At least 43% of Indian children under the age of 3 suffer from malnutrition. Malnutrition is linked to half of the child deaths in India. 

A child who is malnourished in the womb or in its first two years of life will never be able to reach its full potential.  Lack of proper nourishment in the womb can cause brain damage, still birth or neo-natal death.  A child who is malnourished in the critical first two years of life, is likely to have permanent physiological damage resulting in increased susceptibility to illness and restricted capacity for education.

The problems of malnutrition are not always as straightforward as a simple lack of food.  Many families who have limited amounts of food do not always share it equally. Mothers and infants, especially girls, are rarely priorities.  Traditionally in Indian families, women eat last; so when food is scarce, boys may receive more than girls; men more than women; older children more than younger children.  Diet may be imbalanced due to a lack of understanding about nutrition as much as a lack of availability; for example, less than half of Indian children under six months are exclusively breast fed.

CINI’s nutrition projects focus on educating women, especially pregnant and lactating mothers, to make the best of what is available.  This is usually done by a health worker, a local woman who will be trained by CINI but who can engage with the women she is trying to help.

CINI also runs an emergency ward for severely malnourished children, and a Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre where balanced food is provided in small but frequent amounts in order to increase a child’s weight safely over a period of several weeks. The low cost model CINI uses to rehabilitate severely malnourished children has been recommended in the Right to Food Bill 2009, soon to be tabled in the Indian parliament.  It has also been adopted by various state governments as part of the National Rural Health Mission intervention to reduce severe malnutrition.  

CINI was recently awarded a grant by the World Bank of $40,000 to help it produce its own nutritional supplement Nutrimix (already tried and tested in Kolkata) in commercial quantities.  This low cost, fortified food supplement has been developed by a team of doctors and has an energy yield of 1700 calories per 500g.