From the platform of the 2nd India Health & Wellness Summit & Awards, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) recently discussed a major initiative ‘A Glass of Milk for Every Child’ to address nutrition among children by using its vast network of cooperatives.
The ‘Gift Milk’ programme to be implemented under the aegis of NDDB Foundation for Nutrition was disclosed and discussed at the inaugural session of the summit & awards in the national capital by T Nandakumar, chairman, NDDB.
“Having set up a large milk infrastructure in the country, we decided to set out on a new initiative that will aim to address nutritional issues among children. Through the NDDB Foundation for Nutrition we will create a connecting network involving milk cooperatives and school children to ensure the latter get a glass of milk every day. The ‘Gift Milk’ programme will provide a transparent electronic platform to connect individuals/corporate who want to participate as donors in the initiative. We expect to roll out the action plan in the next few months and will give preference to schools in poorer areas,” said Nandakumar.
Addressing the inaugural session, S Nagarajan, MD, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Co, said using milk, pulses and fruits to provide fortification nutrients such as vitamins and minerals is a viable solution to address nutrition issues of the country. He added that Mother Dairy is already supplying milk fortified with vitamin A.
Aparajita Ramakrishnan from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said that of the 1.3 million deaths of children before the age of five in India, half can be attributed to some form of nutritional deficiency.
This year the summit has focussed on increased participation from the government and public health departments to enable a full-fledged dialogue between multiple stakeholders in the sector. As many as 20 speakers participated in six high-powered sessions spread across the day with 600 national and international delegates from the industry, government, non-profit-sector and all other stakeholders joining the brainstorming.
“The IHW Summit was conceived with the aim of establishing a platform for in-depth debate, discussion and idea-generation to meet the complex challenges in India’s health and wellness sector. Encouraged with the success of our debut last year and the overwhelming response it got from all stakeholders, we decided to make the 2015 edition more comprehensive, effective and outcome oriented. NDDB made a very good announcement from this platform, and we hope it inspires other stakeholders in the sector to launch similar initiatives,” said Kamal Narayan Omer, director, Blue Pen Media, organiser of IHW Summit & Awards.
“We are aware of the fact that India faces myriad health challenges which can neither be resolved by focussing on just the urban elite nor be addressed by turning all attention to the under privileged. We need a balance in our approach and better public-private partnerships. We hope over the years, IHW will become a fountainhead of new ideas,” said Dr Bobby John, MD, Aequitas Consulting, and curator of the IHW Summit.
With over 20 awards in multiple categories such as healthcare delivery, innovation and lifesaving technologies, the event followed a rigorous selection process manned by an eminent jury, including some of the biggest names from Indian healthcare companies, doctors, scientists, experts, media representatives, government sector and social leaders.
