Journal Articles

Decentralised Approach to Tackling Nutrition

Avani Kapur

Yojana Magazine

May 1, 2018

Where should the government invest if it wants to maximize India’s long-run economic growth, given fiscal and capacity constraints? This was the question posed in the 2015-16 Economic Survey. The short answer – “the highest economic returns to public investment in human capital in India lie in maternal and early-life health and nutrition interventions” (Ministry of Finance, 2016).

It is a well-recognised fact that globally, nutrition-related factors contribute to about 45 percent of child deaths under age 5. India is no exception- 33 percent of the total disease burden was caused by maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases. (Institute for Health Foundation of India, and Indian Council for Medical Research, 2017)

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