking and monitoring of individual severely malnourished children.
• Coordination between different programmes: A national council has been set up under the NITI Aayog which will be responsible for overall policy direction in relation to the nutrition mission. Another executive committee of national nutrition mission has been set up at the secretary level. The design of these institutions also promotes cooperative federalism since they include representation from 5 states on a rotation basis.
• Geographical Convergence: In parallel to the aspirational districts programme, attempts would be made to uplift the worst performing districts. Considering the widespread disparities in nutritional outcomes, it is logical to target the worst performing districts.
• Jan Andolan: Success in the nutrition mission demands community participation because most of the aspects of change are behavioral and the government interventions intend to nudge the communities towards right practices. This would play a role in bringing about a lasting change at the ground level.