BIPF’s 10th Edition Of Ideate: Multi-Sectoral Approach Stressed To Tackle Malnutrition

Bhubaneswar: Malnutrition, which has a grave impact on education and economy besides the health, needs a multi-pronged and a multi-sectoral approach to be tackled effectively, said delegates at a webinar.

The webinar was organised by Bansidhar & Ila Panda Foundation (BIPF) on the occasion of its 10th edition of Ideate in partnership with FICCI-Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence and Impact4Nutrition as knowledge partner over virtual platform on Wednesday. The subject of deliberation was “Nutrition reimagined- going the local way”.

In her inaugural speech at the webinar, Shaifalika Panda, CEO, BIPF said under-nutrition/mal-nutrition has been a long existing challenge, which is having an adverse impact on inter-generational health, education and employment. She also stated that Odisha is the first state to announce a separate nutrition budget. 

Pramod Kumar Merkap, chairman, Odisha State Food Commission, emphasised on the Mandate of Food Commission and its role in creating a conducive environment for balanced nutrition. “Hunger is no longer an issue of charity but of justice,” he added.

Swarnima Shukla, joint director, Women and Child Development, Madhya Pradesh,  talked about the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition programme (IMM) of the state government and how it helps Severely Acute Malnourished (SAM) & Medium Acute Malnourished (MAM) children.

“Malnutrition needs a multi-pronged and a multi sectoral approach. All stakeholders should be involved,” she said.

Dr Supreet Kaur, senior policy advisor, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), said public-private partnerships should have an equity provision so that the quality of services to be provided are equally distributed across all the society.

Dr Devika Gali, chief manager, Public Health Nutrition, Piramal Swathya said CSR could play a very extensive role in nutrition sensitive interventions.

The session was moderated by Saurav Bhattacharjee, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF Odisha.