Millets in Childhood Nutrition: Smriti Irani’s Call

Union Minister Smriti Irani has emphasized the importance of incorporating millets into early childhood nutritional care. She urged for increased millet production to support government nutrition programs, highlighting millets’ sustainability and nourishing qualities. Speaking at an international conference on ‘Mighty Millets for Food, Nutrition, and Health Security,’ Irani underlined the need for millets to be part of diets and available in ration shops. She urged for a collective effort to make millets a people’s movement, benefiting individual health, soil, and ecology.

The minister also discussed the role of societal knowledge, engaging young mothers in better nutrition practices for children. Vinod Kumar Paul of Niti Aayog stressed the significance of complementary feeding alongside breastfeeding, citing data that indicates inadequate infant feeding across economic strata. He noted that improvements are possible, as seen in states like Odisha.
Re-reported from the article originally published in Free Press Journal