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25 Aug 2010

Nutrition Survey to Help Empower Citizens to Fight Malnutrition

Every 25 seconds, a child in India dies from malnutrition. Over 40 percent of Indian children are still underweight, a rate twice as high as the average in sub-Saharan Africa and 20 times higher that would be expected in a well-nourished developed country.

Motivated by this reality, the Naandi Foundation, with assistance provided by Westat India Social Sciences and others, aims to gather new data on the status of nutrition levels across India and empower citizens to advocate for positive change. By building a network of informed and empowered advocates at every level—from villagers, surveyors, to other partners and funders—Naandi aims to build a diverse movement to promote improved nutrition.

The new data will come from an innovative survey, the HUNGaMa survey. It will provide a portrait of malnutrition across over 100 rural districts in India, including worst-hit areas. The survey will:

• Focus on key indicators of hunger and malnutrition;
• Target children under age 5, given the critical impact of nutrition status early in life;
• Give a granular view of the variations across India with estimates at the district level;
• Provide an unprecedented view of the reality of mothers confronting malnutrition; and
• Undertake a broad, advocacy-oriented communications strategy for the results, providing action-oriented data targeting communities, implementers, and policymakers.

The results will reveal the range of nutrition levels across India and point out danger zones most in need of urgent help.

Westat India is providing assistance to Naandi in survey design, sample design, and training.

For more information:

• Westat India: contactus@westat.in (email link)
• Naandi Foundation: tracy@naandi.org (email link)