Rajammal P. Devadas Annual Oration Award
K. Vijayaraghavan, Director, Research, Share India, Mediciti Institute of Medical Sciences, Ghanpur (right), receiving the Rajammal P. Devadas Annual Oration Award from Chancellor of Avinashilingam University for Women T.K. Shanmuganandam.Vice-Chancellor Saroja Prabhakaran is in the picture."Intervention programmes and the intent to initiate interventions, however excellent they may be, are not the be all and end all of our efforts to make any dent in the problem of under-nourishment. It is essential to understand the inadequacies in the process of implementation and ensure accountability to take immediate corrective action,” K. Vijayaraghavan, Director, Research, Share India, Mediciti Institute of Medical Sciences, Ghanpur, said here on Friday.
Delivering the sixth Rajammal P. Devadas annual oration on “Nutrition Scenario in India – Achievements and Concerns” at the Avinashilingam University for Women, he came out with various recommendations to be implemented in the XI Five Year Plan.Articulating malnutrition as the foremost public health problem, laying greater emphasis on nutrition action by health sector, strengthening nutrition in medical, paramedical and agriculture education, establishing a nutrition information system and creating nutritional awareness at all levels, were some of the suggestions he made.
“India, like its developing neighbours, unfortunately also shoulders the double burden of malnutrition – not only in terms of low birth weight, but also its dangerous consequences of increasing the risk of diet related diseases like hypertension, diabetes and obesity. Sadly the extent of low birth weight has not changed in many decades. It continues to be about 30 per cent for the last three decades,” Mr. Vijayaraghavan said.
He said 79 per cent of children aged six to 35 months suffered from anaemia, while 56 per cent of married women and 58 per cent of pregnant women also suffered from the same. He lamented that in spite of the substantial progress India had made in many sectors, a large proportion of India’s population lived in abject poverty. “Notwithstanding the progress, a large percentage of rural and urban pollution continues to suffer and die from preventable diseases, pregnancy and child birth related complications and under-nutrition.” Chancellor of the university T.K. Shanmuganandam, presenting the annual oration award to Mr. Vijayaraghavan, said nutrition should be considered as an issue of investment.Strategies should be worked out for total eradication of malnutrition.
