New Tools Shine a Light on What India Eats—and Why It Matters

The George Institute for Global Health, in partnership with Rutgers University and other international collaborators, has launched a groundbreaking set of tools to map and understand India’s complex food environments. This initiative aims to help policymakers and researchers tackle the country’s persistent challenges of malnutrition and “hidden hunger.”

 

Key Highlights:

 

The new “Food Environment Toolbox” includes seven practical tools, such as participatory mapping, seasonal food availability calendars, market assessments, and vendor practice surveys.

 

These tools were piloted across rural, urban, and peri-urban areas in India and Cambodia, proving adaptable to diverse food settings.

 

The toolbox is designed to capture how people access food—through markets, natural resources, and social networks—and how factors like affordability and availability shape nutrition.

 

India faces a double burden: widespread nutrient deficiencies (including severe anaemia in women and children) and a rise in diet-related diseases like diabetes and hypertension.

 

The toolkit responds to the need for locally relevant solutions, as existing tools from high-income countries often don’t reflect the informal and dynamic nature of Indian food systems.

 

Data gathered can help improve major nutrition programs such as POSHAN Abhiyaan, ICDS, and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, shifting focus from just calorie sufficiency to actual nutrient adequacy.

 

Experts say these tools will empower planners to design better, evidence-based interventions and track progress toward national health goals.

 

The study’s findings have been published in the journal Current Developments in Nutrition and have already sparked calls for more holistic, “double-duty” nutrition policies across India.

 

Source: Times of India, BW Healthcare World, Current Developments in Nutrition