Webinar on Severe Acute Malnutrition

Dear Sir/Madam,

Malnutrition continues to be one of India’s major problems and is a leading risk factor of death in children younger than 5 years accounting for 68.2% deaths, according to the Global Nutrition Report, 2020. UNICEF predicts 3 lakhs children may die in India over the next six months due to reductions in routine health service coverage levels and an increase in child wasting, based on a recent report in Lancet research.

Malnutrition was still an epidemic in India, particularly for children, even before the pandemic struck. Covid-19 presents a danger of further slowing down decades of progress made in the area of decreasing malnutrition. An already poor health system is weakened by the burden of the pandemic. Disrupted routine public health program, food stocks struggle, loss of revenues has had adverse effects on the health of children and their already precarious nutritional state.

In reducing the risk of diseases, nutrition plays a key role. The lack of good nutrition or lowmicronutrient diet results in malnutrition that is preventing child growth, brain and physical development. Several government initiatives such as theAcute Malnutrition Community Management, POSHAN Abhiyan have helped to boost child nutritional status in India by offering a low cost of staples in the PDS and mid-day meal services.

In light of the above, ASSOCHAM is organizing a Webinar to address Severe Acute Malnutrition on August 12, 2021.

The webinar will be aimed at creating nutrition awareness- educating the masses on the importance of basic nutrition and how it will help sustain good health, carrying out nutrition campaign to assess the nutritional status of the children and understanding proper nutrition interventions for SAM and MAM

children. It will also provide a platform for the industry and government to come together and discuss the current status of SAM in the country and ways to overcome it.