NEED FOR INTERVENTION
PROGRAMMES FOR SCHOOLGOING
CHILDREN
 

School going children form an important vulnerable segment of the nation's population. They constitute 20 to 25 per cent of the total population in India. School age is a dynamic period of physical growth and development, when the child undergoes rapid mental, emotional and social changes.

The number of school children in Tamil Nadu state alone is 5.8 million of whom 4.06 million have been classified as undernourished. A recent United Nations' study in India indicates that two of every five persons are undernourished. The hazardous extent to which malnutrition affects the health and development of school children has not been appreciated fully. Malnutrition prevents children from realising their full genetic potential for development. It causes often permanent mental retardation.

Diet and nutrition surveys carried out in different parts of the country point out the existence of widespread malnutrition among the poor segments of the population. The worst sufferers are children and women in the reproductive period.

Malnutrition is associated with shortages in food, population expansion, poor weaning practices, lack of suitable food substitutes, failures to use properly the available foods, poverty, ignorance, traditional beliefs and customs. It is tragic to note from health statistics that 7 to 8 per cent of the total deaths in India occur among the age group 5 to 14 years. At any point of time, atleast 300 million children are victims of malnutrition.

The percentage of morbidity in the school age is estimated to be 24, a big proportion of which, is due to malnutrition. Blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency is common in the southern and eastern parts of the country. Geographical distribution of vitamin A deficiency is frequently found to overlap with those of Protein Energy Malnutrition and nutritional anaemies. A large percentage of children in the age group of 5 to 12 years develop vitamin A deficiency, and suffer from its consequences of retarded growth, night blindness and even permanent blindness.

The school children are, therefore, in need of health promotion, health appraisal and health restoration. Their nutritional

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status can be ensured only by improving the economic conditions of their parents to a level at which they can afford adequate diets. Organised feeding programmes undertaken by the state can never provide a permanent solution to the problem of malnutrition. the attainment of a level of socio-economic development which Will make feeding programmes unnecessary must be the national goal. Unfortunately today the economic conditions of a large proportion of the people are such that they simply cannot afford even the least expensive diets. Under these circumstances, intervention by the state through feeding programmes such as the school lunch, to correct and mitigate the imbalances and inadequacies due to malnutrition becomes essential.

References:

1.Brown, L.R. Death at an early age, UNICEF News, 1975, 85, pp. 7-9.

2.Devadas, Rajammal, P. Social and economic dimensions of nutrition. Proc. Nutr. Soc. Indi, 1974, No.17, p.66.