Project Poshan

Poor nutrition contributes to nearly half of all child deaths under age 5 and impairs the physical and mental development of millions of children.

India is home to more than 25% of the world’s undernourished, and children are the worst affected. Each year more than a million children die and many more suffer from physical and mental impairment due to poor nutrition during the critical first 1000 days: from onset of their mother’s pregnancy to their second birthday. With more than 48% of children under 5 affected by stunting – children too short for their age due to lack of nutrients and suffering irreversible damage to brain capacity – and 20% of children defined as wasted, meaning they do not weigh enough for their height, India faces a potential crisis in its effort to combat poverty. But that is not the full impact of undernutrition on India’s future prosperity. Today the cost of undernutrition is a drop in GDP of up to 2.5%. In looking to the future and the various pathways of undernutrition especially the cognitive and physical impact on children and the additional medical costs due to ill health, this drop in GDP can go as low as 11%. Children stunted at age 5 will have an earning power 20% lesser than a well-nourished child. Undernutrition perpetuates the cycle of poverty. A well-nourished child is 33 percent more likely to escape poverty. They will learn better in school, be healthier and grow into productive contributors to their economy. Good nutrition provides the “grey matter infrastructure” to build India’s economic future.

FMCH works to broaden the use of proven interventions and to develop and test new solutions.

FMCH, through Project Poshan, provides known interventions that work to combat undernutrition in vulnerable communities and works to develop new and innovative tools for the future.

• Focus on First 1000 Days for mothers and children, which includes targeted inputs towards ante-natal and post-natal care, promotion of exclusive breastfeeding and complimentary feeding and intensive growth monitoring.

• Work with the Government and other NGOs to improve and strengthen their existing programs and services offered to mothers and children in the prevention of malnutrition and improved health.

• Direct intervention with Severe Acute Malnutrition

• FMCH uses a robust, web-based monitoring tool which gives not only real-time access to individual women and children that the team works for, but also present sound data to show progress against critical indicators such as improvement in birth weight, improvement in stunting and wasting status in the form of dashboards.

Here is a snapshot of FMCH's achievements in the year 2017-18:

Direct Reach: 1,395 children and 1,199 women through interventions on ground

Average birthweight of children with mothers engaged with FMCH program during pregnancy: 2.75 kg

Nutrition Status Outcomes:

• Prevalence of severe acute malnutrition reduced by 62.5%

• Prevalence of moderate acute malnutrition reduced by 26.7%

• Prevalence of severe stunting reduced by 35%