Dietary Status of Children of Udaipur District

Abstract

In India a staggering 320 billion people live below the poverty line resulting in widespread prevalence of undernutrition. The growing childhood years are more critical since the curse of undernutrition is more pronounced. Nearly 50 per cent children below 5 years are malnourished. Since the mothers are malnourished one third of the new born are of low weight and the nutritional deficiency diseases such as anemia iodine deficiency disorders vitamin A deficiency and PEM still exist and by adversely affecting the working capacity of the man power is creating a dent on national economy. Although in the last two decades we have witnessed phenomenal progress in the sphere of agricultural production. The green revolution has enabled us to increase the food grains production from 50.9 million tones in 1950 to 198.2 million tones in 1999. Similarly white revolution has made India number one in milk production and sufficient increase is reported in marine and freshwater fishes due to success in blue revolution. We are also largest producer of vegetables and fruits. (excerpt)