Malnutrition and COVID-19 in India

Abstract

While the world is battling the new coronavirus known as SARS-COV-2, public health and nutrition services in India are getting disrupted and derailed. It is pertinent not to overlook the existing gaps in our journey towards attaining the holistic sustainable development goals (SDGs). In fact, it is now well-established that comorbidities, especially malnutrition, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other respiratory or kidney problems exacerbate the pathogenesis of COVID-19 because of an already compromised immune system. The whole world is off track in achieving SDG 2, known as Zero Hunger, by 2030. At the current pace, approximately 17 countries including India will fail to even reach low hunger by 2030. India ranks 104 out of 117 countries as per the used metric, the global hunger index. Furthermore, these projections do not account for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may worsen hunger and undernutrition in the near term and affect countries’ trajectories into the future. The author underscores the serious adverse impacts of COVID-19 on public health, nutrition, and food security in India and other low-and middle-income countries. Estimates show that 135 million persons were hungry before the pandemic. By the end of 2020, the number will likely increase to 265 million. India carries a heavy burden of multiple forms of malnutrition including undernutrition, hunger, micronutrient deficiencies as well as overweight, and obesity. India’s public health and nutritional policies must urgently address these problems. Measures taken by the government during the pandemic to counter its negative impact on the nutrition of women, children, migrant labor, and other vulnerable populations are enumerated. The response of the international community to tackle COVID-19 related nutritional challenges and India’s policy measures for ensuring nutrition and food security are discussed.