The India Nutrition Initiative (TINI), an initiative of Tata Trusts, and Sight and Life Foundation have put together ‘Take-Home Rations – a compendium’ with contributions from GAIN, NITI Aayog, WFP and others. The compendium explores the vast landscape of take-home rations in India, including formulation, governance, production and distribution
Nutrition is fundamental to human health and development. Addressing malnutrition saves lives, reduces inequalities, and builds strong and resilient individuals, families, communities and, eventually, countries. The Take-Home Rations (THR) programme provides fortified rations for home use for children between 6 and 36 months, and pregnant and lactating women. Malnutrition numbers in the country have been steadily improving thanks to the programme, combined with other key interventions. The percentage of stunted children under 5 years of age has fallen from 48% in 2005 to 34.7% in 2019.
However, a lot still needs to be achieved to meet the National Nutrition Mission’s Vision 2022 targets, which aim to decrease undernutrition by 3 percent each year and cut anaemia among children and women by a third, over the next two years.
The current THR programme will help to quickly cope with the negative impact on nutrition during COVID-19. It has the right idea, good goals, adequate budget, and it targets the right section of society – with minor tweaking and strengthening it can help India achieve nutrition security for the most vulnerable and help them reach their full potential.
This compendium compiles knowledge of organisations active in THR programmes. It includes pilot studies and documentation of various THR models in seven states: Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.
The compendium is addressed to those policy makers, organisations and individuals most concerned with making India a nutrition-positive country.
