Mothers and Malnutrition

Abdul BayesIn general, access to food is being considered as an insurance against food insecurity. Besides availability, entitlements have also captured attention. But food is not 'feeding', and hence, despite availability and entitlements, malnourishment could prevail to debilitate children's physical and mental development. In a recent paper on food security in South Asia, Dr Mahabub Hossain an ace economist of the country, draws our attention to a new dimension, -- the role of mothers in reducing malnutrition - on which we can heavily draw upon. But at the very beginning note that, according to the Global Hunger Index, malnutrition rates in South Asia are at its worst form and five times higher than China. Approximately half of the children under 5 years of age are afflicted by chronic undernourishment compared to 30 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is surprising, given that the per capita income of Sub-Saharan countries is higher than South Asia; over half of preschoolers are affected by nutritional deficiencies impacting children's growth and physical and mental development. Malnourished children grow up to become underweight and stunted adolescents. The three main drivers of under nutrition in developing countries are: (a) household food insecurity; (b) poor maternal and child care practices and (c) inadequate access to drinking water, sanitation and health services. However combating each in its own domain is necessary but not sufficient to eradicate malnutrition among children. An inter-disciplinary approach is needed. The role of mothers in reducing malnutrition of children is highlighted in recent research. Low status of women impairs women's abilities to make decisions about their children's health, nutrition and education, and prevents them from accessing services they need to protect their own health, nutrition and survival. This in turn affects children's birth weights and the kind of care they receive. One finding by an international organization (IFPRI) shows that 55 per cent of the decline in malnutrition in this region between 1970 and 1995 was due to improvements in women's status not, as might be argued, from increased food production or improved public health. Women's low status in the household means that they eat fewer meals and consume less preferential foods, which causes poor nutritional status, especially in terms of micronutrients. The factors behind an improvement are: women's education (43 per cent); women's status (12 per cent), health and environment (19 per cent) and national food availability (26 per cent). Because of their low nutritional and social status women in South Asia remain poor and transmit their poverty and under-nutrition to their children. Chronically malnourished underweight mothers who lack access to adequate prenatal, delivery and postnatal care have a high risk of delivering undernourished babies, who in turn are at greater risk of poor growth and development. Low birth weight perpetuates the intergenerational cycle of poverty, under nutrition and disease. In South Asia, there is a rapid deterioration in child nutrition in the first two years of life. In view of the large food supplementation programmes, some experts argue that simple and less costly interventions should be widely introduced and that this would significantly improve the nutritional status of mothers and infants and make them more resilient in the face of further food price and other shocks. These measures include, (a) promoting exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months to avoid exposing infants to pathogens; (b) promoting complementary and hygienic feeding for the next six months; (c) promoting good hygienic practices; and (d) promoting and distributing micronutrients needed to improve the physical and mental development of children and reduce the prevalence of low birth weight; (d) regular de-worming to reduce the intensity of infection with intestinal parasites and prevalence of anemia, to improve cognitive function, growth and nutritional status. By and large, a coordinated approach, backed by political commitment, is required to come out of the malnutrition cave. It is not merely food availability or access to food but also the quality of food that matters most. In that context, empowering mothers is more important than others. Healthy mothers provide healthy generation to raise productivity of the antion. Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagr University. His email address is: abdulbayes@yahoo.com