National Nutrition Week 2021

The National Nutrition Week is celebrated in India from the 1st of September to the 7th of September as a weekly event. The day is celebrated to raise awareness among people regarding proper nutrition and diet. As we all know that nutrition plays a very important role in keeping us healthy and happy, it is also important for us to have complete information about essential elements for our body. The National Nutrition Week is celebrated all over India to make the observation of the occasion on a grand level.

In 2021, the National Nutrition Week will start on 1st September, which is Tuesday, and end on 7 September, Monday. The National Nutrition Week ensures that you are having a proper amount of nutrition throughout the day to maintain good health. The week is celebrated every year with a new theme to work in a specific direction. However, the theme for National Nutrition Week 2021 was ‘feeding smart right from start‘.

Also Read : 10 Lines on Malnutrition/Malnourishment

History

There was a National Nutrition Week started in the year 1973 by American society. It fetched a great response from the people worldwide and motivated the Government of India to launch its National Nutrition Week every year.

There was a high death rate in India because of poor nutrition during the years of Independence. It became a serious problem for the Government of India as it created an obstacle for the nation in constant growth. The Food and Nutrition Board, a statutory body of the Government of India, decided to promote a balanced diet and nutrition through a celebration among the citizens of the nations.

The National Nutrition Week was launched by the Food and Nutrition Board in the year 1982 with an objective to make people familiar with the term ‘Nutrition’ and increase its use in India. The board decided to celebrate a National Nutrition Week in the first week of the month of September. Since nearly four decades, the National Nutrition Week has worked on making people aware of conscious about their health and nutrition in different ways.

Themes of National Nutrition Week

The National Nutrition Week is celebrated every year by the people and hosted by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Government of India. The event is organized every year with a different theme. As we earlier said that there has not the theme been declared by the Board, we are providing with the theme of the event for some previous years below:

The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2021 – ‘feeding smart right from start‘.
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2020 – ‘Eat Right, Bite by Bite’
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2019 – ‘Har Ghar Poshan Vyavahar‘
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2018 – ‘Go Further with Food‘
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2017 – ‘Optimal Infant & Young Child Feeding Practices: Better Child Health‘
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2016 – ‘Life Cycle Approach for Better Nutrition‘
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2015 – ‘Development Key: Good Nutrition‘
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2014 – ‘Aahar aur Poshak Desh Ka Aadhar‘
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2013 – ‘DinnertimeProject: Eat, Cook and Enjoy‘
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2012 – ‘Key for the Healthy Nation: Awareness of the Nutrition‘
The theme for the National Nutrition Week 2011 – ‘Smart Feeding from the Start‘

Celebration/Activities

The celebration of the National Nutrition Week starts from the Food and Nutrition Board of India. The board proposes a specific theme for the event during a year and the celebration that year goes based on that specified theme.

The various programmes are organized by the Community Food and Nutrition Extension Units of the Food and Nutrition Board of India. There are 43 CFNEUs in India that organize various programmes like campaigns, workshops, exhibitions and awareness drives, etc. They also organize various community meetings to plan for their programmes to raise awareness among people.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development also coordinated with the state governments to plan for a social awareness programme among the native people regarding diet and nutrition. Through these programmes, the people are aware of the benefits of breastfeeding, cleanliness and hygiene, and the disasters of malnutrition. Various training is also provided to the people regarding the nutrition and they receive a nutrition kit as well.

Objectives and Significance

The objective of observing the National Nutrition Week is to tell people about the use and benefits of nutrition for us and the ways how we can adopt it in our lives easily and adeptly. Since the programmes are launched nationwide and at the same time, even the people living in rural areas come to know about the need of nutrition in our diet. By sharing nutritional information with people, we can improve their productivity and the GDP of the country simultaneously.

By organizing various programmes throughout the week, it is also tried to make a healthy diet and nutrition a daily habit of the people. By sharing the knowledge of a healthy diet, the death rate caused by the malnutrition can be decreased to a great extent. With the various programmes held in schools and colleges, the government wants to make the nutrition a habit of the students at such a young age.

Why Do We Need the National Nutrition Week?

The problem of malnutrition among the children of India is very common and perhaps so high that it has created a problem for the nation. The most obvious of them is the ‘Protein Energy Malnutrition’. Though the problem is spread all over India, it is mostly found in the rural parts of the nation. Most of the slum’s children are caught by it. In the absence of nutrition, they fail to grow well and suffer from some physical and mental deformation.

The lack of information regarding proper diet and nutrition among the women leads them towards the lack of energy and inability to productivity. It also has decreased its immune system and has made them prone to many deadly diseases. Since women are the founding element and the base of society, it is very important for them to stay updated with nutrition-related information so that they can pass it to other people easily.

The young and adolescent are considered to be a productive part of society. The health and nutrition matters for them a lot, as they are the running factor of the economy.

38 Years of National Nutrition Week

India is a nation of states where every single state resembles the nation itself. Therefore it is very important to remove the problems related to malnutrition in people starting from infants to old age people. India has always in the top five countries as per the death of infants and children less than five years of age because of malnutrition.

Initially, malnutrition was like an epidemic in India. It prevailed many times and in many places frequently. During the next two decades starting from 1970, the government of India worked on solving the problem of scarcity of food. For it, there were several revolutions started in India like the Green Revolution and White Revolution. Though the problem of scarcity of food was almost solved, there arose a new problem of high death mortality of infants and the maternal death rate was also high. The lack of iron, vitamin, protein, and vitamins in the food were cause for the same.

To curb the problem, the Government of India launched the Integrated Child Development Service Programme, Special Nutrition Programme, and Wheat Based Supplementary Nutrition Programme, etc. All these helped in reducing the problems related to nutrition in India and subsequently increased the population of India.

The infant and mortality death rate in India has quite improved in the last decade. There is a big contribution to National Nutrition Week in making India healthy and happy.

Several Milestones yet to be Achieved

Though we have successfully decreased the problem of malnutrition in India, there are several milestones yet to be achieved. There are many people and even many communities which don’t have an idea of proper nutrition and diet, and mostly the rural population falls in this category. We all need to tell them what nutritious food is and why it is important for us.

We can also help people in choosing what they should consume in what amount per day. Knowing is the most important for us and then sharing the same information with others. There are still sufficient cases of infant and maternal mortality because of malnutrition to make the problem serious for the nation. It is all because of the lack of organizations spreading awareness among people. We can spread awareness of our places and communities. There various means through which we can do it like the internet or print media.

We can also tell people about the programmes launched by the Government of India to provide nutritious food to the people. It can help them in having a healthy life.

Conclusion

National Nutrition Week is a good initiative to make people aware of Nutrition and diet. Food is a very essential part of life, but consuming non-nutritious food may be like garbage and destroy our health. On this National Nutrition Week, we should pledge to adopt a nutritious diet in our habit and also tell others about its benefits so that they can also benefit their health.