Webinar on Investing in Adolescent Nutrition and Health: A Call to Action

Despite its rapid economic growth, India faces the enormous challenge of providing optimal nutrition to its 1.3 billion people. India is a home to 253 million adolescents (10 to 19 years) & we stand at a   crossroad between losing out on the potential of a generation or nurturing them to transform society. It is a collective responsibility to understand that adolescence is an age of opportunity.In India, 40 per cent of girls and 18 per cent of boys are anaemic. Anaemia among adolescents adversely affects growth, resistance to infections, cognitive development and work productivity.

Adolescence is a nutritionally vulnerable time when rapid physical growth increases nutrient demands. Significant neural and physiological changes occur during adolescence and it encompasses fast physical growth and sexual maturation combined with emotional, social and cognitive development. Adolescents have high nutrient needs to support their growth and development spurts.

Failure to meet nutritional needs impairs physical growth and development and potentially causes nutritional anaemia. Regardless of gender, iron deficiency anaemia reduces physical capacity and work performance. In addition, anaemia limits cognitive development.

The World Health Organization notes that \"a sustainable healthy diet and healthy eating practices during adolescence have the potential to limit any nutritional deficits and linear-growth faltering generated during the first decade of life. Healthy practices may limit harmful behaviours contributing to the epidemic of non- communicable diseases in adulthood.\"

It is very imperative that food fortification plays an essential role in preventing vitamin and mineral deficiencies including iron, folic acid, vitamin A, and iodine. Adding vitamins and minerals to wheat flour, maize flour, and rice provides additional nutrients through foods adolescents are already eating. Adolescence provides an opportunity to correct nutritional deficiencies that may have occurred in early life and to catch-up on growth, and to establish good dietary behaviours. Fortifying commonly consumed food can help prevent micronutrient deficiency.

The need of the hour is to build capacity within the public sector and to improve the Centre-State coordination to implement better procurement and distribution models for fortified foods. Providing fortified foods in midday meals, supplementary nutrition in Anganwadi centres, and using Public Distribution System (PDS) can be some of the major channels that can be leveraged to address the issue of hidden hunger.