Micronutrient Investment Plan reached to prevent mortality, morbidit

New Delhi, Oct 19 (UNI) The India Micronutrient National Investment Plan was launched today seeking to provide micronutrients to 206 million high risk beneficiaries per year over a period of five years at an additional cost of Rs 587 crore to Rs 733 crore annually.

The plan, which was launched by Micronutrient Initiative, an international NGO, would help in reducing vitamin and mineral deficiencies which contribute to high mortality, disability, brain damage, reduced learning ability and ultimately low productivity.

The Investment Plan is the result of a highly participatory process carried out in 2005 to 06 by a task force consisting of representatives of government departments, academic institutions, NGOs, private sector and international organisations.

Accroding to the plan, an investment of Rs 5.40 per capita per year is fifty times less than the estimated per capital yearly loss to GDP resulting from micronutrient deficiency of Rs 284. The Plan builds on the significant activity currently underway in the country and the infrastructure already in place.

The Plan's total additional cost for activities addressing children under two and preschool age children, excluding Vitamin A supplementation, was working out to be Rs 77.6 crore per year on average. Compare this to the 2005-06 annual ICDS budget of Rs 3315.25 crore which targets the same groups, experts pointed out.

''More than two billion people worldwide suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies, of which 35 per cent live in India.

These deficiencies kill children and women, damage health, impair work capacity, impact reproduction, reduce intelligence and occupational choices,'' said Mr Luc Laviolette, Regional Director Asia, The Micronutrient Initiative.

Apart from being an input for the Eleventh plan which is currently being drafted, the Investment Plan constitutes a template for the interested state governments to develop comparable micronutrient investment plans on the grounds, now well established, that the cost of a comprehensive programme to reduce micronutrient deficiencies will be far less than the cost of addressing the problem.

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